CONTROVERSIAL proposals to lower West Somerset Community College's admission age from 13 to 11 have been defended by Exmoor Federation headteacher Jerry Weedon.

Mr Weedon, in charge of Dulverton Middle, All Saints First and Exford First, spoke out this week after the Exmoor Coast Federation criticised the move amidst fears it could threaten the future of the district's three-tier system of education.

The Exmoor Coast Federation - Minehead Middle and Dunster, Minehead, Cutcombe, Timberscombe, St Dubricius and St Michael's first schools - believes the change would lead to the college competing with the middle schools for lower age pupils and in the longer term could result in the closure of a number of smaller first schools.

But the college insists the proposal is purely an attempt to address the impact of Government funding cuts affecting years seven and eight pupils at Dulverton Middle, who if the move gets the go-ahead could transfer to the college from September 2015.

Now Mr Weedon has entered the furore and revealed the true extent of the funding crisis, which Somerset County Council, the local education authority, has described as unprecedented.

"This has nothing to do with the college seeking to compete with other schools for pupils, as has been suggested, but is solely as a result of what is happening at Dulverton Middle," he said.

Mr Weedon said that from April the school's budget allocation from central government had been drastically reduced following the Department of Education's introduction of a new school funding criteria for the allocation of school budgets.

"This new criteria fails to make allowance for the fact that the cost of education in an area such as ours is affected by the same premium which leads to everything else, from potatoes to petrol, costing more."

Mr Weedon said while Dulverton Middle was the smallest school deemed 'secondary' in the country, its catchment area of 112 square miles was one of the largest.

"We have appealed against the reduction and with the support of the local education authority have taken our case to Schools Minister David Laws.

"But even a Somerset MP, it seems, fails to recognise that we are a unique case worthy of special treatment."

Mr Weedon said the result of the budget cuts was that Dulverton had lost more than £100,000.

Two staff had been made redundant but the school had still had to set a large deficit budget in circumstances which Mr Weedon said the supportive finance team at the county council had assured him was unprecedented.

"Unfortunately for the foreseeable future that deficit just increases - there is no way it can be clawed back."

Mr Weedon said consequently the school had started an urgent process of exploration and by October the options for the future should be clearer, allowing it to proceed to formal consultation.

"We haven't got those options yet so we don't know the answer to our dilemma.

"All we know is that the present system cannot continue."

However, Mr Weedon said one of the options would be to move 11 to 13-year-olds at the school to a two-tier system, hence the college's proposal to lower its age of entry so that it could take the Dulverton pupils.

He said he accepted that the journey times involved would not make the proposal ideal, but it was probably the least unacceptable.

Choices were limited, with Kingsmead School at Wiveliscombe full and the only other alternative, Tiverton High School also over subscribed and in Devon.

"Our overriding concern in all this is that the high academic standards and the unique curriculum that typify education at Dulverton Middle can survive.

"That is unlikely to be the case if the present three-tier structure remains in view of the funding reduction - when you reduce the resources by that amount it has to have an impact on educational standards.

"Neither the staff nor I would ever want to see that.

"We are proud of our school's achievements and we want to continue to uphold that record.

"But it cannot and will not happen as things stand - the status quo is not an option."

Mr Weedon said he was grateful to the college for the support it was already giving - closer links between the college and the Exmoor Federation were forged earlier this year with a pioneering partnership focused on sharing skills and resources.

Under the new arrangement, the college will provide specialist staff at no cost to Dulverton to allow the continued delivery of the best education possible, in particular the much acclaimed Exmoor Curriculum.

"We would wish this to remain a feature of local secondary education and we believe it can be provided through a discrete unit within the college," said Mr Weedon.

"The immediate issue is finding a model that will allow that to happen."

Mr Weedon said he realised that the current situation was likely to give rise to a great deal of uncertainty among local families.

But all he could do was assure them that the school, the college and the local education authority were working extremely hard to identify a solution to what was an untenable situation.

"It is a situation that has as its joint priorities the interests of the children and the desire to provide them with education of the highest possible standard," said Mr Weedon.

Executive headteacher of the Quantock Federation Ian Bradbury told the Free Press that behind the need to continue to provide an effective and high quality education for all children on Exmoor there remained the inescapable fact that funding to middle schools had been cut.

"We cannot just continue to do the same as we have always done," he said.

Mr Bradbury, who is charge of Danesfield Middle and St Peter's and Old Cleeve first schools, said the college consultation was designed to find the best way forward for all children in West Somerset.

"We believe it is premature to attack the process before it has even begun and we look forward to listening and talking with all providers of education in our area in order to fully support the children on the moor."

Mr Bradbury said all schools across West Somerset had been involved and been made fully aware of the difficulties that the Exmoor Federation faced and the possible solutions.

*Williton Parish Council voiced its concern over the implications of the college's proposal at its meeting on Monday.

Councillors said they believed there should be more debate on the issue.

"In theory, it doesn't affect Williton," said Cllr Rosemary Woods.

"But if parents here choose to send their children to the college early, they will be able to do so as long as they can afford the cost of transport," she said.

"The choice will only be there for the people who can afford it."

And Cllr Jenny Koch said any change in the structure of system of education needed to be across the whole district.

"Some children will be disadvantaged, apart for those who can afford it - that doesn't sound fair."

Cllr Rebecca James said more information was needed on the proposal.

"This has wider implications and it will affect us. This shouldn't be something that is decided by individual schools - it should be an education authority decision."