Members of the public may ask questions or make statements at this meeting if they have given notice to Alice Fox of Democratic and Scrutiny Services and supplied the text (contact details below) by midday on 12th April, three working days before the day of the meeting. Each speaker should limit themselves to 3 minutes on any item. Members of the public who have given notice will be invited to speak:-
· at this point in the meeting if their questions/statements relate to matters which are not otherwise on the Agenda (subject to an overall time limit of 30 minutes);
· when the relevant Agenda item is being considered if they wish to speak on a matter which is on the Agenda for this meeting.
If you are exercising your right to speak at this meeting, but do not
wish to be recorded, please inform the Chair who will instruct anyone who may
be taking a recording to cease while you speak.
Minutes:
Two public statements had been received from members of the public and read as follows:
Statement 1
Dear Councillors,
My name is Steven Ledger and I’m a former
parent of Fountains Earth CofE Primary School in Lofthouse.
7 years ago I
relocated to Lofthouse from Durham for a job opportunity in the area. The main
concern of my wife and I about relocating was our children’s schooling. Having
visited Fountains Earth prior to accepting the job offer we were lost for
words. The teaching staff, office staff and the headteacher were all second to
none. After seeing the evidence of what this small yet fantastically equipped
school was achieving, we relocated. After just three months
at Fountains Earth our daughter’s academic abilities had improved to a standard
much beyond recognition. She excelled, as did her older brother. He was only
there for a short time as he moved up to high school shortly afterwards, but
the few months he spent at Fountains Earth saw his confidence soar.
At this time there were approximately 15
children in attendance, with 2 full time teachers and 1 part time teacher
alongside office staff and a cook/lunchtime assistant. The one
to one teaching and attention that each child received had an incredibly
positive impact on their schooling as well as their emotional well-being. They
were all happy, safe and learning. Our daughter was
excited to go to school each day. The school really was second to none and was
very much the heart of the community. Communication was excellent and parents
were invited into school regularly to see the children’s progress and
achievements.
A group made up of local residents and
parents (FOLS) did a lot of fundraising and this made up any shortage of
funding for things such as school trip and
swimming
lessons. Much of the time, funds were raised above what was needed, so that
paid for a party for the children at the end of the school year. I think it’s
important for me to mention this as it goes to show that Fountains Earth was
financially viable.
Towards the end of 2021, new management
took over. Shortly afterwards, the cook left and hot
meals were stopped. A replacement was employed and was a sent to St Cuthberts
to pick up sandwiches on a Monday. These were stored and served throughout the
week, ultimately being stale by Wednesday. This was also stopped eventually,
and the children had to have packed lunches from home. The original, much loved teacher suddenly left, with no warning or
explanation to the children or the parents.
Other staff left one by one within 6
months, again with no explanation. The school then relied on temporary agency
staff with a different one every week. The children were left confused,
unsettled and their leaning disrupted. Work was usually generic worksheets
rather
than structured teaching. All communication with parents was stopped, therefore
all confidence and trust we once had in the school evaporated. Any meetings
between parents and the school, and also public meetings regarding its future,
were attended by Governors rather than management.
Our daughter now attends Summerbridge Primary School. This is a 45
minute round trip twice a day. This school isn’t part of the Federation
however there are 9 other children in my daughter’s class who have moved there
from the Federation since the new management took over. 3 of these children are
from Fountains Earth which means 6 of them in that age group are from St
Cuthbert’s and Glasshouses, and that is a huge red flag.
A petition was made and received over
500 signatures from Yorkshire residents calling for an investigation into the
management of the Federation. We, amongst many other residents, moved to the
area safe in the knowledge that a fantastic school was here for our children.
Without this school, I feel that less families will move to the area, local
businesses will lose custom and potential staff and housing will ultimately be
turned into holiday homes and Air B&B’s. This isn’t an economically or
socially acceptable way for our beautiful dale to foresee its future.
Pupil numbers at Fountains Earth would
have risen year on year according to our parents’ survey. The numbers you have
received from Governors are not accurate. I believe that parents, both new and
old, would be willing to enrol their children at fountains earth providing
there was a change of management. We would love our youngest daughter to attend
Fountains Earth when she turns school age in 2026.
