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Derek Thomas visits Helston Community College

On Friday 26th March, Derek Thomas, St Ives Constituency prospective parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party, visited Helston Community College where the Head Teacher, Dr. P McGovern showed him around one of the highest achieving schools in Cornwall – 60% of year 11 pupils achieved five or more C grade GCSEs in 2009. Derek has long maintained a close working relationship with the College and this visit was to enable him to gain a better understanding of the challenges facing schools and colleges today.

Helston Community College is a success story with, in addition to the GCSE record, over 100 sixth formers gaining entry to university each year, an excellent attendance record and a clear strategy for moving the college forward. However, despite all of this success, parts of the college’s infrastructure are woefully inadequate and several hundred thousand pounds worth of repairs are urgently needed.  This follows an extensive 'temporary repair' in 2007 when a number of classrooms had to be closed for emergency maintenance. The college is hopeful that the BSF programme (building schools for the future) will deliver much needed funds in the future but in light of the fact that Helston College was not included in the recent BSF programme, every avenue is being pursued to source funding for a completely new campus. 

Derek Thomas said; "A campus of opportunity for children, young people and families is really the only way forward.  It saddens me that, yet again, this part of the former Kerrier District has not been allocated funds. BFS is an overly complex process that is in danger of missing the very point of the funding programme: to build new schools.  Instead, successful schools that have poor infrastructure are being left out.”

He added; "Helston Community College is in need of serious investment.  Without this, I believe, there is a danger that the sixth form in particular will lose out to colleges in Truro, Camborne and Penzance, all of which are benefiting from recent investment. If elected, I will continue to work very closely with Dr P McGovern and his staff and will assist in any way I can with the shared vision for a new college for 11 - 19 year olds in Helston"