TASC was started in reaction to the commencement of a Governor public consultation about the relocation of our village school to Thorne Farm in Ottery St Mary. TASC’s aim is to surface and share information, collate views and questions and hold decision makers to account to ensure the best possible solution is found for Tipton St John School. We want to ensure that any decision is made on solid information and risk assessments and is a positive final resolution for the community whom this school has served for 180 years.
We currently have an active WhatsApp group where we discuss different topics and concerns each day and are surfacing lots of new information. We are also having regular meetings. We are open to everyone so please come and get involved. We would especially appreciate support from anyone with a legal background or professional knowledge about flooding.
How can you get involved?
- Join our WhatsApp group.
- Keep an eye out on village notice boards for dates of upcoming TASC meetings
- Join the ‘KEEP Tipton St John school IN Tipton St John’ group on Facebook.
- Sign the petition at https://www.change.org/p/keep-tipton-st-john-school-in-tipton-st-john.
- Write to our MP, councilors, DCC etc. with your views.
- Respond to the schools consultation by emailing your views to admin@tipton-stjohn.devon.sch.uk marked ‘Consultation on relocation’ or by post to; Board of Governors, Consultation on relocation, Tipton St John Church of England Primary School, Tipton St John, Sidmouth, EX10 0AG by the 19th June.
Dear Neighbours (A personal letter from a parent’s perspective)
I jokingly refer to my three bouncy young boys as your friendly walking alarm clock, as we walk through the village every morning to school (apologies if we do wake you up).
When we moved here we were delighted to move the children into this lovely village school, with such a personal touch and community feel. Everyone knows everyone and our children are well provided for despite the state of the buildings and lack of internal space. But as Simon Jupp has said many times, ‘our children and teachers deserve more’, so does our village. The school has served our community and surrounding villages for 180 years and for decades it has needed investment. Now it finally has been awarded funding for a rebuild but we are informed the ‘only deliverable solution’ is to move it out of our village. For the safety of our children, it is proposed that it will move:
- over 2 miles out of the village, down country roads that flood regularly,
- to a high traffic area of Ottery St Mary,
- to be sited on the main Exeter Road, where traffic speed will need to be reduced,
- 1 mile away from Straitgate Quarry, near enough for children to be at risk of breathing in particulate matter.
For my youngest son a school move could mean being put on a school bus each day, no longer walking with parents and friends or stopping to greet neighbours and their dogs and no more treats from Alita’s shop on the way home. He won’t be able to walk himself home or go down to the playing fields with friends after school, which instills in them a real sense of ownership for this wonderful community asset. He may have to use his inhaler more at school and he will lose education time being regularly bussed back to the village for church. If major flooding occurs like it did last May, we would be cut off from him. Instead of getting him home at 5.30 after seeing the community valiantly pull together, I wouldn’t have been able to get to Ottery to pick him up from school until 7pm. Or, worse still, he may have been abandoned by a school bus as King’s School children were. I do not believe my children will feel the same sense of community when they attend Tipton St John School, Exeter Road, Ottery St Mary. I also feel Tipton St John is rare, as a thriving village with a school, shop, pub, garage and lively community, we can’t let it become a sleepy forgotten place.
I know people have been fighting to keep the school in the village for many years but this time it’s crunch time, so please stand up and voice your opinions. It may be our last opportunity. The Head of the school reminded me, ‘we are only custodians for a short time’. Moving the school out of the village may end up being the only option, but we should be absolutely sure that it is. Please take every opportunity to attend meetings, send letters and voice opinions so that as a community, and as custodians, we hold the decision makers to account to ensure the best outcome for current kids of the school and future generations of our village.
Many thanks
Nikki Peckham
Recent Comments