27084-54MINISTERS should have had the power to prevent a battling Swindon school losing its status as a centre of excellence for performing arts, an MP has claimed.

Julia Drown criticised the Government for not overturning an independent panel's decision to strip Churchfields School of specialist school status.

The 1,000-plus pupil school in Salcombe Drive, Old Walcot, was awarded the status in 1999 and received thousands of pounds to focus on teaching arts including drama and music.

But after exam results plummeted from 42 per cent of pupils getting five GCSEs at grades A* to C to just 28 per cent, the Government's Specialist School Panel rescinded it following the fourth year.

Swindon South MP Ms Drown claimed the panel paid too much attention to Churchfields' academic record and not enough to what it was achieving in the performing arts and within the community.

She highlighted the situation after securing a prized Westminster Hall debate at Parliament on Wednesday.

She said that Churchfields located in one of the ten per cent most deprived wards in England had clawed its way out of special measures, forecast better exam results and had endured the turmoil of being forced to enrol pupils from a nearby school which closed after failing.

She said: "The current system for designating specialist status is flawed and has failed schools like Churchfields.

"Taking away this status from this excellent school, whose performing arts status has enabled it to flourish and to inspire its pupils, many of whom are from disadvantaged backgrounds, is I'm sure not what the Government intended.

"Ministers would be impressed at the work the school does with its students and the wider community."

Ms Drown said that many pupils, aged 11 to 16, had learned musical instruments, taken part in community carnivals and worked with special needs children and ten primary schools.

She urged ministers to decide on whether or not schools lost specialist status because they "understood the bigger picture."

She said: "Those judging schools should take a broader view of educational and community benefits. Results should not be looked at crudely in isolation but in the context of problems being tackled by the school."

Education Minister David Miliband said that the Government was unable to intervene in the decisions of the independent panel.

But he pledged to review the criteria used to judge specialist schools.

He said: "We are developing a programme that is rigorous, that is challenging, but that is supportive."

After the debate, Ms Drown said she hoped this would prevent any other schools "suffering the traumatic experiences" of Churchfields.

Steve Flavin, head of Churchfields, is now in the process of reapplying for specialist status.

He said: "We are in a good position to regain our status, in fact I believe we should gain an arts mark gold, which is a kite mark for excellence obtained by only a few schools."

He believes the present system of judging specialist status is totally flawed.

"People think that we lost our status because of the quality of our performing arts. But it was nothing to do with that. Our music, arts and drama is excellent, it's just that our GCSE results had dropped in areas such as maths and science."

Lesson for our leaders

Julia Drown has gone back to school to campaign for better funding for children's education in poor countries.

The MP for South Swindon visited Lethbridge Primary School yesterday, as part of a global campaign to increase international aid.

"In this country it is unusual for a child not to be at school," she said.

"Yet across the world over a 100 million children cannot attend.

"I call on all the world's governments to do more to support education for all the world's children."

The event was timed to coincide with a World Bank meeting in Washington tomorrow, where finance ministers from across the world will discuss aid for basic education. "World governments, including our own, have promised to provide the money but if they don't act now these promises will be broken," said Roger James, Oxfam South West's education spokesman.