I finish by pleading with you to
investigate the whole management of the Upper Nidderdale Federation and to
reconsider the closure of the school and the impact it will have on our whole
community.
Respectfully Yours,
Steven Ledger
Statement 2
Good afternoon, my name is Stephen Ramsden,
chairman of Upper Nidderdale Parish Council.
It is very unfortunate that we have got into a
situation where our local primary school, Fountains Earth Primary School,
Lofthouse is on the brink of closure.
For some time, there were warning signs that
there was poor communication, trust, and honesty between the parents and the
Upper Nidderdale Federation, and although a North Yorkshire Council officer did
visit the school in May 2023, nothing was done to correct these issues. All the
parents then left the school, moving their children to other primary schools
outside this Federation.
Alarm bells should also be sounding at St
Cuthberts, Pateley Bridge [part of the same Federation] where the pupil numbers
are approximately 48 today, with a capacity of 119. Both Dacre Brathwaite and Summerbridge primary schools are more or less full, at
approximately 90 pupils each.
In the medium to long term, losing our school
will have a dramatic effect on our community, with the potential loss of young
families and no potential young families moving into our area.
Any rural school closure makes it harder for
young farming and gamekeeping families to live and work in remoter areas, where
the school daily commute becomes a 40/50 miles a day, rather than 5-10 mile trip in our case. This is at a time when due to
higher “council tax” on holiday and second homes, these are either being relet
or sold back onto the open market. In the medium to long-term this will
increase our rural population with young children, but potentially not if there
is no local primary school.
The village school is the heart of any strong
rural community, but with the partnership of young families, our community,
good school management and North Yorkshire Council this situation can be turned
round, and I would urge councillors and council officers to seriously look at
keeping the "school open" for a September 2024 start.
The public statements were noted by the Committee
and the responses to them were addressed by the Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services:
Response to Statement 1
The Corporate Director explained that Governors
in LA schools have three core functions: 1) that the vision, ethos
and strategic direction of the school are clearly defined; 2) that the
Headteacher performs their responsibilities for the educational performance of
the school and 3) that there is sound, proper and effective use of the school’s
financial resources. The national funding formula for schools sets out the
level of funding applied to each school. Over time in North Yorkshire, we have
seen many small schools struggle to meet the running costs as stand-alone
schools and this has brought groups of schools together to operate as a
Federation and share costs.
Fountains Earth moved from being a stand-alone
school, to being part of a two-school and then a three-school Federation. This
enabled the school to benefit through shared leadership and support staff
costs. However, the governing board of a
Federation is still obliged to review and make decisions that are in the
interests of each school and for the Federation as a whole. We know that the Federation board have had to
consider this and take necessary action to reflect each school’s budget share
without one school having a disproportionate impact on other schools.
We know from the school that they had
trouble recruiting and retaining teaching staff due to the single class
teaching arrangement and the remote location of the school, and this has led to
a series of temporary teaching arrangements at Fountains Earth. Governors have
had to rely on the support of staff appointed to other schools in the
Federation and at times, agency staff, to ensure the school has been able to
operate on a day-to-day basis for some time.
This is one of the factors put forward when the consultation was
requested.
The comment made about pupil number
forecasts being inaccurate was one of the reasons Governors withdrew their
initial request to the council for a consultation. Work was undertaken to seek
information from the community about the suggested increase in numbers and the
forecast was updated to reflect the findings.
It was in fulfilling their functions
responsibly that Governors approached the Council to consider the future of the
school but only after they had exhausted all other avenues to put the
school on a sustainable footing. Whilst there were pupils in school, Governors
were diligent in their oversight of finances (managing the revenue budget and
looking ahead at pupil forecasts) and in their efforts to maintain the best
possible education standards for pupils - resulting in the good Ofsted outcome
being maintained.
With regards to the petition and the request
for an investigation into the leadership and governance of the school:
- A public question was submitted to the
Skipton and Ripon Area Constituency Committee meeting on 14th
December 2023 regarding the leadership of the Upper Nidderdale Federation.
