CHAPTER 11. THE FUTURE. As we have already seen, attempts had been made before 1949 to close the School. As long ago as the middle of the seventeenth century, Abbott and his fellow tenants had done a little mud- slinging in an effort to stop the School's activities. Then, soon after the Leicestershire County Council had begun to support the School, the Board of Education had suggested its closure.' These two attempts had failed, but now a third major assult has been made on the School, and it looks this time as if it may indeed be closed. The Education Act of 1944 (clause II) ordered every L.E.A. to prepare a Development Plan, showing how it proposed to cope with the organisation of primary. and secondary schools in its area in the years following the Act. The Leicestershire Education Committee at once set out to draw up its Plan, and in its first draft proposed that Kibworth Grammar School should be closed and its pupils 'divided between Market Harborough and the new Wigston School, or, as the Committee preferred to put it, " Kibworth School should be moved from its traditional site north- wards to its new centre of gravity". When, however, the Leicestershire County Council came to consider the Education Committee's draft plan, it did not like the idea of closing an old-established school like Kibworth; so it instructed the Education Committee to amend the original plan so as to preserve Kibworth as a two-form entry school. The County Council assumed that an intake of sixty pupils a year could be secured if children from Oadby continued to attend in addition to those from districts nearer Kibworth. Thus, when the Leicester- shire County Council sent up its Development Plan to the Ministry on 28th November, 1946, it provided for the continuance of Kibworth Grammar School as a two-form entry school. In order to appreciate the Minister's comments on the Plan, a word or two on the Development Plan as a whole is necessary. Its main architect was the Director himself. Sir William Brockington, and he was greatly concerned about the provision of technical education in Leicestershire. On his advice, the County Council decided to provide for technical education in its grammar schools rather than to build separate technical schools. Sir William argued that the grammar schools were already to a certain extent bi-lateral, for they provided education for pupils proceeding to executive posts in industry and commerce as well as for those going on to Universities. Only slight alterations would be needed in the existing grammar schools to provide sufficient accommodation for technical pupils. Moreover, the grammar schools held an established place in public esteem which Secondary Technical Schools could not hope to attain for a very long time. In short, the Leicestershire Development Plan envis- aged not merely grammar schools, but grammar-technical schools. For over two years the Ministry considered the Plan, and then in February, 1949, the Minister published his comments. He thought that the grammar schools of South Leicestershire which had a two-form entry, namely Kibworth, Market Harborough and Lutterworth, were too small to provide a suitable variety of courses of both grammar and technical types for boys and girls. " He appreciates the difficulties ..... nevertheless he would suggest that the three smallest of them, Kibworth, Lutterworth and Market Harborough are so small as to raise doubts whether really they ought to be continued indefinitely". Immediately, the Education Committee appointed a special sub-committee to consider the Minister's comments. In a few days, it put forward its proposals to the effect that Lutterworth and Market Harborough should be retained. Lutterworth was the only centre accessible to a wide rural district, and Market Har- borough was a fairly large market town. As for the Kibworth School, the sub-committee came to the conclusion that it should be closed. To justify its decision, the sub-committee put forward the following arguments. 1. The building of the new grammar-technical school at Wigston would relieve the L.E.A. of the administrative inconvenience and extra expense of conveying so many children daily to Kibworth. 2. 60% of the Kibworth Grammar School population came from Wigston. Therefore, insufficient children would be left for Kibworth to continue as a two-form entry school. 3. Oadby Urban District Council preferred Oadby children to go to the new School at Wigston rather than to continue to attend Kibworth. The sub-committee felt that there was a chance for Kibworth to survive, if Oadby's popu- lation increased in such numbers that the children from there could make good the losses suffered by the removal of the Wigston children. But would Oadby parents prefer Kibworth or the new Wigston School for their children? To find out the answer to this question, the sub-committee put the matter to the Oadby Urban District Council on March 25th, 1949, and the latter unanimously favoured the new school. 4. A suggestion had been made that Kibworth might continue as a bi-lateral school, taking in ' secondary modern' as well as ' grammar' children; but the sub-committee argued that there were not sufficient children in the neighbourhood of Kibworth to fill Church Langton Secondary Modern School and the proposed " modern" department at Kibworth; and the committee was. not prepared to close Church Langton. 5. Finally, the sub-committee stated: " Children who would attend Wigston School would be able to participate freely after school hours in school clubs, societies, games and other out of-school activities because they would be within walking distance or would have at their disposal an urban transport system ". The sub-committee, therefore, proposed that the original plan to close Kibworth should be reverted to, and added: "Your committee reached its conclusion with the utmost reluctance. It could contemplate the discontinuance of a school of Kibworth's long tradition only with the most profound regret..... The inexorable fact is that if the Wigston Grammar-Technical School is built it is impossible to find sufficient children suited for the grammar school type of secondary education to keep Kibworth Grammar School in existence". The full Education Committee naturally endorsed its sub-committee's recommendations, and finally, on July 26th, 1949, the proposal was put to the Leicester- shire County Council that Kibworth Beauchamp Grammar School should be closed. The motion was proposed by Sir Robert Martin, the Chairman of the Education Committee, and this time the County Council felt it had no option but to accept the Education Committee's proposal. Thus, Kibworth's doom was apparently sealed and, sooner or later, the School may cease to exist. Despite the County Council's decision, Kibworth Beauchamp Grammar School still flourishes seven years later, and as yet shows no signs of an early decease. Although children from Oadby and Wigston now attend the new Guthlaxton School at Wigston Magna numbers at Kibworth have not fallen. New building estates at Thurnby and Scraptoft have provided their quotas of pupils, while a rearrangement of the catchment area now enables children from Enderby, Braunstone and Narborough to attend Kibworth instead of Lutterworth. We can hope that the Leicestershire County Council will do everything in its power to continue the School. There is indeed a growing hope that the School has a long future ahead; and on that note of optimism we end the history of Kibworth Beauchamp Grammar School, wishing it success and prosperity " ad multos annos ".