Time to draw a line?

SUPPORTERS met the decision to shut two Bristol schools in the same way they had campaigned to save them – with grace and dignity.

Eight months after the city council first announced its plans for St Pius X Catholic School in Withywood and Stockwood Green Primary, the Labour-run cabinet confirmed the closures on Monday.

The executive member responsible for schools, Peter Hammond, said the pair had to close not because they were failing in any way but because the council had a duty to reduce the number of empty primary places.

Parents, children, heads, governors, staff and neighbours of the school were disappointed and dismayed. But heads Tony Halloran and Lucy Wyatt did not indulge in recriminations; they simply vowed to continue to do their best to support the remaining pupils and their families.

Cabinet councillor Terry Cook said it was time to draw a line under the closures, which formed part of a citywide Primary Review.

He's right that it's time for the topic to drop off the agenda of scrutiny, cabinet and full council meetings – but that does not mean the talking should stop.

Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Clare Campion-Smith got it spot on when she said the prolonged process of making public statements had not helped the communities affected.

"Surely we can do better for the people of Bristol than this?" she said, as she called for strong dialogue to reach a sensible solution.

A working group involving the three main political parties has belatedly begun to make some progress, and the cabinet decision calls for further talks in Stockwood to give parents a say.

The council will also need to build some bridges with the Catholic diocese, exploring the possibility of a federation involving all its primary schools in south Bristol

It will require further talks with the Anglican diocese, too, about the future of the reprieved school, St George Church of England Primary.

The issue goes wider than the three schools, because, as I've said before, the top-down way the Primary Review proposals were brought out and consulted upon has provoked much anger among heads and school communities.

A priority for the new permanent director of children's services to replace Heather Tomlinson will surely be to win back the confidence of primary heads, which the authority desperately needs if it is to bring about much needed improvements.

But support is unlikely to be achieved unless councillors on all sides start working together more effectively towards the common goal of improving schools.

Schools Minister Jim Knight did not cite the failure to reach cross-party agreement as one of the reasons for Bristol's failure first time round to win £12 million funding for schools. But his department is known to have been concerned over the lack of consensus.

That's why, no matter what opposition members and opponents generally think of the way Peter Hammond has conducted the review, Tory Richard Eddy's "no confidence" motion is unhelpful.

Another statement to Monday's cabinet meeting, concerning a contentious primary school expansion planned at Sefton Park, suggested that the outside organisation that carried out a much-criticised consultation process should "be given access to lessons learned log".

It's to be hoped that such an opportunity will also be taken up by Mr Hammond and his officers ...