IN response to the horrendous scenes we see on our television screens almost every night of refugees trying to make their way to a better life, members of the local community approached Queen Elizabeth’s School in Crediton to see if there was any way it could help.

Rupert Poole, principal, explained that QE may be able to help because it is in a unique position as the only state boarding school in Devon.

He explained: “As a result of discussions, QE is hoping to be able to accommodate refugee children from Syria in our boarding houses.

“We are working with the State Boarding Schools Association and the government on exactly how this might be possible.

“For this to go ahead we would need to work with the local community in order to raise the necessary funds to enable the children to join boarding, as unfortunately the school would not be able to provide the funds.

“The children could then be welcomed into our boarding houses and would benefit from the caring and supportive environment that we have established at QE Boarding.

“They would attend QE School in the same way as any local family would do.”

Mr Poole asks that if anyone is interested in getting involved in supporting the fundraising efforts or making a donation, could they please contact the school.

ENRICHMENT WEEK 2016 IS CANCELLED

Mr Poole also confirmed that QE would not be running Enrichment Week in July 2016.

He said making the decision was a difficult one, adding that it costs about £15,000 each year to run.

He told the “Courier”: “As I explained in my letter to all parents and students this was a decision driven by financial considerations, but to put the decision into some context it is important to understand that we consider each and every year whether to run Enrichment week.

“Fortunately for the last few years we have been able to allocate the necessary funds to enable it to go ahead, but this year we had to act differently.

“One of the main reasons was so that we could ensure that we allocated more funds to support the introduction of the new GCSE and A level specifications.

“I would like to reassure parents, carers and the wider community that we are as committed as ever to ensuring that a wide variety of co-curricular activities are available to our students. In fact we prefer to call it co-curricular, because we consider it should be a part of every student’s experience - not ‘extra’ - and we have maintained a wide variety of such activities.

“Whilst we do indeed face tough financial decisions on an almost daily basis, we are no different from any school, or indeed any public body in having to do so.

“The Governors and leadership team at QE have the financial situation well under control. In fact our readiness to take tough decisions such as the one concerning Enrichment Week is in some way evidence of that.

“It is worth noting that Devon schools receive significantly less funding from central government than some other areas of the UK, due to a complex formula. There is some progress at government level towards introducing a national fair funding formula, which would greatly benefit Devon schools and therefore QE, but it is far from certain this will happen.”