First session sees youth wing take flight
UNDER-threat Oriel Youth Wing has been saved.
It was due to hold its first evening session last night (Tuesday September 18) under the new management of Oriel High School.
Evening youth provision at the Maidenbower school’s youth wing looked set to end after West Sussex County Council cut funding, sparking a campaign to save it on Facebook.
The school had made previous attempts to offer financial assistance to the county council’s Youth and Support Development Service in order to keep the Tuesday evening sessions running on the school’s behalf, but this was turned down.
The last session under county council control was held in July.
But now the county council has agreed the school can step in and fully manage and supply open youth provision to youngsters independent of the county council.
Ryan Sallows, business manager at the school, said: “It is great news, all of the students and staff who attend or volunteer at the youth wing are very pleased.
“We held a meeting with the Oriel Youth Wing Advisory Committee on Monday (September 10) to discuss how best to go forward and they were very pleased.
“We are looking to increase the number of evening sessions in the future, but it is early days and we as a school have never done anything like this before.
“We would like to have at least two or three evenings a week, but we do not want to get anyone’s hopes up yet. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us.
“We are hopeful that the students won’t see a great deal of difference and it will continue as normal, and we will bring back street cricket and all of the activities they had and enjoyed before.
“We would say 90 per cent of the students attending the youth wing are from Oriel High School and now instead of having to wait to hear from County Hall about decisions being made about them, they can come directly to us and say what they would like to see and what improvements we can make.
“We will be working with the youth service and they will support us for the next six weeks.
“For the first time, students can come to us and tell us exactly what they want. We want to thank the youth services, the kids and the parents who have supported it and as a school we are optimistic.”
A spokesman for the county council said: “The offer made by the school to fund the Youth Support and Development Service to continue the provision on their behalf, was not considered viable and a more viable option was to try and find an alternative provider for the Tuesday night sessions.
“The school, having now agreed to take over the management of the youth wing in full, have effectively become the alternative provider. Although slightly complicated by the fact the school is the provider, the original statement stands and we have achieved the original action.”
Residents left messages of support for the youth wing on the Observer’s Facebook page.
Ricky Monk said: “Good for them and about time too.”
West Sussex County Council Cabinet Member for Children and Families Peter Evans added: “I am extremely pleased that a positive outcome has been reached which will provide all young people in the area with continued use of the centre.”
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Weather for Crawley
Monday 20 May 2013
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 13 C to 18 C
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