Bad news - No provision is being made for AS Spanish :(

Last week, feeling desperate, discouraged and fed up of waiting to hear something back from the school, one of the students made an appointment to see the Principal, Mr Parrott, but the meeting was cancelled last minute due to 'IT problems' and a 'double booked appointment'. A meeting was then arranged with Mr Billingham, Head of School after he made a quick visit to the High School (possibly to see Mr Parrott who was unavailable to meet?). Mr Billingham is actually the man responsible for the timetabling and was the one who was supposed to be looking into the Rawlins Academy option. The main reason for the meeting was to express disappointment once again with the lack of communication, and to try to finally find out what provision, if any, was going to be made for the students. THE RESULT IS THAT THERE IS NO PROVISION BEING MADE! The Year 12s now have a new teacher who will take over teaching them for Year 13. Year 11s will have to pick another option or choose to go to another school entirely if they wish to continue with Spanish. Due to the timetabling issues with Rawlins and the travel time (for which parents would have to provide transport), the students would be missing other lessons at Hind Leys which they would have to make up each week, making it very difficult and impractical for them. So whilst it's not impossible, it is as difficult as it could be, and not a viable option. What a shame that once again the school did not communicate this earlier, but instead, the students have had to chase this up during exams! It is obviously a huge disappointment after all of this hard work and effort to get Spanish reinstated - if only for this year group who were notified so late. And then to hear the news from the second in command rather than the Principal is very unsatisfactory. Mr Billingham did not have all of the answers and was not part of the previous meetings, so although he was speaking for Mr Parrott, he kept saying that he couldn't speak for Mr Parrott, but was representing the school! It seems that we are at the stage now that we have to put this behind us and move on. We have tried appealing to every possible person in authority who might be able to help, but have been unsuccessful in obtaining it on this occasion and everybody loses. The school and it's leadership have lost the respect of the students, parents, staff and the wider community. The school has also lost several valuable staff members in the process. We Spanish students have lost an inspirational teacher and the chance to further our education in this particular subject, and have been badly let down by the education system which is supposed to be providing for us. We retain our pride and integrity and know that we did all that we could. It was always a losing battle it seems, as the decision had been made right from the start and nothing has changed since, but we just didn't know because we couldn't get anyone to speak to us. We have been messed about and strung along since April! All we can do now is thank you all for your incredible support and interest! It has meant to a lot to know that other people feel the same way about the importance of languages in education, and were willing to say so publicly on our behalf. It's so sad that it is not a more positive conclusion to the matter, despite everyone's joint efforts. If you still feel that this is an unfair travesty (which we do), and want to let Mr Parrott know, please feel free to email him at mparrott@shepshedlearning.co.uk