It was really useful to meet with Headteacher Jo Phillips and some of the school’s Board of Governors to discuss the challenges faced by the school.
Owing to its proximity to RAF Wyton there is a much higher than average number of children from military families with a significant amount of service families accommodation locally. This adds its own complexity as due to service personnel being posted and the number of service houses that are no longer habitable the number of children has dropped well below the size the school could accommodate.
I will raise the issue of service accommodation with the Minister responsible separately.
It is also notable that the pupil premium for children from service families is far lower than for other factors. We should be ensuring that the children of families with parents in the military should not be disadvantaged by the needs of the service.
We also discussed issues such as part of the wider school estate being sold by the Department for Education when it could be used to raise money directly for the school, as well as the challenges of delays to EHCPs which continue to cause issues for all schools in Cambridgeshire.
My thanks to Jo for talking to me about the school and I thank her for her dedication to the school as she retires from the profession at the end of this academic year.
