COUNCILLORS who attended a presentation by pupils of Tasker- Milward and Sir Thomas Picton schools on Wednesday, April 29, were left in little doubt about the strength of feeling and depth of opposition to the local authority’s scheme to strip Haverfordwest schools of their sixth forms.

The presentation, would have made uncomfortable listening for some councillors as student after student made it clear just how important having a sixth form in school was for the school community.

Cory Jenkins, the Head Boy of Sir Thomas Picton School, and Millie Thomas, Deputy Head Girl of Tasker- Milward, coordinated the presentations made by members of the schools, who face losing their sixth forms if the Council presses on with its scheme to site a new single sixth form centre at Pembrokeshire College.

Or at least that is the plan the Council is consulting on.

It appeared from comments made by Cllr David Lloyd near the meeting’s close that the Council has largely abandoned the sole proposal upon which it is now consulting.

Pupils’ impassioned plea

In a moving address to councillors, Cory Jenkins related how the personal knowledge of a teacher who had known him for years, allowed him to look again at his future and reconsider his original decision to attend an NVQ3 course in Drama and Theatre at Pembrokeshire College. He disclosed how polls of students at both Sir Thomas Picton and Tasker- Milward overwhelmingly supported the retention of sixth form education in Haverfordwest’s secondary schools.

Electing to remain in Sir Thomas Picton and study for A Levels, Cory has been offered a place at the London School of Economics. Cory was clear that, as were other speakers, the direct involvement of inspirational teachers with direct knowledge of students gained over a number of years, was something the Council’s plans put in jeopardy.

Luzelle Davies spoke movingly of the importance of the sixth form in delivering assistance and support to younger students. Without sixth form presence in the school, Luzelle stated that the level of pastoral guidance given by post-16 students in school could not be replaced easily, if at all. Highlighting the reading support project within Tasker-Milward School and its importance in developing confidence in younger students and empathetic skills in older ones, Luzelle said that there was no way in which the scheme could be as successful or as rewarding for participants without sixth form input.

Responding to a question as to whether students in Year 11 could provide the support currently given by those in Years 12 and 13, Millie Thomas gave a clear and decisive ‘no’. Explaining how the pressure of working towards GCSE’s at the end of Year 11 meant that such a proposal would be impractical, Millie pointed out that periods in which Year 12 and 13 students were not in class or working in school provided them alone with the capacity and time to engage with younger students and build the school as a living community.

Not only about academics

The Council’s plan for repatriating students to their original schools to participate in sports once they were ensconced in Pembrokeshire College as students was given short shrift by student Tom Harvey. Describing the plans as ‘not very well thought out’, Tom pointed out that it was impractical to simply uproot students and transplant them back without continuity of sports coaching. Tom warned that the most likely result of the scheme was to reduce participation by young people in sport. One councillor in attendance was heard to mutter that the authority’s proposals on sport smacked of ‘back of a fag packet calculation’.

The suggestion that the Council had adequately consulted before it made its proposal was vigorously disputed by Millie Thomas. Pointing out that students learned of the proposals to strip schools of their sixth forms by reading about it in The Herald and other local press, she related how the original proposals were for 11-19 education to remain in schools and the proposal to relocate post-16 education to Pembrokeshire College came out of the blue.

Cory Jenkins took up the baton and demonstrated the Council’s careless use of statistics to back up its claims regarding the success of post-16 school-based education. Pointing out that claims made of superior performance at post-16 by Pembrokeshire College ignored the size difference between schools and the College. 165 students heading off to university from the College in 2014, represented only 1% of its post-16 cohort, whereas 26% of A Level students headed to Russell Group universities alone from the sixth form in Haverfordwest’s schools.

Cllr David Lloyd made an interesting contribution both to the event and to the wider debate about the future of post-16 education.

While he said that councillors would listen to the views expressed by the students, and praised them for their eloquence, he averred that councillors had to look at ‘the broad picture’. In terms, he appeared to tell students that listening to them would not entail acting to allay their concerns in a concrete way.

And then Cllr Lloyd made a revelation.

The plans subject to the consultation, and upon which the Council is spending tens of thousands of pounds of public money and resources, do not seem to be the plans that the Council is promoting in Fishguard and Saint Davids. Instead, taking Cllr Lloyd at his word the Council appears is both promoting and pursuing a multi-site semi-federated strategy allowing some sixth form retention at Ysgol Bro Gwaun and Ysgol Dewi Sant.

The Herald has been able to confirm that is the plan being touted to mollify parents in Fishguard and Saint Davids.

If Cllr Lloyd is correct and that is the Council’s plan, it is not clear what residual legitimacy still attaches to the current consultation.