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THE PEMBROKESHIRE HERALD FRIDAY JANUARY 30 2015
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SECONDARY SCHOOLS SHAKE-UP • SECONDARY SCHOOLS SHAKE-UP • SECONDARY SCHOOLS SHAKE-UP ‘Te most important meeting in 10 years’
Protest at Council HQ: Three hundred demonstrators attended yesterday (Jan 29) IN A DRAMATIC volte face,
Council Leader Jamie Adams publicly abandoned the recommendations put forward by Council officers and moved to ‘save’ Ysgol Dewi Sant. On a grey day, that matched the
sombre mood inside County Hall, a packed public gallery greeted councillors for what Cllr Mike Stoddart described as: “One of the most important debates of the last ten years.”
Protestors outside had made their point and children, parents, and teachers from around the county were crammed into the gallery in such numbers that extra seating had been provided in a committee room to allow members of the public to view the live webcast. The big debate opened with moments of low farce as councillor after councillor rose to declare personal – and in a few cases, prejudicial – interests in the matter before the Council. Huw George staked an early claim for the moral high ground by voluntarily absenting himself from
the debate. Members seeking guidance from Monitoring Officer Laurence Harding, such as David Bryan, Peter Stock and Thomas Tudor were given not the advice they sought but a simple re- reading of the relevant parts of the Code of Conduct.
If the meeting had been called on longer notice, those members would have been able to make representations for dispensation from the Code to speak on matters close to their heart and the hearts of their electors. It is hard to believe that those who framed the Code had in mind the extended farce that rolled out before the public, described by one spectator as “being better than the telly”.
The question of notice was very much to fore of many contributions to the debate, not least following Cllr Jamie Adams’ decision to amend the recommendations being debated. Described as “pulling a rabbit out of the hat” and making a radical change in direction on the hoof in the light of
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widespread public disquiet at the plans to end secondary education in Saint Davids, the Leader moved to pour oil on troubled waters by asking councillors to approve a motion to keep 11-16 education both at Ysgol Bro Gwaun and Ysgol Dewi Sant (YDS). His surprise move was perhaps not as surprising as it might have seemed. Late in the debate, Cllr Ken Rowlands was invited to give his insight as a teacher, and he revealed that his Leader’s proposal was no surprise to him as it had been the subject of meeting and discussion over many weeks. After the meeting, Cllr David Lloyd was charitable enough not to raise one of his considerable eyebrows at Cllr Rowlands’ assertion. Certainly he, the representative of Saint Davids had not been consulted; but Cllr Lloyd was prepared to take the concession offered in the meeting without seeking to score a point.
It is a pity that his generosity of
spirit was not reflected in some pretty sour opening remarks by Cllr Adams about media coverage of the Council’s plans. Perhaps in the “weeks” when his proposal was being debated by who knows who, who knows when and who knows where, Cllr Adams could have practised open government instead of professing it.
Certainly the Leader’s demeanour at the meeting did not go unnoticed by members of the public, one of whom suggested to The Herald that his conduct while others spoke was disrespectful: “If a pupil behaved like that it would be seen as disruptive behaviour. What sort of message does head-shaking, smirking and sighing theatrically when someone says something you disagree with, give kids about the appropriate way to behave?”
The praise for the Leader’s acumen was not universal. Jonathan Nutting was prepared to place himself on the nub of the debate by suggesting that maintaining YDS and Ysgol Bro Gwaun was not either viable in the long term or in the
Addressing the meeting: Cllr David Lloyd.
best interests of children. Pointing out that the Council was rushing headlong to create a school with over 500 pupils in Hakin and Hubberston, partially on the basis that bigger was better, Cllr Nutting suggested that to say smaller was better elsewhere was applying an illogical double standard. The mood of the meeting was such that Cllr Nutting’s knotty point was rather elided. Less amendable to smoothing
over, was the issue raised by Bob Kilmister about the status of Tasker Milward School. While that is dealt with elsewhere in this paper’s coverage, the legal issue he raised is likely to prove rather more complex than councillors were led to believe by Acting Head of Legal Services Claire Incledon. While there was no opposition to
the entirety of the plans, Cllrs Hudson and Howlett stood up for sixth form provision being retained at Sir Thomas Picton, while Cllr Reg Owens said that: “sixth forms are the soul of a school” and questioned whether centralising sixth forms was either necessary or desirable in terms of pupil outcomes.
Cllr Mike John of Llangwm presumably does not go to Milford Haven often. If he does so again, it might have to be in disguise. The Llangwm councillor was very unhappy at the thought of village children being sent to secondary education in Milford Haven and was adamant that they should go to the new all singing and dancing school scheduled for the site of STP. On the
same topic, Cllr Mark Edwards pointed out that proposals to
build a new access to the Sir Thomas Picton site had been previously vetoed by the Welsh Government, responsible for the trunk road to the rear of the site. He suggested that perhaps the Council ought to invite Minister Edwina Hart to visit the site, bearing in mind the dramatic expansion proposed for it. Cllr Jacob Williams decried Cllr
Adams’ smear on councillors he had suggested were using education as a “bandwagon” and challenged him to justify his remarks. Cllr Adams, in his final summation before the vote on his amendment took place, declined to oblige. The key points determined by the meeting were to:
• Discontinue Tasker Milward and
Sir Thomas Picton School and establish a news 11-16 English medium secondary school with additional provision for pupils with complex learning needs on the current site of STP. Post 16 provision to be provided at a new sixth form centre as part of a collaboration between the County Council and Pembrokeshire College; • Reduce the age range of Ysgol Dewi Sant and Ysgol Bro Gwaun from 11-19 to 11-16 and provide additional provision for pupils with complex learning needs at Ysgol Bro Gwaun. Post 16 provision as above; • Discontinue Ysgol Glan Cleddau and establish a new 3-16 Welsh Medium school on the site of the current Tasker Milward VC School with Post 16 provision at Ysgol Y Preseli.
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