Tag Archives: West Burton school

West Burton school – Stop the Bussing!

In Wensleydale, West Burton CofE School, ,

Aysgarth and District Parish Council has again agreed that the bussing of the youngest children from West Burton CofE School to Bainbridge by the Bainbridge, Askrigg and West Burton Federation of Schools (BAWB) for lessons must stop.

At its meeting on Thursday February 21 the council welcomed the invitation from BAWB to the West Burton Representative Group to engage with it in a small working party on Tuesday March 19.

Cllr David Pointon, an educational consultant who is a member of the Representative Group, reminded the council that the first request for defederation from BAWB by parents of pupils at West Burton school was made in January 2018.

He added that BAWB had refused defederation and was continuing with bussing the youngest children which was one of the main things that parents were objecting to. “The community is still not satisfied,” he said.

Richmondshire District councillor Yvonne Peacock described as dreadful had been the lack of communication by the BAWB governors. “We’ve had emails but we haven’t had a conversation. To me the governors should have dealings with people, with the parents.”

Another Richmondshire District councillor, Caroline Thornton-Berry agreed that the governors didn’t seem to know that the West Burton parents were so unhappy.   She told the council that she had invited one of the BAWB governors to have coffee with her – only for that governor to say that the chair of governors had said she shouldn’t accept.

One of the parish councillors spoke of a teaching head at a church school of 120 pupils who was at the top of the pay scale who earned about £20,000 less per year than the non-teaching head of BAWB which has 80 pupils. BAWB also has a part time business manager.

“The financial situation at BAWB is unsustainable,” commented Cllr Thornton-Berry. She also pointed out that, unlike councillors, the governing body of a school was unanswerable to anyone and was free to make all decisions  apart from that to close a school.

Cllr Pointon emphasised that the most important issue was the needs of the children  – and the councillors agreed that bussing the youngest children was contrary to that.

See: Cllr Pointon’s statement about educating primary school children.

West Burton CofE School – a consultant’s view

In Wensleydale, West Burton CofE School

Statement by David Pointon, independent educational consultant: As a member of the West Burton School Representative Group I am very aware that the debate about the request to defederate the school has fuelled a lot of misinformation about education, schools and the optimum size of classes.

The principle purpose of a school is to equip children with the knowledge and skills to be successful in their lives and be useful members of their community and the wider universe.

It should be providing opportunities to enable the children to access knowledge as well as providing a stable, safe, inclusive and comfortable environment in which the children can learn. It should be concentrating on learning before teaching.

Learning is an individual process.

All schools should be concentrating on the above ‘shoulds’ with the children as the central main priority.

Teaching should be adapted to the needs of the children. There is much supporting evidence that most children thrive and learn better in small groups. In fact some children would be submerged in large groups and may then need special provision. Teaching is imposed on learning and requires very special people to ensure that all childrens’ individual needs for learning are met.

These are the basic premises that govern a successful school. Does your child’s school meet these standards?

A school should not be training children to pass tests and to help to get a good Ofsted or other reports, so it can meet financial targets.  It should not be stealing and misusing the children’s time in useless exercises (such as in-school-day bussing).

For time is our only non-renewable resource.

Every adult with any contact with the school has a responsibility to enable and support the learning and teaching to be achieved, to the highest standards.

D.G.Pointon, BA, Cert Ed.,DipCTB, CETHIC, Fellow of VIEW

Independent Educational Consultant.

(VIEW is the professional association  of the Visual Impairment Education and Welfare)

 

West Burton CofE School – defederation refused