Education chiefs have been told in no uncertain terms that keeping secondary education alive in Clare is vital not only for future generations of children but for the whole community.
Close to 100 parents and residents from Clare, Glemsford, Cavendish and Hartest packed into the town's Baptist church to back plans for a new rural community college.
The meeting was organised by the campaign group Clare and Local Area for Rural E
ducation (CLARE). It was called after Suffolk County Council put forward three options for the future of education in the Haverhill area.
It is one of the first swathes of Suffolk to be studied following a decision to switch to a two-tier education system across the county.
The options are:
- Pupils leave primary schools in Clare and villages at 11 and go to Samuel Ward or Castle Manor Colleges, Haverhill. Primary and secondary schools would be encouraged to arrange partnerships.
- Pupils to go to Samuel Ward and Castle Manor from the ages of three to 16
- Clare Middle School to be a community college for 11-16-year-olds from the town and villages.
Three of the county's schools reorganisation team – Frank Stockley, Joy Stoddard and David Groves – attended the meeting.
They were forced to deny that a decision had already been made and that the consultation exercise was more than a token gesture.
Mr Stockley said: "I don't know any politician who would not take into account the strength of community feeling. I am sure that will be considered. It would have been easy for us not to have option three if we thought it was an irrelevance. We agree it needs serious and earnest consideration."
But his words did little to ease fears that the council will push forward with option one or two.
Sceptics pointed out that county literature only made specific reference to cost implications with regards to option three.
Chairman of CLARE Jim Meikle said: "There is the suspicion that option three is heavily weighted against."
Campaigners say Clare middle is "a good school with outstanding features". Children should not be taken away to go to Haverhill.
Parents are worried their children will have to go to Castle Manor College, a school that achieved just 15% A* to C grades in 2006 and a reported 30% this year. Current catchment area boundaries mean some Clare middle pupils go to Samuel Ward College but those boundaries are described by the county as "vastly out of date".
Mr Meikle said: "Why would we take our children from a good school with excellent features to ones that are not so good?"
Putting the case for a Clare community college, Suzanne Culshaw said: "82% of rural children that go to Samuel Ward College at the moment get five A* to Cs. That shows an ethos that already exists. We can build upon it to go for a community college."
Businesses in Clare would also suffer if the middle school closed and was not replaced. CLARE extimates that 30% of income at the town's shops would be lost.
It also used successful similar models in Cambridgeshire to back the case for a rural college.
Option three is the only one that includes children from Glemsford, Cavendish and Hartest - schools that currently feed into Clare middles but whose pupils then go to Sudbury Upper School and not Samuel Ward.
MP Tim Yeo supports the Clare college plan. "I believe this would best serve the interests of the town and surrounding villages and is clearly preferable to bussing 11-year-olds to schools in Haverhill," he said.
Clare middle headteacher Nigel Ebans also backs the plan.
Residents are being urged to fill in a council consultation document, giving their views. A link to county documents is available by
clicking here.
