Mark Dunn Esq. Wildham, Stoughton, Chichester, West Sussex PO18 9JG                                                                                    19th March 2008     CONSULTATION RESPONSE: PLANNING ROTHER VALLEY SCHOOLS FOR THE FUTURE   Dear Mr Dunn,   Summary 1.      You propose many worthy changes in your consultation but you should amend your proposal to retain primary education (as part of a larger primary school) on the Rogate School site.  Further, you should ensure that the new academy at Midhurst is built on the Grammar School site so as to preserve the character of Midhurst and avoid severe harm to the town.   The Good Points 2.      In your consultation document you state that you are seeking “more efficient and strong governance and leadership for the longer term.”  These are aims I applaud as they should help all the pupils in the Rother Valley come nearer to achieving their potential.   3.      I like the plans for a new school in Midhurst as for too long education in the Rother Valley has been crippled by Midhurst Grammar - which many parents have worked hard to avoid, to the detriment of the primary schools in the area.   4.      I am also heartened that the new schools you are creating will be Church schools and trust that you will work with the United Learning Trust and Winchester College to ensure that the new academy will have Christianity at the heart of its ethos rather than as a mere optional add on.  I’m sure some aggressive secularists will disagree with me but to the extent where we can place our children in a learning environment in which they can appreciate our heritage and the precepts of the Christian faith we do good and equip them to resist the disregard for humanity and life itself shown by the 20th Centuries three most aggressive secularists – Hitler, Stalin and Chairman Mao.       5.      Further going to a two tier system is clearly long overdue and will serve to strengthen all the primary schools in the area.   School in Midhurst – reservation 6.      I and several of my colleagues on the District Council are concerned that if the new academy is not on the Grammar School site, we will be forced into a situation where damaging alternative development on the Grammar School site does great harm to the character of Midhurst so I’d urge you, even if it is technically more difficult to achieve and causes some disruption during construction, to put the new school on the Grammar School site.   Rake and Hollycombe Schools 7.      I can see some logic behind your merger proposal although it should clearly be tested to check that it will deliver the highest standards of education over the long term and that it is actually necessary – I believe that the parents and governors to make representations to you on this subject..  Both schools are doing well at the moment and have good reputations.  I’d like some assurance that the merger is not merely a station on the route to the closure of Hollycombe and that, having effected the merger, you are going to give both sites at least five years to prove their worth rather than trying to close Hollycombe in two years time on the basis of the teething issues associated with the new arrangements.   Rogate and Harting Schools 8.      I think the County Council’s approach here is not as constructive as it should be.  The aims of efficiency and high quality governance can be met without closing the Rogate school site.  Instead, Harting school should be given the chance to merge with Rogate which would keep Rogate site open as part of a larger more sustainable primary school.   9.      At present you have Rogate closing and Harting (highly rated by many parents), going down from a Pupil Admission Number of 20 to 15.  This strikes me as lacking in logic and contrary to what I understood to be generally accepted education policy, namely that the better schools should be helped to grow.   10.  I set out below how your aims can be met and how closing the Rogate site will not help:-   11.  Efficiency – I’m not about to pretend that running a school for 40 pupils is likely to be incredibly efficient but Rogate school has good buildings and a fine three acre site with a swimming pool and playing fields which most primary schools can only dream of.  By merging with Harting those facilities could continue to be used by local pupils rather than being lost to education.   12.  On page 9 of your consultation document you state, “The Rogate site is held on a Church education Trust and any capital receipt from its disposal is likely to be reinvested for statutory educational use within the Diocese.”  I don’t think this is right.  The Diocese has admitted it does not have the trust deeds for the site and, those Rogate villagers who may have had sight of part of them seem to think, following established case law, that the site will revert to the family who gifted it to the Church for educational use in the later part of the 19th Century.  It will doubtlessly be a nice windfall for the family but it won’t give either the County or the Church money and may well actually cost money if the family were to demand you undertake remedial work prior to restoring the land to them.   13.  Leadership – You are not doing the leadership team at Harting favours by forcing it to become smaller.  Its members have proven themselves as parental choice attests.  I have not spoken to Harting School’s management and don’t know whether they would be willing but I hope that they might rise to the challenge of leading a merger with another school.  