C.L.A.R.E. – THE 2010 CHALLENGE

Our objective from day one has been the retention of secondary education in Clare. We formed to reverse the Suffolk County Council’s (SCC) decision under their Schools Organisation Review (SOR) to close Clare Middle School (CMS) and concentrate secondary education in large schools in Haverhill and Sudbury.

C.L.A.R.E. is a non-political organisation with no affiliation whatever to any political party. However, we have to be in close touch with whoever runs SCC and whichever party is in Central Government to secure satisfactory funding and operate within the state mainstream education system in Suffolk and England.

At the heart of our strategy is the need to retain and build on the excellent ethos, teaching staff and educational results that CMS provides to our children. Our detailed proposal for a secondary school in the Stour Valley for 11 to 16 year olds on the CMS site, was presented to SCC ( a Council with Conservative control) and to the Minister of State for Schools in the present Labour Government. The latter declined to consider our proposal without support from SCC and, to date unfortunately, SCC has refused to change course and support us.

Consequently, having reached stalemate with SCC and the Government and as we need to cover all eventualities, we turned our attention to both the Conservative and Liberal Democrats Parties whose education policies seem to match the parent promoted rural secondary school concept that C.L.A.R.E. are fighting for with their SVCC proposal. C.L.A.R.E has now met with the current Conservative Shadow Minister for Schools who confirmed this and that, if should the be elected to govern in the next general election latest June 2010, they would support the retention of secondary education in Clare in a school promoted and managed by the parents/community and directly funded by Government. We are actively working on a detailed proposal that would meet with the criteria of any of the possible new administrations policies.

We will continue the dialogue with SCC and the Westminster parties to achieve our objective as we are convinced that the game is not yet lost and can still be won because nothing is set in stone.

One of the key ingredients we need is the continuing overwhelming support for the retention of secondary education in Clare from the Governors, Head Teachers, Teachers and Parents of CMS and all the Primary Schools that do/will feed pupils into SVCC. As indicated in this weekend’s appearance on BBC 1’s Politics Show, we are endeavouring to formalise this support. We also hope to hold a Public Meeting in the near future to bring all interested parties up-to-date with our progress and invite comment.

The Politics Show - The C.L.A.R.E argument

Click the following link to watch the programme on BBC IPlayer

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00qfbhr/b00qfbdr/The_Politics_Show_East_24_01_2010

Press release issued from MP Tim Yeo's office

PRESS RELEASE - HIGH LEVEL EDUCATION MEETING AT HOUSE OF COMMONS

South Suffolk MP, Tim Yeo, set up a meeting at the House of Commons for a delegation from Clare & Local Area for Rural Education (C.L.A.R.E.) with Nick Gibb MP, the Conservative Shadow Minister for Schools.

The meeting was arranged so that C.L.A.R.E. could explain to Nick Gibb their proposal for Clare Middle School to become a new secondary school, Stour Valley Community College (SVCC), (based on the parent and community management ethos, particularly in respect of curriculum provision, pupil admission numbers and environmental impact, for pupils from Clare and the surrounding rural villages), and to determine whether the proposal matched Conservative Education Policy. Currently, Suffolk County Council are intending to close the existing school and bussing children to much larger schools in Bury St Edmonds or Sudbury in future.

The C.L.A.R.E. Chair, Jim Meikle, thanked Tim Yeo for his continuing and stalwart support and for setting up the very encouraging meeting. After seeing the plans, Nick Gibb MP confirmed that the campaign group's proposal was absolutely in line with Conservative Education Policy and therefore would be fully supported if the Conservative won the General Election. Nick Gibb thought that if a Conservative Government came into power next year it should not be too late to intervene in Suffolk County Council’s SOR process to ensure that the new upper school proposal was given the go-ahead.

C.L.A.R.E. emphasised their belief that the new school would be good value for money and Nick Gibb advised that their ‘New Academy’ secondary schools, such as the SVCC plan, would be funded direct by a Conservative Government through the per capita budget formula and separate grant funds for project development.

After the meeting Tim Yeo said: "This was a very constructive talk. It's clear that the schools policy of the next Conservative Government will be totally supportive of initiatives like this one for Clare. In the meantime, I hope that Suffolk County Council will not take any steps which could jeopardise the chances of this genuinely excellent project getting off the ground."

The CLARE campaign is supported by Tim Yeo, governors, parents, local businesses and Cllr Jane Midwood the County Council member for Clare.

MP Tim Yeo letter to Suffolk County Council following the meeting at Westminster

Cllr Graham Newman
Portfolio Holder for Children, Schools and Young People’s Services
Suffolk County Council
Endeavour House
8 Russell Road
Ipswich
Suffolk
IP1 2BX

2 November 2009

Dear Cllr Newman,

As you may have heard from Jeremy Pembroke, I had a meeting last week with Nick Gibb MP, Shadow Minister for Schools and four members of the CLARE group who have been campaigning for a new upper school on the site of the current Clare Middle school.

We were very pleased to have a clear statement from Nick that the CLARE groups proposal’s were entirely in line with Conservative education policy and as such, where precisely the type of parent-led, community-backed new schools we will actively promote if elected to government in May.

Having seen the proposals yourself you will have been able to appreciate the considerable benefits of the CLARE proposal. Being built on the foundations of a school that is already working well, has a strong ethos and the Holy Grail in education – strong parent and community support.

I appreciate that the current plans for secondary schooling in Suffolk are based on guidelines and funding criteria virtually dictated by a Labour government. However, I hope that now you have taken over responsibility for the future of education in Suffolk, and bearing in mind the increasing financial uncertainty around the Building Schools for the Future Programme, you will be able to take a fresh and positive look at this alternative scheme.

At the very least I would urge you to use your authority to delay progress towards closing down Clare Middle School to ensure it will not too late to revisit this idea in the event of a highly supportive Conservative administration taking over in just six months.

Tim Yeo MP