Opposing Medway Council Primary School closures

Teresa Murray, Labour PPC for Rochester & Strood and Cllr Stephen Hubbard (Strood North) have met parents and pupils from St Nicholas CE Infants School and other schools in Strood affected by the Conservative Council plans announced on the 29th April.

The Primary School Strategy for Change initially submitted to the Department for, Children, Schools and Families last summer and Medway’s bid was one of 15 which were rejected for lack of information. Subsequently the strategy was re-written by the council with email support from civil servants. The revised strategy was submitted in January 2009 with significant amendments and with a lot more information and was accepted by the DCSF before the Easter holidays.

The Primary School strategy was written by Medway Tories and specifically Councillor Wicks and was presented to government to secure capital funding to develop Medway’s Primary Schools. The content of the strategy and the proposals affecting individual schools were entirely determined by Medway Council and the ruling Medway Council Conservative Group.

Campaigning for St Nicholas CE Infants School

In Central Strood the Council’s Conservative Group have proposed to amalgamate All Faiths' Children's Community School with St Nicholas CE Infant School. The new CE Primary School is planned to be open by September 2012 on the All Faiths’ site in a new build (maybe using some of existing buildings). The proposal in Central Strood does not add up: it leaves the two Gordon schools to speculate about their future

The Governing Body of St Nicholas CE Infants School is working with Cllr Stephen Hubbard to reject the proposal to close St Nicolas CE Infants School.

The school does not meet any of the criteria put forward in the proposal including

• - Standards at St Nicholas CE Infants School are consistently and significantly higher then the national average
• - Currently St Nicholas CE Infants School has 9% surplus places - well below the 25% trigger
• - St Nicholas CE Infants School is a popular and successful school

Sign the online petition against the Primary School Proposals