Clause 14
Education and Inspections Bill
12:00 pm
Edward Leigh (Gainsborough, Conservative)
This is an important clause. My amendments relate to subsection (4), and Members will see that they deal with four criteria, which must be considered and taken into account by those proposing to close a rural school. I am in favour of subsection (4), and these are sensible criteria. I am delighted that the Minister is obviously concerned about what is going on with the closure of rural schools.
I represent a rural constituency. One of the greatest heartaches over the years has been our campaigns, successful and unsuccessful, to keep open small rural schools. They often involve very small schools, such as the recent campaign in Holton le Moor. At the start of the campaign the school had 17 pupils in total; the closure has now been confirmed with the school roll having fallen to seven pupils. Those who represent urban constituencies may question how a school can be effective with only 17 pupils, but these schools in remote rural areas are often extremely popular and provide a very good education. Some educationists deny this, because year groups have to combine, but I assure hon. Members that the tremendous spirit, care, love and all the rest of it in these primary schools is a joy to behold.
The school that I am talking about now has been in existence for over 100 years. It is at the heart of the community in a small village. It is often heartbreaking when these rural schools close. Often, as happened at Holton le Moor, a school closes because the head teacher is approaching retirement. We now live inquite a competitive environment. There is nothing wrong with that, and of course I support that in terms of education—schools are competing for pupils. Sometimes when a head teacher is approaching retirement or perhaps has a more traditional view of education based on catchment areas, the school may not be as vigorous in recruiting pupils as neighbouring schools. That is obviously what happened in this case. There is nothing wrong with the head teacher; he gave years of loyal service. Equally, in Lincolnshire as elsewhere, we have falling school rolls and this puts pressure on the county council which itself is under pressure from the Department. They have to find schools to close and some of these small schools can be an obvious target.
I have no objections to the subsection. It seems perfectly sensible that when one is closing a rural school one should look at the likely effect of its discontinuance on the local community. It is undoubtedly true that when these villages have lost their village shop, when the church only operates one Sunday a month, and when the school is ripped out, they become almost suburban dormitories, albeit in the middle of the countryside, with no life going on during the day.
Certainly, a county like Lincolnshire is hit extremely badly. As my hon. Friend the Member for South Holland and The Deepings will confirm, as he is also a Lincolnshire Member, we have a great problem with the cost of school transport. We argue constantly that the Department does not give adequate recompense to the county council to deal with the heavy costs that we have to meet in bussing children around. If a school closes in a village by definition the children have to be transported further afield. Paragraph (b) is very sensible. Paragraph (c) mentions the use of motor vehicles. Obviously if a school closes the use of motor vehicles increases.