MP meets Minister over school's future

12.00.00am GMT Wed 6th Feb 2008

Colchester MP Bob Russell has met Armed Forces Minister Mr Derek Twigg to discuss the future of Alderman Blaxill School - where between a fifth and a quarter of pupils are children of Service personnel from the Colchester Garrison.

The meeting took place at the Ministry of Defence and follows an exchange between the Minister and Mr Russell during Defence Questions last month when the Town's MP pointed out the consequences to military families if the School is shut as proposed by Essex County Council.

Mr Russell said today: "I am grateful to the Minister for meeting me. I strongly made the point that Alderman Blaxill School has for years catered for children from the Colchester Garrison and had developed a first class pastoral care ethos for the special situation which often is required, for example when parents are deployed on missions overseas.

"At Alderman Blaxill, the town's smallest secondary school, the children from the Garrison are a major and important component of the School and its ethos. If they were to be submerged into a 1,500 place Academy at Monkwick - merged with Thomas Lord Audley School, as proposed by the County Council - then numerically they would be lost in such a large institution."

The meeting with the Defence Minister is the latest attempt by Mr Russell to urge the Government to oppose the closure of Alderman Blaxill School.

A recent consultation carried out by Essex County Council revealed that 80 per cent of respondents opposed the proposed Academy at the TLA site at Monkwick.