Thurston Consultation shows support for Two Tier and for Free School

The Thurston Consultation results have been published as part of the papers for the County Council's Cabinet meeting next week, you can download the full paper from the County Council website.

The consultation shows a majority in support of a move to two tier:

Yes 430= 53%
Maybe 133 = 17%
No 243= 30%

The support was most pronounced amongst primary school parents and less amongst current middle school parents which is perhaps not a surprise but it does show clear support amongst the people that will end up using the new system i.e. current primary school parents:

	Agree %	Disagree %	Not sure %
Badwell Ash CEVAP School	43%	43%	14%
Bardwell CEVCP School	57%	38%	5%
Barnham CEVCP School	47%	41%	13%
Barningham CEVCP School	50%	36%	14%
Cockfield CEVCP School	83%	6%	11%
Elmswell CP School	64%	29%	7%
Great Barton CEVCP School	60%	28%	13%
Honington CEVCP School	88%	8%	4%
Hopton CEVCP School	66%	24%	10%
Ixworth CEVCP School	46%	42%	12%
Norton CEVCP School	59%	30%	11%
Rattlesden CEVCP School	59%	32%	9%
Rougham CEVCP School	52%	36%	12%
Stanton CP School	61%	22%	17%
Thurston CEVCP School	34%	46%	19%
Walsham-le-Willows CEVCP School	94%	6%
Woolpit CP School	67%	23%	10%
Beyton Middle School	25%	67%	8%
Blackbourne CEVC Middle School	32%	49%	19%
Ixworth Middle School	24%	67%	9%
Thurston Community College	56%	32%	12%

NB. A respondent could be both a parent and a governor, or involved with more than one school. This means they could be counted more than once.

In terms of support for the Free School this worked out as 51% in favour and 49% against but support was very polarised:

Responses linked to	Yes	No
Beyton Middle Feeder Schools	41%	59%
Beyton Middle School	37%	63%
Blackbourne Middle Feeder Schools	56%	44%
Blackbourne Middle School	60%	40%
Ixworth Middle Feeder Schools	62%	38%
Ixworth Middle School	86%	14%

The strongest support was amongst current Ixworth Middle School parents, followed by their feeder primaries but notably less (but still a majority) of support at Blackbourne in Stanton.

Given the attempts of some to claim that the same issues applied at Thurston at St Louis Middle where the decision was overturned by the school's adjudicator I think that the County Council and Thurston partnership schools will take comfort from the last two questions on the consultation process:

Q5. Have the booklet, website and meetings given you enough information about these plans?

Yes 602 = 76%
No 187= 24%

Q6. Have you had enough time to let us know your views?

Yes 698 = 88% 

No 91= 12%

In addition the paper details that 1300 people attended consultation meetings which is a large number.


Suffolk County Council's cabinet will decide on 24th January if they will go ahead and publish the statutory notices to implement the Thurston plans and this now looks likely. It is possible that Blackbourne Middle (as the only voluntary school affected) could appeal the decision to the schools adjudicator but the other Middle Schools as County Schools do not have this power.

I expect the free school proposers will also be pleased with this outcome although they perhaps ought to note the less than stunning reception from the Beyton area.