Questions must be answered on future plans for St Albans school

Who knows, if we all repeat that line enough times we might actually believe it is true.

That is clearly what education chiefs at Hertfordshire County Council want us in the media to tell our readers, but where is the substance to the claim?

Closing the school, and I use the word closing loosely, may well be the correct choice, but someone needs to tell us why.

As a parent I have my doubts.

The danger of "all through schools" has long been that parents feel trapped and appear to have no option but to send their children from the primary to the secondary school.

What if the new primary school excels and the secondary school, which has a history of under-performing, does not? Will parents have any choice other than to send their bright young things to a school that could limit their education?

We all know that secondary places are at a premium in the city, will this all through school have a negative impact on the number of places available? What if it does perform beyond expectations and becomes a popular choice. Will there will be any room to expand with a primary school now also on the campus?

Do not forget, after being told that money was available for a new secondary school site in St Albans, Richard Thake, the county’s executive member for education and skills, warned that a much-needed addition was far from certain.

In Rickmansworth, where a secondary school is as badly needed, similar statements were made as parents imagined what the new school would look like or even be called, but were then cruelly dashed in similar fashion.

So is a new secondary school still a priority in St Albans? If so how will turning Francis Bacon into an all through school help?

True its previous poor performance struggled to attract the desired number of pupils but according to Ofsted it has improved rapidly since being placed on special measures. Surely a continuation of that will attract parents again.

But we will have to wait for the answers that really matter while County Hall continues its hypnotic chorus of praise for this idea.

Richard Thake said: “I'm hoping it will affect their (children's) education positively.”

Why?

Proving that the Tory-Liberal Democrat alliance exists locally, Chris White, Lib Dem county councillor for St Albans, added: “I think it's something to be welcomed.”

Why?

Headteacher Jacqueline Verrell made the proposal to the Local Education Authority (LEA) so obviously she believes this is the right choice too.

It may well be, but if the council is so sure, why were parents not consulted?

It appears they did not know.

Why not?

What will happen to the current staff, what will happen to the current pupils?

If the LEA wants the backing of this newspaper, it needs to answer a lot of questions first.

As mentioned above, it seems parents did not know about the plans for Francis Bacon. Apparently letters were sent in school bags which some felt was not a good method of communication given the circumstances.

Three parents I have spoken to feel let down.

They are not the only ones.

Our newspaper’s deadline is Tuesday afternoon. The county council made this announcement last Tuesday. However, as our regular readers will be aware, the article did not appear in last week’s edition.

For some reason we were not told. The press release was sent to an email address that does not exist and to a reporter who left three years ago.

Bizarrely, other than that press release, others were sent to the correct accounts on June 15th.

Maybe the press officer got it wrong, maybe not.

Whatever the reason, it is not me, our reporters or the newspaper that were let down, it was our readers – taxpaying citizens of St Albans.

These very readers could be greatly affected by this decision and not informing them at the earliest available opportunity is unforgivable.