School begins opt-out move

by Graham Tutthill

    GOVERNORS at the Dover Boys' Grammar School have taken their first step towards opting out from the county council's control.
    With less than two weeks to go before the start of a second round of public consultation meetings to consider the county's plans for the future of the two grammar schools, the boys' governors met on Tuesday and passed the first resolution to become a grant maintained school.
    Pressure is also being put on the governors at the Girls' Grammar School to consider a similar move after Dover and Deal MP David Shaw said he believed the applications stood more chance of being approved if they went forward together.
    Mr Shaw was at the boys' school on Friday where he met head teacher Neil Slater and representatives of the governing body.
    Two days earlier the governors had been given details of the implications of going grant maintained by the school's former deputy head John Harrs, who is now head of Simon Langton Boys' School at Canterbury.
    On Thursday, Mr Slater went to the Grant Maintained Schools Centre in London to discuss the situation, and as a result of all those discussions, the governors met on Tuesday and voted to begin the application procedure for grant maintained status.
    "We were very encouraged by what Mr Harris and Mr Shaw had to say to us," said Mr Slater. "It is the time to become masters of our own destiny and not wait for the county council to dictate what should happen to us."
    Acting chairman of governors Suzanne Dawson said that while the governors were prepared to look at the county council's plans for merging the schools on another site, it now seemed clear that both schools had a viable future remaining separate on their own sites.
    She denied that the opting out proposal was being put forward to thwart the county's plans.
    "We have been considering grant maintained status for some time, but we had been waiting for the greenfield site proposal to be determined by the Education Secretary," she said.
    "Now that the county council has withdrawn that plan, we do not see any point in waiting any longer. Many of the governors feel going grant maintained is the way forward, and we should pursue it as quickly as possible. "We hope. the girls' school governors will do the same, and work with us. This is not a plan to merge the schools, but to continue our joint cooperation and exist independently, side by side."