Likewise, Rogate’s recent Ofsted report testifies that it is managing to improve so it should be given some credit for that – WSCC does not appear to do so at present.  I appreciate that it is difficult to recruit and retain the best leadership teams in sub-scale schools.  That is the logic you have applied with your proposal to bring Rake and Hollycombe together – it could equally well be applied to allow Harting to work with Rogate to provide an economically sized fully sustainable primary school with room for growth.   14.  Numbers – I think you are worrying more about falling numbers than you should be:-   a.       Your lists of those due to come to the schools are inaccurate.  When my wife rang up the County Council to ask where our school form was for our three year old, we were spoken to rudely by one of the clerks who informed us, firstly that my son did not exist and secondly, after prompting, that we could not expect to receive anything if we were so non-socialist as to send our son to a private rather than a state nursery.  Given that we were a fairly straightforward case – my son was born in St Richards and we have lived in the District for several generations – this would seem to suggest that your list of potential pupils is likely to underestimate demand.  My wife informs me that the County has a significant problem in so much that those with GPs outside the County boundary and who use private nurseries do not show up on the County’s list of potential pupils.  This may well constitute the majority of infants in my ward (Rogate, Rake, Linch and Milland).   b.      As the Financial Service Authorities recently published Financial Risk Outlook makes clear (as does the collapse of Bear Sterns earlier last week), the outlook is gloomy and, in my view,  property prices are likely to fall markedly.  In these circumstances many parents who have been working incredibly hard to try to earn enough to send their children to one of the many excellent local private schools will find they are unable to either earn enough or to remortgage their house to raise further funds to pay the fees.  Further to this, private school fees have risen at a rate so far above inflation as to make the amount of after tax income someone needs to earn to put their children through the private system quite forbidding.  In short, it is highly likely that many more parents in my ward will be using the state system, at least for primary education, in the next few years   c.       I’m not certain you have fully considered quite how many parents have been inventive with primary education in order to avoid funnelling their children towards Midhurst Grammar.  My wife knows of a number who has earmarked primary schools in either Petersfield or Liphook.  With Rother Valley primary schools acquiring a Year 6 and the promise of a Midhurst Academy supported by Winchester (probably the best school in the country) many parents will cease fleeing to Hampshire or Surrey for education and we may attract many more from across the border who think our primary schools better than those in Petersfield.   15.  Coverage – Your map on p. 14 of the consultation document does not show Rogate school and, as such, is very revealing because it leads to a significant gap in your geographical coverage of the area.  Do we really want to encourage everyone in Rogate (not a small village) to use cars to take their children to school – it’s not possible for some and it’s certainly not environmentally friendly.  I used to walk a mile each day to school and from school with my mother when I was four.  I think it a great shame in both societal and environmental terms if we force more people to use cars or buses.   16.  In essence, I don’t pretend you don’t have to make changes.  I don’t argue for the status quo as I don’t think that delivers the best outcomes.  Nevertheless, there is a better option which does not involve the closure of Rogate school as a primary education site.  I think it will work well.  Please try it.  At worst, it is a complete failure and you can simply close the Rogate site after a four or five year trial.  Rogate will be a much less complete place with no school.  The costs to you of giving a merger a fair trial are negligible – please give it a chance – it has the potential to be v. successful and achieve what we all want to achieve in terms of providing an excellent local education for our children at an acceptable cost to the taxpayer.   17.  Happy to discuss further – 07982 728018.     Yours sincerely,             William Mason District Councillor for the Parishes of Rogate & Rake, Milland and Linch   cc.        R J Arnold, Headmaster, Rake School Martin Beale, Chairman of Governors, Hollycombe School Jenny Chapman, Headmistress, Rogate School Andy Coe, Chairman, Milland Parish Council Lyndsay Coggin, County Hall Myles Cullen, Leader, Chichester District Council Jonathon Culley, Headmaster, Harting School Tony Dignum, Chairman, Chichester Conservative Association Edward Doyle, Rector of the Parishes of Rogate with Terwick and Trotton with Chithurst Stephanie Fiske, Headmistress, Hollycombe School Paul Hardwick, Chairman of Rogate School Governors Nola Hendon, County Councillor Peter Moss, Chairman, Rogate Parish Council Andrew Shaxson, District Councillor, Harting and Elsted Mrs Marie Smith, Chairman of Governors of St Mary and St Paul First, South Harting Jeremy Taylor, Diocesan Director of Education (jeremy.taylor@diochi.org.uk)