THE former chief schools inspector Chris Woodhead has intervened in the debate about whether Kent’s smallest school should shut.

He has urged county education chiefs to consider carefully if children at Ripple School, near Deal, would necessarily be better educated elsewhere before deciding if it should close.

Mr Woodhead, whose parents live in Deal, said Kent County Council should not just base its decision on whether there were surplus places available at other schools.

He also said KCC should not overlook the role the school played in the community, warning closure could be damaging to the whole village.

In an interview with the East Kent Mercury, Mr Woodhead said he understood that KCC was probably “strapped for cash” and was under pressure to consider if schools were financially viable.

But he warned: “Educationally, the evidence is that small schools can do very well, so I am not persuaded there is an argument to shut them because the small numbers of staff cannot teach the National Curriculum so effectively.”

He sympathised with parents who felt that Ripple School catered particularly well for children with special needs and feared a move to a larger school would affect the attention they received in the classroom.

“Like every other education authority, Kent is probably strapped for cash but the key question is what alternatives is it proposing if Ripple does close? Are they [pupils] going to get a better deal than they do now? It is important to ask what the alternatives are.”

He added: “Kent has a duty to schools to remove surplus places but it also has a duty to respond to parental wishes. Kent is a Conservative-run authority and the Conservatives believe in parental choice and a diversity of provision rather than an all-powerful centralised bureaucracy.”