7:00am Monday 15th February 2010
By Bill Tanner
CLUSTERING small schools is a chance to “grasp nettles not clutch at straws”, says one of Herefordshire’s newest headteachers.
Matthew Land came to Brockhampton School six months ago as a head untainted by the public protests and political fallout that stifled initial attempts to shut or merge small schools two years ago.
But he walked right into the ramifications of last year’s policy re-think as soon as he opened his office door, saying the “cluster” policy proposed now is hard to argue against in challenging schools to work closer together.
Brockhampton is well onto the way ahead, neck-and-neck with near neighbours Bredenbury, St Peter’s Bromyard, and the Queen Elizabeth Humanities College.
All four schools grasped the cluster concept from the off and now they are nearing trust status, together with its scope for self-determination without slashing lifelines to the local authority.
The surrounding C of E schools at Burley Gate, Pencombe, and Whitbourne are also interested.
Mr Land says the move to trust status is an obvious extension of the supportive, open rural community his school serves.
The cluster concept is based on numbers, and Mr Land has done his maths – 24 pupils left Brockhampton at the end of last term, 12 turned up at the start of this term.
That leaves him with 110 charges, just 16 down on the present planned admission number, but representing the stabilising of a steady decline from the heady days of near 200.
Mr Land is sure a fair few prospects fell to first schools review with parents reluctant to choose a school that could conceivably have been close to closure by now.
If clustering means closures won’t happen then “what’s lost?”
asked Mr Land.
“We got to see this an opportunity to grasp nettles not clutch at straws,” he said.
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