Lunchtime travel plans spark fears for students
SIXTH-FORM students in Bridgend could be driven between different sites during their lunch break under plans to shake up post-16 education in the area.
The proposal is part of plans to cut the number of sixth forms in the county borough to allow for larger class sizes and a greater selection of subjects.
However, councillors raised concerns about the mental health and well-being of students if their lunch breaks were taken away.
Bridgend council is consulting on a range of options for sixth forms and FE colleges. Its preferred options involve a mix of school sixth forms with some mergers to create either new local authority maintained sixth-form centre(s) or new further education college governed sixth-form centre(s).
It is expected that there will also be more online learning alongside traditional classroom teaching.
At a recent council meeting on the plans, officers said students would need to be transported between sites if sixth forms were merged.
John Fabes, specialist officer for post16 education, said: “We will try to keep journey times to 20 minutes. The idea is that you would move youngsters at lunchtime so it doesn’t disrupt the actual teaching blocks within the day.”
But councillors raised concerns about taking away students’ lunchbreaks.
Councillor Nicole Burnett said: “Students’ lunch breaks should be sacrosanct – there’s already enough pressure on pupils that eats into their social time in school which is hugely important for that age group.
“We need to be very careful that that’s taken very seriously – the well-being and mental health of our children of that age needs to be a priority.”
Cllr Carolyn Webster added: “I’m concerned that permission is almost being given to young girls to skip a meal by telling them they should be en route somewhere else rather than sitting down eating.”
The plans to change the provision of post-16 education in the county have been in the pipeline for some time.
A public consultation is due to take place on the proposals once they have gone before the council’s cabinet.
At the scrutiny committee meeting on Tuesday, October 16, councillors warned of students becoming “disengaged” if their own communities lost sixth forms.
Cllr Keith Edwards questioned whether the upcoming public consultation was transparent enough.
He said: “The preferred concepts are rather grey areas and the consultation document doesn’t identify where sixth form education will be maintained and lost. The schools that lose their sixth forms will see parents up in arms.
“Will we be challenged because the process isn’t transparent enough, because we are not saying which schools could be lost and which not – is the process flawed?”
Mr Fabes said the public consultation was to “test the water” to see what people thought about the concepts.
Currently in the county there are sixth forms in each secondary school.
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