'No gain and lots of pain'

Feb 3 2005 By Graeme Whitlfield, The Journal

Children facing the disruption of a controversial education shake-up may not see new schools built for another 18 years, The Journal has learned.

Northumberland County Council wants to build a number of new schools as part of its Putting the Learner First programme.

The £650m programme was described as the "biggest ever investment in schools in the country" when it was unveiled last December, with parents told new schools would come on line between 2006 and 2013.

But it has now emerged that Northumberland will not get one of the main sources of funding for the project - the Government's Building Schools for the Future programme - until 2014 at the earliest, and possibly as late as 2017.

That could put completion of the building programme back to 2024, even though the council is already consulting on the closure of 44 middle schools to help pay for it. County education officials last night insisted the project was still on track. Putting the Learner First has already attracted huge opposition because of proposals to close the middle schools and move the county to a two-tier education structure.

Sale of some of the school sites would go towards Putting the Learner First.

The delay in funding for new schools shocked parents, headteachers and some councillors when the news emerged yesterday.

A leading headteacher branded the delays appalling and said it would mean none of the benefits of the Putting the Learner First programme would be felt by children currently at school.

Fiona Wilson, a mother from Blyth with children Christopher and Elizabeth, aged eight and 10, who has been fighting the closures, said: "My children are facing no gain and lots of pain.

"Why sacrifice this generation of children for what could be only a possibility of standards rising in years to come? Even then there's no guarantees. The timeline during this consultation is open for discussion, so there's a possibility that what's been said won't happen.

"It seems to me that the whole thing is getting unmanageable for them."

Ken Tonge, head of Ashington High and secretary of the Northumberland Association of High School Headteachers, said: "There hasn't been any indication of this timescale at all.

"We're reassured that the county is trying to find other sources of funding because we're desperate for these new facilities.

"But if the Building Schools for the Future funding is that far down the line, it's not even going to come into my thinking, because that's a whole new generation of students.

"You're talking about kids who aren't even born yet because an extensive building programme has to be put in place."

One of the main sources of funding for the schools re-organisation is the Building Schools for the Future programme, but Northumberland was told last November it was not in the early funding waves.

The Department for Education and Skills has now told The Journal that Northumberland will get funding between waves 10 and 15 of the project, due between 2014 and 2017.

At a stormy county council meeting yesterday, deputy leader Bill Brooks insisted councillors had been made aware of the funding delay - only for Conservative group leader Coun Michael Jeans to shout: "Not that situation, we haven't."

The council's head of children's services Trevor Doughty said officers were trying to find other sources of funding for new schools, including money for city academies, the council's own cash and other Government funding.

He said: "We always knew we would be in the later stages of Building Schools for the Future.

"The first stage of our consultation is about getting agreement in principle for starting the process and the timetable is then open for consultation.

"The timetable will be as the finance is available. It's really important that there isn't any public anxiety about that."

The Putting the Learner First programme has proved controversial since it was first unveiled last year because it envisages a move to two-tier education that would close 44 middle schools.

Education bosses say the plans would bring Northumberland in line with the National Curriculum and free millions of pounds to be reinvested in schools.

But thousands of parents have opposed the moves because they want to maintain the three-tier system.

The Journal: Today's Voice of the North

Page 2: 'Critics don't care about non-academic children'