It has been eight months since the Schools Adjudicator’s decision to reject Sunderland City Council’s proposal to close Gillas Lane Primary School and much has happened in that period.

Even though the school has not closed it has still had to address the problems of surplus places and ongoing budget difficulties. In terms of reducing the surplus places at the school this was solved overnight by taking out a classroom from teaching use. How easily was this done? The main argument for closing the school was addressed with little or no difficulty by the staff at the school. And yet the parents were led to believe throughout the consultation process by the council that this would be a difficult and costly exercise. The Published Admission Number (PAN) has been reduced to reflect that Gillas Lane is  a small school but again this was expected.

The sustainable budget issue has been more difficult to address as expected and has resulted in reductions in staffing through voluntary redundancies. It also means that there will be mixed age year groups. However, this is by no means a disadvantage and may work in our favour. We are confident the staff will be able to manage this and our children will thrive.

In addition, Gillas Lane has had a new outdoor play area built for reception pupils which is becoming very popular and term has started. If we had lost the battle then I am sure this school would have died very quickly as parents started making decisions about their children’s future in the light of a closure decision. But here we are! A small but vibrant school looking forward to the future. With the expected increase in primary pupils numbers we can expect school numbers to stabilise and maybe increase over the next few years.

Parents fought the council and won to save a small school from extinction and we are sure that this is the best outcome for our children.

Despite the euphoria of managing to keep Gillas Lane Primary School open, it is worth looking at the Schools Adjudicator report in a little detail. There you will find a number of criticisms of Sunderland City Council’s actions in this matter.

The Schools Adjudicator appears to agree with a number of our complaints about the poor consultation. He refers to the ” extreme sparsity” of information throughout the consultation stages and that financial information was “weak”. He also says that the council did not demonstrate how our views in the first stage consultation were “taken into account in the formulation of the final proposals”. These statements vindicate our formal complaints about the consultation process. In the final paragraph, he says, “I do have misgivings about the quality of the consultation process”

However, if you think about it, the consultation methodology was applied to all the schools in the school placement planning process. The other schools affected could feel equally aggrieved by this and have an equally valid complaint. This puts a serious question mark over the whole of the school place planning consultation exercise.

We complained about the lack of educational factors in the option appraisal criteria and the absence of consideration of standards. The Schools Adjudicator agreed that standards were important in the consideration of the closure proposal despite Sunderland City Council originally saying that standards shouldn’t be used in the process.

We complained that the impact on the community had been ignored. Sunderland City Council’s narrow focus on use of school buildings by the local community was clearly inadequate as the Schools Adjudicator agreed that the loss of the school “would be of detriment to the local community”.

Whilst the figures and assumptions on pupil projections and house building in the Coalfield area were disputed, The Schools Adjudicator came to the conclusion that the current surplus figures were only temporary and all other factors pointed to an increase in pupil numbers throughout the Coalfield area in the next 5 years.

The critical paragraph in his report is:

There is doubt over the long term appropriateness of a closure when looking at very local schools, and alternative means are available for reducing surplus places in the short term which have yet to be fully explored by the Council. I am not convinced that the proposal would in practice contribute to the raising of local standards compared to the retention of the school and the pursuit of those other means.

All in all, the council comes out badly in this report. The process was flawed (as we said) and badly handled. It would be nice to think that the council could admit its inadequacies and apologise to the people of Gillas Lane for subjecting them to 16 months of upset. It would also be nice to think that when the issue of surplus places is revived that they consult properly with the Gillas Lane community and listen to and respect its views. I doubt whether the former will happen and I have yet to be convinced that the council has learnt its lessons from the Schools Adjudicator’s report.

Mrs Hambleton organised a small party for the children, parents and grandparents, teachers and staff at the school yesterday. A great time was had by all.

The celebration cake above was crafted by:

Mrs Yvonne Murphy
Colliery Row Post Office
45 – 47 Front Street
Fencehouses
DH4 6LP

Click the link below to view the latest GLASS newsletter

GLASS Twelfth Newsletter

This is being distributed to parents and carers of children at Gillas Lane Primary school and the local Gillas Lane area.

For those of you who want to see exactly what the Schools Adjudicator said about the council’s proposal and how he came to his decision please click on the link below to see his detailed final report.

Schools Adjudicator Report – Gillas Lane

Today a BBC Look North outside broadcast crew came to Gillas Lane Primary School to do interviews and a live broadcast. The Head Teacher,  Mrs Hambleton, was interviewed live at 13.30 news slot and a slightly longer piece was aired during the evening programme.  Jubilant parents and children were interviewed in a short item.

If you were not able to see the item, I will try and get a link from the BBC Look North NE and Cumbria site to this site so you don’t have to miss it.

This is an incredible victory and clearly Sunderland City Council will have to take account of many of the comments made by the School Adjudicator in his report.

If you want to read the Sunderland Echo report on the news that the Schools Adjudicator has rejected Sunderland City Council’s plan to close Gillas Lane Primary School just click the link below:

Sunderland Echo Report on Gillas Lane Campaign Victory

This campaign has been a long hard struggle for us but we have learnt so many things along the way. I am sure we are not the only people in this situation. Sadly, for some people their schools have already been closed despite their best efforts.

I believe our experience is invaluable for other parents and carers who are in a similar position now or could be in the future. I have set up another website – Parents Against School Closure – that will detail our experiences and our tips on how to fight a successful campaign against closure.

If you are interested please click the link below to access the website:

Parents Against School Closure

This afternoon we learnt from the the Head Teacher, Mrs Hambleton, that she had received an email from the Schools Adjudicator with the results of his deliberation.

To our great delight, he has rejected the council’s proposal to close Gillas Lane Primary School. We have seen the report once but need to examine it more thoroughly. On the face of it he seems to have accepted our arguments about standards and that there were other less drastic ways to reduce the surplus places rather than close a good school. He also appears to have vindicated our serious concerns about the consultation exercise undertaken by the council.

We are clearly ecstatic with the decision which has made many people in the Gillas Lane area very happy. No longer will the children face the nightmare of having to fit in to someone else’s school. The teaching staff will retain their jobs and carry on the great work with the children. The parents and carers can now breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy a well earned respite in the knowledge that the school will not now close. There still remains a good choice of schools in the area for parents.

We would like to say a great big “thank you” to everyone who has supported this campaign from the beginning. Every parent or carer who has put in comments and objections to the council and the Schools Adjudicator. Every person who attended the public meetings and the council meetings. From the Head Teacher and teaching staff to the Board of Governors. The local media, particularly the Sunderland Echo, who have reported the campaign over the last year or so. Not least our local ward councillors, in particular Colin Wakefield and Derrick Smith, who continually supported our campaign.

As Chair of GLASS, I would like to pay tribute to the members of GLASS who have worked tirelessly to achieve this result through very testing times. Through their efforts we have always remained positive and conveyed hope to the parents and carers of Gillas Lane pupils and children. Their hard work and expertise has been invaluable during the campaign. For their efforts I would like to thank, individually, Janine Johnson, Anna Watson, Julie Milner, Ann Stafford and Karen Craven. I would also like to express my thanks to Margaret Coulbeck and Steven Johnson who helped immensely behind the scenes and gave presentations against closure at several important meetings with the council.

We feel that our campaign has been vindicated and we now have the best possible outcome for our children in an uncertain time. Thanks again to everybody.

Please click the link below if you want to view the Sunderland Echo report on last night’s meeting:

Sunderland Echo Report of the Schools Adjudicator Public Meeting