Before Parliament, I was the Councillor for Swindon’s Northern Sector housing development for ten years. The one issue I dealt with more than anything else was the matter of school places.
As the Northern Sector grew and filled with young families, so too did the new primary schools built as part of the development fill. During my 10 years as a Councillor, we went from around 2,000 houses to 10,000. Demand for primary school places rocketed.
In the same period, the then Labour Government cut 207,000 primary school places and slashed funding for extra school places by £150 million. This was rightly condemned at the cross-party Public Accounts Committee investigation. These were the extra places that Swindon desperately needed and the extra places that we were being denied. Locally, Labour’s view was that there were places at other less popular schools should be filled, before new schools were built.
Parents were understandably angry that Labour were denying their children a place at their local school and I too was angry to see fellow Northern Sector residents denied choice in one of the most important decisions a parent will ever make. There will always be the occasional parent who is happy to drive across the town for school, but the majority of parents wanted a school their children could walk to, a community school and as their Councillor I did not think this unreasonable.
Thankfully, the local Conservative Council agreed and stepped in to give parents this local choice. The Council funded the expansion of every Northern Sector primary school, creating the local school places that parents wanted and giving children a community education.
However, where one problem is solved, another is created. The demographics are changing. All these expanded primary schools full of local children are now set for their pupils to enter the secondary schools system. Isambard is full and Nova and Warneford can’t absorb the rest. Besides, if our schools are all full, where is parental choice?
That is why I have been working with local parents on a bid to build a new community secondary school in the Northern Sector as part of the Government’s free school programme. Where Labour cut places, we are ploughing money into setting up new schools to give parents choice. We can show the school is needed, but we need to demonstrate that parents want it. If all goes to plan, it will be open in time to absorb the big population spike working through the system. It will be a victory for parental choice and for the principle that a good education for all should be just around the corner.
