The Hungry Crocodile

Courier Countryside column for 6 December

The Hungry Crocodile

            Passing through our village during term-time you can’t help but notice the lines of primary school pupils marching around the green and across the main road.  At first it appears a charming reminder of a local education tradition stretching back centuries.

            But in fact it disguises fundamental problems with the village school.  It’s desperately overcrowded and in urgent need of renewal. The main building, possibly adequate when built 400 years ago, is today bursting at the seams.  The school office is housed in a corridor. Year One is accommodated in a roof space – freezing in winter, baking in summer, and so low in parts that adults cannot stand upright. 

The reception class is in another building altogether, several hundred metres away.  But that’s shared with the school dining facilities. So the picturesque crocodile lines of children are in fact walking, come rain or shine, to have lunch; at the desks of the reception class; which is evicted outside for the duration; come rain or shine. Currently there are two sittings but that will increase to three next year when all infants get free school meals. So lunch will start at 11.30 and finish sometime after 1.45.  At which point the reception class will be allowed back to resume studies.

            Science lessons are conducted in the cricket pavilion; PE and drama in the village hall; assembly in the Church.  Sure, they’re all reasonably close, but overall about one fifth of total learning time is spent walking between locations. 

Around the turn of the century Ofsted condemned the accommodation as totally inadequate and KCC put plans in hand for a brand new building. Earlier this year – after, it’s true, much disagreement over location – planning permission was granted for a superb new school.

But last week our county councillor informed us there would be no money to build it. The £31 million available for education projects had been allocated to other schools with “more urgent needs”.  We were flabbergasted, upset and, frankly, pretty angry. 

Now, to add insult to injury, they’re actually proposing to reduce the current budget! No longer will schools receive funds for accommodation beyond the main premises. If your building is so old and decrepit it can’t house your children – too bad.

And this is a Conservative Education Authority under a Conservative led government. I hate to think how those of a different political hue are faring in the current climate.