Visit to South Dartmoor Community College
Although Ashburton will not be part of the Totnes Constituency at the next election, many pupils from this area and the Moor attend South Dartmoor Community College. It was a privilege to catch up with Ray Tarleton, headmaster, to discuss issues facing secondary education in South Devon.
Funding is always an issue, and Devon is 4th lowest in the national league table for funding. To put this in context, if South Dartmoor pupils were funded at the same level as children in Bristol, the school would receive an extra £1 million in funding per year. Whilst no one would dispute that inner cities need extra funding, there should also be recognition of rural deprivation and the huge drain on budgets caused by school transport in Devon.
CRB checks, currently costing £67 per head for all 250 staff employed by the College are another new drain on resources. Schools accept the need for checks, but it seems that they can at times be unduly cumbersome, and they increasingly interfere with even simple routines like showing prospective parents around school grounds.
The College benefits from Trust School Status as well as Specialist Status and has valuable partnerships with local businesses as well as Exeter University. Above all it is clear that this is a college with strong leadership and an ethos of transparency, praise and support.
The message from the teaching profession is the same as that from medicine; trust professionals to be professional and to make the right decisions, and give them freedom within their budgets to act in the best interests of their pupils.
