What a great meeting last night. Now we’re all equipped with the facts, from my point of view it’s very clear that we need a rebuild. Two highly detailed studies have given the school building a very poor bill of health. As well as substantial issues relating to the fabric of the building, some classrooms are too big and some are far too small, and the main hall is considerably undersized. With a rebuild we have a chance to create a teaching environment designed from the outset to meet the needs of modern curriculum design, as well as current/projected catchment volumes, and give our children the best start in life. To achieve this with a refurbishment would inevitably lead to a hotch potch of partition walls and extensions. Much of the aesthetic of the existing school that some people are so keen to preserve would inevitably be lost in the process. Alongside this we’d have the lower energy efficiency of the existing building to take into account and there would be considerable ongoing maintenance issues relating to the untouched elements. The children would have to be schooled in mobile classrooms for about two years, and for decades to come we’d be vying for a share of very limited council maintenance budget. I think last night the councillor quoted an annual budget for Devon of just £7.5m to meet the maintenance costs of some 300 schools. We’re being offered the equivalent of a third of that annual maintenance budget just for Chagford School! And now with the inclusion of a Foundation Stage Unit through the hard work of the governors and the determination of the head the school won’t be shrunk at all. It will still be within its lovely spacious grounds and equipped with new facilities fit for modern learning. What’s not to like? From my point of view let’s put an end to all this nit-picking and have some confidence in, and give due credit to the governors and senior staff at the school. Let’s stop looking a gift horse in the mouth and get behind the rebuild.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 12:40:16 +0000
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