There were a lot of words but they were in a language I could understand and seemed to address my issues. Thank you Richard for this. It is nice to someone has an understanding of what I am feeling. Maybe pass it on to some of your colleagues?

MiddleSchoolMum wrote:What I really want to know is if there is any chance of stopping this? Can the new councillors really do so and if so how? I thought from the election they could but now I am less sure.

MSM - No there isn't. This is what I said in my very first item in this group. The process is already underway, and the newly elected councillors can do nothing to stop it. This is why I said that they were elected under a false mandate. They misled the public just to get elected.

It is now up to all of us to be part of what many teachers are quite rightly quite excited about. My mother-in-law is a Primary School teacher and is excited by it. I am a Foundation Governor at King Edward VI and the head teacher, Geoff Barton, is very excited by it all. Julie Bidwell, who was one of the chief instigators of PAC, head teacher of Westley Middle Schhool, and very vociferous on the subject, is now part of the Schools Re-organisation team at SCC! She has moved on, and now we all have the opportunity to be part of the new system, to help design it, and to help mould it. The doubters have to move on from the "Save our Middle Schhols" mentality, and be part of the solution not part of the problem.

Angryman at it again. Calm down please.

I was initially against the Middle School reforms.

I was one of the people commisioned to research direct feelings from young people in the system as to their thoughts. I felt that frankly the amount of consultation was poor considering for the whole of west Suffolk i was only allowed to interview 20 people for recorded results, and i targeted those that had been excluded from schools and were more challenging as there was already research within schools. I of course spoke to alot more people than this but had no way of formally providing this information for collation. I mention that there were in school research - but this consisted of questionnaire people could fill out voluntarily - they were given no information on the context and it was only the 'usual suspects' who filled this out.

However, Paul's comments are right, there is nothing that can be done now except make sure that All our views are taken in to consideration for what actually happens to each one. This is another problem, people complain and moan but most don't go to a meeting or have their say!

I urge everyone to attend the meetings - tell your councillor your views too but you need to attend!!!

Thank you Emrys for revealing that yet another stage of the 'consultation' was a sham. It's disgusting that pupil's views were not properly taken into account. After all it is the pupils that will see the impact of the changes.

So now what? After the not so surprising news that the reorg has been 'postponed' due to all the money having been spent already......What now for those in year 1 and under? Where will they go? Does anyone know what is going on?

I had the opportunity in July of talking to the officials who have been overseeing the disruptive transition from a 3 tier to 2 tier system in the town. I do not have a problem with this if a) that no child's education is made worse by this change, b) the teachers were treated properly so they remained in schools, c) the funding is there to undertake the change. However it has been announced that there has been a freeze on spending for this process.

Middle Schools in Bury St Edmunds are very good schools with superb teaching and wonderful staff. It is vital that they are treated with the utmost respect and the views of parents who are pleased with the level of education in these schools are taken into account. An example of good practice is the progress that is being made in St Louis Middle School in working with their Dyslexic pupils as an example of outstanding progress.

Now that the council have announced the freeze on spending I strongly urge everyone to encourage common sense to prevail and preserve the wonderful Middle Schools in Bury St Edmunds, especially St Louis Middle School, St James Middle School and Westley Middle School all of whom are widely appreciated by the parents there due to the fantastic standards in teaching at those schools. If you need evidence of the 3 tier system working in Bury St Edmunds, look no further than the results made at St Benedicts School this year.
Dominic Holmes

I saw the link on Twitter about the forum being updated and thought I'd look to see if anyone had anything sensible to say on protecting our schools yet. But it doesn't look like it.

Does anyone know if this decision will be reversed if a new council is introduced by the Government? I imagine that if it is a new council they can overturn whatever decisions have been made already and from what I hear we won't get new schools in Bury St Edmunds until 2018 anyway.

Come on people this is our children's future we are talking about.

I am even more confused about what is happening to the school system now, as Stowmarket is given one date for the swap over whilst Bury has one almost 2 years later. Living halfway between the two I am concerned as to what that means. It sounds like the Middle School may close early but the amount of High schools taking pupils at 11 will be limited. ANYONE know anything definite yet?

That must be even worse. I'm so sorry Picklesmum. I know in Stowmarket and Newmarket it is definitely going ahead but Bury is more of a maybe. If your school is one of the rural ones I'm guessing Thurston or Beyton can't remember where you said, then I have no idea when this will happen. 2018 is eight years away which is a lot of uncertainty but if all the others are closing then the middle schools in Bury are most certainly doomed. Such a shame for local chidlren but politicians don't seem to want to listen