School report

CAMPAIGNERS calling for the Grove School, Balderton, to be rebuilt are sticking to their guns. They say a possible £1.6m from Nottinghamshire County Council that is to be spent on the school buildings is nothing like enough.

The fact that what, on the face of it, is a considerable sum of money is regarded as being well short of what is actually required is a clear indication of the level of decay at the school.

Elaine Winter, a prospective Grove parent, summed up the situation. “It is sticking a plaster on an open wound,” she said.

The campaigners should not be condemned as ungrateful.

They know that the only cure for all that is wrong with the Grove buildings is to knock them down and replace them with a school fit for 21st Century education.

The Partnerships for Schools visited in April to assess the condition of the Grove, Magnus and Orchard schools and suggest improvements.

The Education Secretary, Mr Michael Gove, is using the information from that visit to inform his response to the James Review, which proposes a new approach to capital spending on schools.

Hope lies in the report on the state of the schools, which is expected to be released at the end of next month.

Mr Gove has indicated that he will visit Newark later this year to present it personally to the town’s MP, Mr Patrick Mercer.

A year on from the scrapping of the Building Schools for the Future programme, campaigners are hoping the report will bring the promise of the necessary investment.