NASS, in person and with information, has helped the campaign last summer to save three small infant schools in Medway. We are delighted to learn that St. Peter’s has won its case while St. John’s has been referred back. One remains at risk.

They were potential victims of a rigid and ruthless insistence on reorganisation of the school estate to a minimum 2FE level of roll which would erase anything smaller. It claimed raising standards and resolving failures but the smaller schools, as in the Isle of Wight, have been among its greatest successes and the failing schools are rather larger. LEA policy wholly negates its statutory duty to provide diversity, choice and a system shaped by parents.

The insistence on a one-size-fits-all policy included stating there were no grounds anyone could advance for not proceeding with the closures despite consultation. Statutory Guidance, as elsewhere, was simply ignored. We continue to help but offer warm congratulations to Nicole Caulfield who fought a superb campaign doing almost all we usually advise even before we added our weight. St. Peter's thus joins St. James in Salford some seven years ago as urban small schools we have helped stay open. Along with potential action for small nurseries these successes well encourage our campaign for smaller schools and their humanity of scale in our urban neighbourhoods.

Nicole was the member who, in her own campaign work, discovered the Tory Green Paper with its intriguing reference to recognising small schools "for their intimate learning environments." This may just have influenced Medway's solidly Tory Council enough to win reprieve for St. Peter's and a second chance for St. John's.
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