- A response was provided, and both the
question and the response were presented in full within the Executive report
for the meeting on 23rd
January 2024.
- The response clarified that the duty to
establish procedures for dealing with complaints lies with the governing body
and not the Council. Only complaints outside of the scope of the school’s
policy would be considered elsewhere by either the DfE or Ofsted. About one year ago North Yorkshire
Children’s Services did receive correspondence about the school and signposted
the writer towards the school’s complaints policy. The Council also provided
information at that time about how to escalate the concerns to other
organisations if required. If parents, staff or community members have new
concerns about the school, officers would advise them to raise these using the
appropriate schools complaints procedure.
- At the Skipton and Ripon ACC meeting on
7th March 2024, a petition ‘seeking the investigation into the leadership’ was
received. The officer report explained: The
petition states that ‘This investigation should carefully assess the leadership
and management of the Upper Nidderdale Federation, including their academic
performance, financial stability, community engagement and communication with
parents.’ All four of these areas (performance, financial stability, community
engagement and communication) are the responsibility of governing boards and as
such would need to be considered through the governing board’s own procedures
for managing complaints.
- Draft minutes from the ACC meeting on 7th
March state:
Following their statements, Members
discussed the petition for a period of fifteen minutes. Members were made aware of the options
available to them, as detailed in Paragraph 5.1 of the report. The key points are summarised below:
·
Amanda
Newbold, Assistant Director, Education and Skills, clarified to Members that
the school was not an academy, but instead a school maintained by the Council.
· There was uncertainty as to whether the
Council is responsible for carrying out an investigation. Members felt that further review would be
beneficial to establish the situation.
·
It
was proposed and seconded that the petition be referred to the Children and
Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
A review by this Committee should not contest the potential closure of
the school but be a general investigation into the leadership of the Upper Nidderdale
Federation.
It was noted that no decision has been made to close the school, and a
report will be considered by the Council’s Executive on 19th March
2024.
A vote was taken on the motion and there was unanimous support.
Resolved –
a)
That,
the Skipton and Ripon Area Constituency Committee
refers the petition to Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee
for further investigation.
The Corporate Director explained that the
item was referred to in the report for the recent Executive meeting on 19th
March 2024. The referral to Overview and
Scrutiny will be discussed at the Mid-Cycle Briefing of the Committee on 26th
April. The Scrutiny Committee has no
role or remit in investigating school leadership or individual schools. Consequently, the petition and the request
for an investigation will not form part of today’s meeting.
Response to
Statement 2
As part of their routine monitoring, North
Yorkshire Council officers from various teams including school improvement,
schools finance and strategic planning have been working with the governing
board of the school/ Federation over several years. This is the role of the
Council in maintained schools and has, in this case, often been undertaken
alongside education colleagues from Leeds Diocese. The Council does not
‘manage’ schools: management responsibilities are delegated to the governing
body and leadership of the school.
Until the Governors raised the issue of the
school’s long-term viability and shared their thoughts about a consultation on
closure with the wider community (initially in June 2022), the community had
not raised any significant issues about the school.
Any concerns that have since been
highlighted have been directed to the Governing Board where they relate to
matters that are the delegated responsibility of the Board. Other matters e.g.
safeguarding have been addressed by relevant Council teams.
Pupil numbers at other schools are not the
subject of this meeting, nor relate to the closure of Fountains Earth School.
However, it may be useful to clarify that parents are able to apply to any
school of their choice and providing there are places available, the admissions
authority (often the LA) has a duty to facilitate a fair admissions process. We
know that there are more primary school places in the local area than there are
children to fill the potential capacity of all schools. We also know that overall
numbers of children in the local area have decreased over many years.
We realise the importance of schools in
rural communities; despite this, the facts facing us now are that the Council
cannot keep open schools where there are no pupils on roll and no pupil-led
funding allocation to cover the associated costs of doing so.
The Chair thanked Mr Ledger and Mr Ramsden for their statements and the
Corporate Director for his response.