Fighting the Last War - The Schools Organisation Review in Suffolk

Following the defeat of the motion put forward by the two other non-Tory Bury County Councillors, Suffolk County Council re-iterated its commitment to moving Bury's "poorly performing schools" (their words not mine) to two tier, regardless of whether or not that funding appears.

Quite how that will be achieved is anyone's guess. Two-tier education is, I would presume, best delivered, in a context where buildings and teachers can be organised into two systems - primary and secondary. In Bury this will be difficult without running split sites. Not unusual I know but not ideal either.

Perhaps more importantly, moving to two-tier now, at great cost, is an example of the Conservative County Council fighting the last war - rather than the one ahead. The coming crisis in public spending is going to be very tough for schools. Big reorganisations will be difficult to fund.

And more fundamentally the direction of policy from an incoming Tory Government (the most likely outcome I believe of next year's General Election) will be a new policy for schools which essentially gives power to local communities to have the schools they choose. And if not to open one themselves using state funding - regardless of what the local authority says.

This is revolutionary stuff. For years, Councils have dictated what kinds of schools our kids will attend. The move from three to two tier is one such diktat. Soon it will not be the business of Councils to say how schools should look. Parents will more likely choose. And in Bury this would mean the retention of a much-loved middle school system.

I can never understand the Suffolk Tories on the need for all our schools to follow a particular model. This isn't the case in the independent sector (as many of them will know). Diversity flourishes (3-18, 5-18, 8-18) all these models flourish in Suffolk in the independent sector. The changes proposed by the Tories will cut across the one-size-fit-all of the move to two-tier.

There is hope yet I believe for local self-determination - from the most unlikely of sources!