Time to map out a plan for Villa's future
- Says blogger Matthew Turvey
100s protest to stop school closure
Thursday 23rd October 2008, 11:38AM BST.
Hundreds of placard waving parents, pupils and teachers descended on Walsall Council House to voice their anger at the possible closure of their school.
Around 300 protesters gathered at the doors of the Council House, Lichfield Street, to make their feelings known to councillors meeting to discuss the future of Sneyd Community School in Bloxwich. The unprecedented numbers forced council chiefs to bring in bouncers on the doors and police were in attendance to make sure the protest passed peacefully.
Click here to see more pictures.
Six coachloads of people arrived at the meeting with many carrying placards reading Save Our School, Every Child Matters and the Heart Of The Community.
Just under 150 protesters were allowed into the Walsall Council cabinet meeting last night while more than 100 remaining outside.
The cabinet meeting was originally tasked with making a final decision on the Vernon Way school yesterday evening. But pressured councillors deferred the decision after the massive outcry over the controversial proposal.
The matter has now been sent to the children’s services scrutiny panel for further options to be considered after councillors admitted they could not support closure at this stage. Discussions are set to include entering a federation with another school.
Education chiefs have blamed falling pupil numbers and poor results for possibly closing the school on the Willenhall and Bloxwich border. But headteacher Dr Sean Sweeney said improvements were already being made and youngsters were determined to remain where they are.
He said: “A terrible thing has happened over these last few weeks as somebody has come up with an idea to close the school.
“These children do not want to leave this school. They know what is expected of them and are working very hard.”
Council leader John O’Hare said although closure could not be completely ruled out every possible avenue needed to be explored.
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Another failing school closing who cares?
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SNEYD IS NOT A FAILING SCHOOL, IT HAS BEEN PROGRESSIVELY IMPROVING OVER THE PAST COUPLE OF YEARS AND IS NO LONGER IN SPECIAL NEEDS, THE COUNCILLORS NEED TO GET UP TO DATE INFORMATION ,AND THE KIDS WOULD HAVE TO TRAVEL MILES TO ANOTHER SCHOOL WITH WORSE FACILITIES.
WHY SHOULD THEY, AND WE DO CARE (PARENTS STAFF AND KIDS AS SHOWN LAST NIGHT )
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Sneyd may not be the best school but is still improving and the children feel safe and its not just a school closing but a place when people of many ages can play bowles or go swimming- and what about the summer palyscheme
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My granddaughter was bullied at her junior school, but since going to Sneyd she has come on in leaps and bounds. If she has to move she will probably have to go to the same school as her bullies. I hope the council can find a suitable solution.
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I’m sure if any children of “John Jones” went to this school he WOULD CARE!!!!!!
How insenstive can someone be!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I am 39 now, and was a Sneyd pupil back in its ‘golden’ era, circa 1979-87…back then, standards were high, largely thanks to a strong Head in Miss J. Harvey, who instilled old-fashioned values and gained the total respect of everyone. I am so sad to hear that my ‘old school’, of which I have such fond memories has struggled over recent years and is now being threatened with the axe.
Surely, the way to deal with issues of under-performance is to look at the quality of the current teaching staff…and in particular the quality of the Head.
If radical change is needed, then so be it. Better that than resorting to drastic measures. And anyway, who ever said that a school with SMALLER pupil numbers was a BAD thing for education?
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The proposed closure of sneyd school will have a massive impact on the community it now serves.
Young people with children will move out of the area to be within walking distance of a school eventually leaving the local areas as ghost towns.
this will have the effect of people not being able to easily sell their homes and a rapid decline in the community will be evident.
While such a large community is in existence the sneyd school should be at its heart.
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im a pupil of sneyd school i thit his yd should stay open beit has been a good school and they have some very nice teachers who have teached me for the last couple of years and there has been some really nice lessons at this school and i dont want to move to another school away from my freinds please save our school its the best school in the world
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how can you shut probably the youngest school in the area. its not even 30 years old yet! i went there 79-84 and it was a brillant school. if i still lived in the area i would send my children there but i now live in wales. heard about this off my mum. very sad.
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ii think this is silly bouut closeing our skool. this skool is great and everyone doesn’t want this skool 2 close ppl have gt a great education here all the teacher am fab they really help us.
SOO DON’T CLOSE SNEYD SCHOOL
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save our school…
don’t close the school the children don’t want this as it is a well known school.hello my names james fell i am a liccle gay hu hoes to this school and i want it to stay open as i fancy some of the lads here they are so fitt…!!!!
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I am currently a student at Sneyd School, our previous head Mrs. Gregory did worked very hard on our school and since Dr. Sweeny has been pulled in Sneyd is only getting better and better. It’s not just a school it’s a community a place where many people visit, primary schools to use swimming facilities or the lake, after school clubs and bowling in the main hall. The school is a community, the problem now will not be the grades, the current Yr 11 will give the best results in ages, it will be the falling numbers which is due to the decrease in Walsall as a whole and also there is no problem with smaller groups if anything this would lead to better learning and easier teaching possibly even increasing the grades a lot higher and you well know grammar schools have a lot smaller groups than public schools and you have seen their results. I think that we should wait till Ofsted have been in and done their reports if the school fails then it is our fault, but I believe that it won’t there has been a great spirit going around our school and we all want to improve. I know that we will get a great ofstead report and the best results in a long time…. So councillors do not close the heart of the community down at least wait to see ofsteads report and the current Yr 11′s Gcse results before making any decisions…
SAVE SNEYD SCHOOL!
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Judging by the standard of English from posts 8, 10 and 11 it should have been closed years ago!
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save our school theres some really great teachers and plus ive done so great at that school and there are really nice teachers there and miss gregory was the best head ever and since mr sweeney took over its been even more greater and i dnt want my learning to be destroyed because of this please keep the school open i have also got younger cousins in this school and they dont want to leave sneyd and go to another school we have lots of fun things go on in our school like trips.funfairs please keep a school open.
kirsty
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i am a pupil of sneyd school and im happy that we have SAVED THE SCHOOL thank you to all who helped!!!
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I am parent at Kingfisher primary school in smiths wood birmingham and we are in consultation period.Solihull wants to close our school for a school in special measurers they have not got a head teacher . We started fighting to save our school the beinging of sepetember 2008. We are still fighting even though we are in consultation period we have labour Mp s backing us and we even went to london to meet with Jim Knight at the house of commons on the 29th october 2008. SO DON T GIVE UP THE FIGHT! WERE NOT.
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if you have any info to help us as we need to stop our school form closing. contact me at kingfisher primary school 01217704088
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i luv this skool yhuu cant take it away!!!!!!!!!!
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