Chulmleigh Community College: new buildings
BACKGROUND
The majority of classrooms in this very successful College were in 'temporary' blocks many years past their sell-by date. They suffered from leaking rooves, damp, rotting timberwork and were freezing cold in winter and baking hot in summer. The College budget struggled to find the funds to keep them habitable, and most were well beyond the point of economic repair. Nick launched a campaign to see the College rebuilt to provide a campus fit for purpose in the 21st Century with permanent classroom blocks and community facilities.
ACTION TO DATE
Working with newly-elected local Councillor Joe Tucker and new head teacher Mike Johnson in 2005 as well as the school governors and parents, Nick pressed Devon County Council for priority to be given to rebuilding the college. This culminated successfully in Devon committing £1.4 million to Chulmleigh in its 2008-11 schools capital programme, more than any for other secondary school in Devon. This allowed the decrepit temporary blocks to be replaced with temporary classrooms, as a transitional stage to reconfiguring the whole school site and building new permanent blocks.
The funding for the rest of the site was scheduled to reach Devon in 2011 under the Building Schools for the Future programme.
Following the announcement by Education Secretary Michael Gove that future funding for Ilfracombe and Chulmleigh Community Colleges was to be withheld, Nick sent a letter to the Department of Education in July calling for the need for these buildings to be replaced to be acknowledged and for alternative and transparent mechanisms be put in place at the earliest practical moment. The letter, which can be read in full on the website, also called for clear guidance from the Education Department to Local Authorities and individual schools and colleges as to how to progress their plans, which in some cases will be in an advanced stage. Nick finished by calling for recognition that Devon's schools were special in light of the previous history of under-investment under successive Governments.
He has now received personal reassurance from Michael Gove that the school buildings capital programme has not been cancelled for ever, and that the 'financial taps will turn on again' when circumstances allow.
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