ON FRIDAY, June 10 the debate on a freeschool in Bude began in earnest. Emotions ran high from parents, teachers and a local councillor when a freeschool provider outlined its proposal for a secondary school for 750 pupils at the Tripos building.

Free Schools are a recent Conservative initiative for all-ability, state-funded schools to be set up in response to what local people say they want and need in order to improve education for children in their community. The application for a freeschool in Bude has already been submitted to the Department For Education by the YNS (Yorkshire Nationwide Schools) and yet this meeting was the first attempt to hold a public consultation.

Local Councillor, Paula Dolphin, said: "In my opinion, YNS fails to demonstrate any knowledge of our loved Cornish community, fails to convince that they have public support, and fails to provide substantial differences to the new proposed school. Do we really want them to provide us with choice?"

Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of anger, concern and confusion about the freeschool option, as well the YNS as a provider. However, it was also obvious that there was clear interest in the idea of offering a choice of secondary education in the area.

For the full report, please see this week's edition of the 'Post'.