Devon County Councillor and Cabinet Member for Schools an Skills, Christine Channon, visited Ashwater and Bradworthy Primary Schools and Holsworthy Community College on Monday (April 19).

Christine, who is chair of Devon Education (Schools) Forum and chair of Teachers Joint Consultative, is in the process of visiting the 363 schools in Devon, if possible with the local member, and Monday was part of this programme.

Following the recent publicised campaign regarding the lack of funding per pupil in schools across the 'Post' area and the increasing costs of broadband services, Christine's visit to the schools was an insight to the developments happening in the area.

She explained how her day visiting the schools went: "At Bradworthy Primary School I met the headteacher and three of the governors. This extremely popular school needs a new school hall and an extra classroom.

"I have promised to ask a member of the Capital Strategy team at Devon County Council to visit the school to see how this might be designed in the space available and what funding might be found to provide such facilities."

Christine continued as she visited another rural school: "Ashwater Primary School is also very popular and numbers are growing. They have recently acquired some excellent and most attractive timber units for outdoor play for their Early Years.

"I enjoyed playing with the children and felt quite envious. The chairman of governors told me that the school was very concerned about the cost of broadband. I explained that extra money had been found to deal with problem this coming year and we were working towards a solution for the future.

"We are still fighting for extra funding for all our Devon schools and await new government proposals. Hopefully someone will have listened to us!"

Christine added: "At Holsworthy Community College I met with David Fitzsimmons, admired the new technology block, discussed future maintenance programmes for the college and how we might manage post-16 education given the dramatic changes which came in on April 1."

When asked how her day went overall, Christine replied: "All told I had a most interesting day, I clocked up about 150 miles and the sun shone."