Dear All Since my last email more has happened. 1. On the 16th there is an emergancy general meeting of the county council to discuss overturning the section in the Powys CC constitution which devolves all education decisions TO THE CABINET and prevents other county councillors having a say in making decisions, completely undemocratic. We have no idea whether they will get the numbers or what the effect will be if they do. 2. We have continued to send small chunks of information to councillors in the hope of opening their eyes to what is going on and we will continue to do so. 3. There have been resignations from the ruling group on the council as a protest over the schools modernisation programme. 4. Below is a letter from Jeffery Babb, who some of you know, to the Leader of the Council. Jeffery is 90 years old with a very sharp brain who has spent his life in education supporting young people and still does. He was the secretary and conductor of the UK youth orchestra and one of the founders and conductor of the European Youth Orchestra, so he knows what he is talking about. The Leader of the council has responded by saying he is instructing officials that it must be seriously considered as part of the consultation process. Its very moving. "Dear Cllr Thomas In 1941 I caught the 8.10 train to go to school, a distance roughly equal to that between Hay and Brecon. Often I did not get home until 7pm, being engaged in after school activities. After an evening meal, the rest of the evening was occupied with homework. There was no time for being ‘in family’, no time to attend community events/activities. Indeed, eventually I had opted out of the community in which I lived. Such distance for travel between Hay and Brecon will have a harmful effect on children’s family and communal life. In 1951 I was teaching in a Secondary Modern School whose pupils came from 16 scattered villages. The great majority were bussed away when school finished, missing any after school activities. Many school teams were completed by pupils living in the vicinity of the school itself. Although a few activities were squeezed into the lunch break, that had been shortened because coaches, lining the neighbourhood streets, had to leave early to get the children home in good time. Deprivation of opportunities to take part in different team sports, to sing in a choir, to act on the stage, to attend special art classes, left so many children with an incomplete education, especially important when the social/community life in small villages was virtually non-existent for children. Many pupils at the proposed new school will be disadvantaged similarly. For the secondary school in Aberaeron, a purpose built park for some 20 odd coaches keeps them off the street, but their passage through the small town and residential areas, clogs them up twice a day. In the 1970’s I was teaching in a large secondary school formed by the amalgamation of two single sex grammar schools, separated by playing fields. At the same time I chaired the Parent/Teacher Association at a purpose built comprehensive school of some 1250 pupils attended by three of my sons. If I spoke to children coming out of class in the corridor I was asked who I was, and I would not know who they were. It is not possible for pupils to know all of some 80/90 staff members; or for staff to know all of 1200 pupils. Although teaching is conducted in classes, education remains a one-to-one business, imperatively so for the care and progress of each child. Having taught in the Boys School of 560 pupils, by whom I was recognised and often well known, the change to a school of double that size created difficulties, and too soon behavioural problems arose. Pupils would only see a teacher in a class lesson; they would see the teachers about the place with whom they had no classroom contact. Gradually the sense of community was lost and often foolish and mischievous behaviour went unnoticed until it got to the stage when some teachers reduced their classroom time to be responsible for dealing with selected categories of this misbehaviour. This needed the recruitment of more teaching staff, thus inflating staff numbers. It was depressing to see the behavioural change, even in the classroom, to understand pupils’ detachment from the staff, to see the gradual deterioration of the school community’s friendly atmosphere. As PTA Chairman I had to deal with many parents who found it difficult to understand which staff to approach. House assemblies replaced the whole school assembly for which there was no space. Hence pupils did not feel they belonged to a school community, especially as each house organised its own programme of after school activity alongside others embracing anyone from whatever house, eg the school orchestra. I did not even understand fully the considerable extent of house masters’/mistresses’ social, routine business. Those who taught throughout the week to any particular class belonged to another collective altogether. Only games staff would be well known to all and sundry, and perhaps music and drama teachers. The House system bred its own camaraderie within the school and yet disassociated from the whole school. All of these problems, which I have described inadequately in the interests of brevity, are not inevitable at all in a school of the size proposed and are easily remedied. But similar problems are bound to arise because of the school’s size. It is difficult for some staff members to identify with so large a community within the context of education. It is virtually impossible for the child surrounded with such a large concourse of others to be comfortable about being among it. Oh yes, many do accommodate themselves in the end, but too many do not, unable to cope with the inevitable complexities of purely organisational matters, a confusion passed on to parents who are then unhappy. In my ignorance I do not know the building costs, the cost implications of redundant buildings and their disposal, the inflated costs of transport. Have all these and other like considerations been itemised and published? It is my understanding of the electoral process that council members are elected to serve the interests of their community. This means to me, that if there are reasons for proposals to make arrangements for the welfare of our children, then they and their parents should be part of the decision making process, not merely in a consultation exercise, but by debate, shaping propositions, and by casting votes according to individual views. I find the governance exercised by Powys C.C.to be flawed. It embraces three formerly autonomous communities. Council structure and operation should reflect that coming together so that at no time should councillors representing any of those three county areas be in a dominant position to determine legislation affecting the other two, as I understand to be the case at present. I am well acquainted with Montgomeryshire County Council since the 40’s and I was never satisfied with its governance. Yours sincerely Jeffery Babb" JOHN FITZGERALD