Grant Maintained Status For Small Village Schools

EDM number 301 in 1994-95, proposed by Hugh Bayley on 15/12/1994.

That this House believes that the Secretary of State for Education's decision to approve grant maintained status for Nun Monkton Primary School, North Yorkshire, which has only 19 pupils, contradicts the Department for Education's policy that rural education authorities should remove 'surplus places' by closing village schools; notes that Nun Monkton School applied to opt out only after North Yorkshire Education Authority was driven by the Department for Education's policy to propose closing the school and transferring the 19 pupils to another village school with 70 pupils three miles away; further notes that Nun Monkton School will, on opting out, take from the education authority's budget three times the average funding per pupil for primary children in North Yorkshire, thereby disadvantaging children in other education authority primary schools; and calls on the Secretary of State to meet a cross-party delegation of members of North Yorkshire Education Authority to clarify whether she still wants North Yorkshire to remove 'surplus places' by closing village schools or whether she will increase North Yorkshire's standing spending assessment for education to enable the county's village schools to remain open.

This motion has been signed by a total of 26 MPs.