Uproar continues at The Manor School

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 12th Sep 2005

A packed meeting of angry and upset parents met representatives of the Local Education Authority to challenge them about their proposed closure of The Manor School today.

Parents spoke passionately about what the school meant to their children, their families and the community. The Education Officer, Mr Beck, was ridiculed when he said the fact that standards had risen recently meant that they could also go down "that is true of every school" a parent shouted from the back.

There were gasps when the Chairman of the Education Committee, Cllr Hicks, described the situation that the Manor School is in as 'a quirky thing'. 'This is the future for our children, and for the country, not a quirk' said another mother.

A father revealed the hidden agenda when he quoted from an email between officers which said "now the election is out of the way, are we going to return to the closure of The Manor School?". Mr Beck admitted sending that email, but accused the parent of 'quoting selectively'.

Dr Anne Lee (Woking Liberal Democrats Parliamentary Spokesperson) said "This school has been fingered enough. It has been well proven that small can be very beautiful in education, where is the help that the school should have had to balance its budget, why has the Governing Body been told not to recruit a new head-teacher. Any head-teacher these days knows that part of their job is fund-raising, if a school has no head it will inevitably have fewer funds." She added 'it beggars belief that the County Council are planning the closure of the only state run nursery in the area when nursery education is one of the growth areas in education'.

The committee agreed to return to meet parents again when she asked "will the committee come back and properly explore all the options available, not just mention them in passing in a consultation paper dedicated to the closure option. Will they give equal attention to exploring a federation, an all-through primary school and proper fund-raising?"

Further information: Dr Anne Lee 07973 175059