No option for parents but faith school? (From Bournemouth Echo)
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No option for parents but faith school?
7:00pm Thursday 15th January 2009 in Search By Steven Smith
SPELLING IT OUT: Zofia Alvarez, eight, foreground, joins governors, parents and children in a rally to ‘save our school’
SWANAGE parents could be the first in the country to have no choice but to send their children to a faith school if restructuring plans go-ahead.
Dorset County Council is consulting over proposals to swap from a three-tier to two-tier education structure in Purbeck to remove 1,000 surplus places and that could mean the closure of several schools.
One of those is Swanage First School – the only non-faith school for children aged four to nine in a 16-mile radius.
If the plans go ahead, the 140 children from there, along with those at St Mark’s CE First School, would be sent to a new primary on the current middle school site in Herston.
That would leave only one school within the town itself – St Mary’s Roman Catholic First School – and no non-faith school at all.
It is thought it could be the only situation of its kind in the country.
Mum-of-two Elaine Pearson said she was not anti-faith, but wanted options for parents.
She said: “At the moment there’s choice for everybody, whatever your faith – or if you haven’t got a faith, you’ve somewhere to go in Swanage.
“If they move the school out of town (to the middle school site in Herston), the only school in town is going to be a Catholic school.”
Dad-of-two Shaun Moyler added: “I’m not anti-faith or pro-faith. I am worried, though. If you’re non-faith, you’re very low on the list of priorities for being accepted by a faith school.”
County cabinet member for children’s services, Toni Coombs, said the process was at an early stage and no decisions had been made.
“Whatever the status, the proposed new primary school for Swanage would bring together the best traditions from each of the existing schools and focus on producing a school for the whole community, whatever their religious beliefs.
“The status of the proposed primary school depends on the result of the public consultation so I would encourage people to comment on our proposals,” she said.
