Grove School - reply to Michael Waine

3.09.02pm GMT Thu 19th Jul 2007

Replying to the letter from Cllr Michael Waine, the Conservative Cabinet member for Schools Improvement, Cllr Zoé Patrick said:

"I was rather surprised by the tone of Michael Waine's acrimonious letter (Herald, July 12) concerning the provision of a new school for Grove.

"He knows full well from my submissions that the original Grove proposal would have been virtually unique amongst the 8 out of 34 schools in Oxfordshire currently without a sixth form. For example, four of these schools cluster around the only tertiary college in the county (Henley College) and two other schools are either acquiring or aspire to a sixth form.

"His comments on vocational education are equally out of order. I have made the case many times about the need for excellence in meeting the new 14-19 academic and vocational agendas. With the post-16 participation rate expected to rise to 90% by 2015, this all needs to be planned in right from the start, not as some afterthought.

"Whilst it is flattering that he and other Conservative councillors seem to hang on to my every word, I do wish they would get it right. My views are in written documents available to the public. I am pleased to see that through his letter, Mr. Waine has finally made a written commitment to an 11-19 school of 1,250 pupils for Grove.

"If Mr. Waine thinks it snobbery to insist on the best for a community, then I think it says far more about him than it does about me."