In Wednesday's Gazette: Colchester secondary school is saved

8:39am Wednesday 1st August 2012 in News

ALDERMAN Blaxill secondary school has been saved.

The Stanway School and Philip Morant are bidding to open a campus on the site in Paxman Avenue, Colchester, which was due to close in 2014.

Essex County Council's U-turn means families in south Colchester will still have a school in their community.

Also in Wednesday's Gazette:

  • Mourners paid tribute to heroic policeman PC Ian Dibell, who was gunned down in Clacton.
  • Average speed cameras are planned for either side of Colchester on the A12, it has been revealed.
  • A little girl who has been left severely disabled as a result of brain damage suffered at birth is in line for a multi-million pound compensation payout.

All this and much more in your Gazette - only 43p. Remember, there's always much more in the newspaper than online.

Comments(9)

Feisty CBC says...
8:59am Wed 1 Aug 12

Boris will be pleased about Alderman Blaxill. He's been banging on about it for years on this site and quite rightly so. How it could ever have been considered for closure in the first place is beyond me. In one of the fastest growing towns in the UK what is needed is more secondary school places.

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COLIN MUDIE says...
3:40pm Wed 1 Aug 12

It's refreshing to hear that Boris & Co got a result through banging on about it. I must admit I did bang on about the proposed closure of the TLA and was delighted to see the skid marks the ECC railroading tank made when it went in reverse!. If it wasn't for the likes of activists such as Boris & Co. and not forgetting the excellent work of head teacher Tippett the Alderman Blaxill would no doubt be closed by now. I do so wish that the ECC bereaurocrats would stick to just playing monopoly and scalextric and not try and put into pratice their theoretical (shot in the dark) ideas. Mind you these proposals were put forward by a Lord somebody or other!!
I do believe that there has been some improvement within the ECC. Unfortunately the Highways seemed to have selected reverse and still wear the same old ear defenders.What was the subject??

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RetiredVal says...
3:55pm Wed 1 Aug 12

At last common sense rules , on this anyway. Well done everyone involved in saving it.

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Longinus says...
8:07pm Wed 1 Aug 12

I hope this is true. As I've said before my daughter attends this school and absolutely loves it. She's exceeding her KS3 targets thanks to the positive and supportive atmosphere. She hated the thought of having to go somewhere else. Fingers crossed the present pupils can stay put and not have their precious education disrupted by the stress of moving to a new school.

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Boris says...
1:34am Thu 2 Aug 12

Yes it seems to be great news. I'm not sure where Philip Morant fits in, I missed Wednesday's Gazette, but no doubt it will be in the Standard in Friday.
Thanks to Feisty and others for the kind remarks, but the real credit goes to Jonathan Tippett, and to the many parents and pupils who fought so hard to defend their school, as indeed did those at TLA.
Let's wish success to Longinus's daughter and all the pupils at Alderman Blaxill, for many years to come.

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Longinus says...
11:31am Thu 2 Aug 12

Boris wrote:
Yes it seems to be great news. I'm not sure where Philip Morant fits in, I missed Wednesday's Gazette, but no doubt it will be in the Standard in Friday.
Thanks to Feisty and others for the kind remarks, but the real credit goes to Jonathan Tippett, and to the many parents and pupils who fought so hard to defend their school, as indeed did those at TLA.
Let's wish success to Longinus's daughter and all the pupils at Alderman Blaxill, for many years to come.
Thanks Boris. It's a great little school. I'm not sure where PMS comes in either which is why I'm cautious as to whether the present pupils can stay but it always seemed daft to me especially when so many children are coming up through the system and will need a secondary school here. PMS cannot go on expanding on its present site the way it has.

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Boris says...
1:48am Sat 4 Aug 12

Longinus wrote:
Boris wrote:
Yes it seems to be great news. I'm not sure where Philip Morant fits in, I missed Wednesday's Gazette, but no doubt it will be in the Standard in Friday.
Thanks to Feisty and others for the kind remarks, but the real credit goes to Jonathan Tippett, and to the many parents and pupils who fought so hard to defend their school, as indeed did those at TLA.
Let's wish success to Longinus's daughter and all the pupils at Alderman Blaxill, for many years to come.
Thanks Boris. It's a great little school. I'm not sure where PMS comes in either which is why I'm cautious as to whether the present pupils can stay but it always seemed daft to me especially when so many children are coming up through the system and will need a secondary school here. PMS cannot go on expanding on its present site the way it has.
PMS is already too big to be properly manageable, and there is no case for making it even bigger. I hope common sense will prevail.

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Longinus says...
7:11am Sun 5 Aug 12

Having now read the full article in the Standard I'm dismayed to see that that the present pupils are not mentioned at all. I guess we'll have to see what Jonathan Tippett has to say when the pupils return after the holidays. I'm hoping that they will bite the bullet and let the current crop stay in the school whilst the changes happen (with minimum disruption) rather than making them leave to go to other schools. But it read as if they were going to close it down, refurb and then re-open with a new name.

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Tallnick73 says...
11:29pm Wed 15 Aug 12

Yes, well done for saving Essex County's lowest performing school. Let's preserve the status quo and not move on at all. Hurrah for no change! Isn't it great that out of the seven non-selective schools in Colchester only one of them (hats off to Tippett) manages to make satisfactory progress measures for its pupils. We really do have something to celebrate! Great - the site is open and it's all very convenient - now, how are we going to address standards and better outcomes for the young people in that school. I can see that there are some students who really enjoy their time in the school; is that really the outcome of a great education?

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