The biggest challenges facing our schools in Penrith and The Border are those of distance and sparsity. We have the country’s smallest secondary school and its smallest sixth form college. The threat of closure is ever present for many of Cumbria’s smallest and most rural primary and secondary schools. We must do all we can to protect our schools: they form the life and heart of every village.
My colleagues and I have lobbied the Education Minister strongly to ensure the National School Funding formula recognises the unique needs of our rural schools, and provides them with additional financial support. I have worked closely with head-teachers and Cumbria County Council to establish a fair allocation of resources in Cumbria, favouring our smaller schools.
Rory Stewart, MP for Penrith and The Border, is highlighting an outstanding opportunity for budding young Cumbrian journalists. The opportunity involves two incentives taking place during the summer. The News Academy Summer School, in partnership with The Times and The Sun, and is a free week-long journalist training programme for students aged 16 to 18. […]
On Friday, local MP and Minister for Rural Affairs Rory Stewart attended the 2015 Graduation Ceremony at Newton Rigg, of the triumvirate of agricultural colleges – including Askham Bryan satellite colleges at Guisborough and at Newcastle – of which Newton Rigg in Penrith and The Border is the hub. Rory joined Askham Bryan Executive Principal […]
Local MP Rory Stewart on Friday joined Wigton Mayor Joe Cowell and County Councillor and former education portfolio-holder Duncan Fairbairn on a visit to St Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary School in Wigton, where he joined afternoon hymn practice and then led a political question-and-answer session with curious students. Rory was especially pleased to visit a local […]
Local MP Rory Stewart on Friday visited Kirkby Stephen Primary School, where he enjoyed a tour of the school, meetings with staff, and introductions to pupils both in the classroom and in assembly, where he led an energetic debate on the role of politicians and politics, the process of passing laws, and the needs of […]
Rory Stewart MP has today awarded ten home-educated children from the Penrith area with the John Muir Award, a certificate which acknowledges the work that the young people have undertaken over the course of five weeks spent in the Lake District National Park and learning about how to care for the environment. As part of […]
Local MP, Rory Stewart, has welcomed a decision by the Local Government Ombudsman which will see a number of families in the Ravenstonedale community reimbursed for school transport costs charged by Cumbria County Council. Following the closure of Ravenstonedale Endowed School earlier this year, the council charged them for transport to the nearest open primary […]
Rory Stewart, Parliamentary candidate for Penrith and The Border, was invited to present Bewcastle Primary School’s poetry prizes, awarded to winning students from each year group. The author of three best-selling books – and currently working on his fourth, focused on his walk across Cumbria – Rory Stewart had the opportunity to read the students’ […]
The Penrith and The Border Parliamentary candidate, Rory Stewart, was invited on Friday, to speak with students at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School on his experiences walking across Afghanistan in 2002 – which he would later write up into a New York Times Bestselling book, The Places in Between. Rory introduced the history, culture, and religion […]
Rory Stewart, Parliamentary candidate for Penrith and The Border, met with the headteacher and head of Sixth Form at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School on Friday to hear concerns about funding for rural schools. The QEGS senior management team explained the difficulties and challenges they are facing, and Rory Stewart promised to work with them, and […]
Rory Stewart, MP for Penrith and The Border, joined other Cumbrian MPs and prospective parliamentary candidates, in a Question Time style panel event organised by Young Cumbria, to give young people the opportunity to raise the issues that matter most to them. Aged between 13 – 25, the audience questioned the panel on how their […]