Petra e-mails

Petra

I think you are contacting the wrong person. For your information, for all enquiries or comments regarding the possible new school for St Mabyn & St Tudy you need to contact Helen Martin at Cornwall Council.

regards

Mike Geary

Architectural Technician

Diocese of Truro Enterprises Ltd

Diocesan House, Kenwyn, Truro, TR1 1JQ

Tel; 01872 247215 email; mike.geary@truro.anglican.org

Diocese of Truro Enterprises Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 5602794. Registered Office: Diocesan House, Kenwyn, Truro, TR1 1JQ VAT Registration No: 876 0120 35

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Subject: RE: enquiry from Diocese of Truro Website
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:36:27 +0000
From: hmartin@cornwall.gov.uk
To: petraburden@hotmail.co.uk
CC: Sue.Green@truro.anglican.org; wmason@cornwall.gov.uk; michael.peters@cornwall.gov.uk

Dear Mrs Bellinger-Burden,

In response to your query submitted via the Diocese of Truro website, please find below a brief summary for St Tudy school in relation to building condition and sufficiency.

St Tudy CE VA Primary School was built in 1864, and according to the Condition Survey undertaken in January 2009 the school has a condition backlog of Ł92,320, ranking it 8^th (1^st being the highest) out of Cornwall’s 237 primary schools when calculated by condition backlog per square/metre - Ł294. As with many Victorian schools, the building is considerably deficient when compared to today’s DCSF Building Bulletin 99 (BB99) – a document which suggests minimum areas for all types of space in primary schools. Essentially, the school has no Hall, Library, SEN Room or Staff Room, whilst each of the three classrooms and the ICT Suite are all deemed to be undersized. Although office accommodation is deemed sufficient in terms of size, the Headteacher and Secretary share an office, which is viewed by the DCSF as far from ideal.

With regard to the Targeted Capital Fund grant, I am informed that although this was originally allocated to St Tudy the Department of Children, Schools and Families have confirmed to the Diocese that it could in principle be spent on an amalgamated school.

With regard to your more recent enquiry regarding council policy for building small schools, Cornwall’s Primary Strategy for Change states that “the Primary Capital Programme may include the rebuilding of some small schools to create better facilities for pupils and the local community, but with an emphasis on reducing, rather than creating, surplus places”. The emphasis, therefore, is not on the size of school but on not creating surplus places. Pupil numbers at St Tudy are predicted to fall to below sixty. A three class school would provide places for around ninety pupils and would therefore introduce further surplus places into the system, which would go against council policy. However, VA schools like St Tudy may sometimes be built by the Diocese without council investment, and therefore would not be bound by council policy (hence the original plans for a three class school for St Tudy).

I hope the above answers your queries. If you have any further queries or points of clarification, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Helen

Helen Martin

School Organisation and Policy Development Officer

Children, Schools and Families

Cornwall Council

Tel: 01872 323924

hmartin@cornwall.gov.uk

Room 433, New County Hall, Truro TR1 3AY

www.cornwall.gov.uk

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