Opinion
Featured in Bath Chronicle, June 2010:
Dear Editor,The new Government has wasted no time in getting on with the job of reforming our education system and driving up standards in our schools. Such a clear vision for setting teachers free to deliver the best possible education is to be applauded.
Here in Bath we are lucky to already have some of the best schools in the country, consistently delivering fantastic exam results and positive Ofsted reports. But we have also faced an historical problem in our city’s secondary education system which means we have far too few mixed-sex, or ‘co-educational’, school places. We also have surplus places which means that a large number of pupils in Bath schools travel in from neighbouring authorities.
Consultation with parents and residents in Bath has consistently shown that there is a strong demand for more mixed-sex places in our schools. This is one of the key issues which the council’s school reorganisation proposals seek to address.
Some really innovative and interesting suggestions have come forward as part of the consultation on the Secondary Schools review, such as the proposals for St Mark’s and St Gregory’s to form a federation, and local Conservatives on B&NES Council are fully supportive of the new Government’s plans to create more independent Academy schools. However, if Oldfield School becomes an independent Academy and remains single-sex, this poses serious problems for delivering the increased number of mixed-sex places parents in Bath want.
If Oldfield remains a single-sex girls school, then the Local Authority has a legal duty to provide a balance of boys places elsewhere. This then has the potential to put the brakes on plans to provide the increased number of mixed-sex places which Bath needs.
Oldfield has previous said many times that it would be willing to become a co-educational school. If it chooses to continue with its application to become an Academy, for the benefit of education and parental choice throughout the city, Oldfield should agree to become a mixed-school so that the wishes of parents in Bath can be met.
Yours faithfully,
Cllr Malcolm Lees,
Conservative, Weston