Schools issues....

It's now nearly eighteen months since Hilary died and things are beginning to happen in my life, both socially and politically - I might say not before time.
Having been a governor at Coppice School since 2006 I remained on the governing body, more to give me an outside interest than anything else, so it was with some misgivings that I agreed to take the lead on the proposed Childrens Centre on the Coppice School site.
From the outset it became clear that it would be a controversial matter to build on the open grassed area at the side of the main school building, as there is very little spare room on the school site, and there was also the issue of the loss of several mature trees to consider.
However, by judicious positioning of the building, and altering its plan shape, the architect was able to 'fit in' the necessary parking bays and access arrangements with only two of the original five trees being affected.
To have moved it any further back into the site would have meant losing all of those, plus the amenity land-take for the project would have fallen foul of national guidelines and advice from Sport England.
Sadly, despite all the work that went into the project the Planning Subcommittee members refused permission because of its impact on the street scene, and its placement forward of the extant building line of the main school building.
I should perhaps mention the reason for the Governing Body's involvement in this, which will hopefully put things into a clearer perspective.
In November 2007 the DfES rolled out an initiative for all cluster school establishments, where at least one school in every cluster would have to provide what it called "Extended Services"; essentially, these services are already with us in terms of 'before and after-school activities', but additional facilities would be brought onstream as and when required.
This has to be in place and running by July of 2012, so with that in mind the Board discussed the matter in depth, to evaluate whether an extended services regime could be incorporated into the proposed Childrens' Centre.
The board agreed that it would save a lot of time, money and disruption to local folks if the two functions were installed into one building, so it was further agreed that Coppice School would 'invest' - i.e. contribute funding from devolved capital to add a dedicated extended services room to the original specifications of the building.
All that said, the Centre is not now going to be built, which leaves the Board with another conundrum, that of how and where do we put our "dedicated Extended Services" facility?
That will be a discussion for another day, but my feeling remains that because of misplaced and misinformed opposition to the Childrens' Centre we have lost a golden opportunity to fulfil the requirements of the Extended Services regime.

Finally, I'm sorry to say that Mr. Maxfield has stepped down from the Chairmanship of the Governing Body owing to increasing family commitments - I'm sure we all wish him well and thank him for the sterling work he has done on the school's behalf; however he will remain on the board as Vice-Chairman for the foreseeable future.
The vacant Chair is now being taken by none other than Yours Truly, and I will do my level best to continue the good works achieved by my predecessor.
JB.