Last week in Westminster Hall, I spoke about something that has weighed on my community for far too long: the fact that Bolsover still has no sixth form of its own.
In most parts of the country, a local sixth form is so normal that people barely notice it. Here, its absence quietly, steadily shapes young people’s futures.
Every time I raise this issue, I picture the pupils I meet in our schools. They are funny, hopeful, ambitious children who deserve the world. Yet they face barriers that simply shouldn’t be there in 2025.
At the moment, if a young person in Bolsover wants to study A-levels, they must travel to Chesterfield. It’s more than ten miles away, usually requiring two buses each way, long waits in the cold, and journeys that can take nearly an hour.
The school bus costs around £1,000 a year. For many families, that amount might as well be ten thousand. For others, paying it means cutting back on things no child should ever have to lose.
I was told recently about two brothers who tried their best to attend a sixth form outside the area. When the travel costs became unmanageable, one of them even attempted to run the five-plus miles to school each day, carrying books through winter darkness. It was impossible to sustain.
Both brothers eventually dropped out of their courses, and it appears neither is currently in education. Their story isn’t about a lack of ambition. It’s about a community without the infrastructure young people need to succeed.
This matters because the numbers tell the same story. Only a quarter of 18-year-olds in Bolsover go on to university, compared with roughly a third nationally. A quarter of adults in our area have no qualifications at all. Wages are lower, opportunities fewer, horizons narrower.
None of this reflects the ability of our young people. It reflects the lack of access placed in their way. Yet every time I visit a school, I leave feeling uplifted.
On a recent visit, students told me they didn’t want to be called disadvantaged. They want to be known for who they truly are — polite, bright, determined and full of potential. And they are right. Our children don’t need labels. They need chances.
Since raising this in Parliament once more, my inbox has filled with messages from parents, former pupils and teachers. They all say the same thing: a sixth form in Bolsover would change lives.
Parents describe bright, motivated children losing out because travel is too expensive or too overwhelming. Teachers tell me that so many students abandon their ambitions simply because the nearest college feels a world away.
And families of children with special educational needs are honest about what every parent knows instinctively — that a familiar, supportive environment can be the difference between thriving and giving up.
There is now, finally, a glimmer of hope. During last week’s debate, the Education Minister said that a decision on Bolsover’s sixth form will be made before Christmas.
It’s a small sentence but a significant one for a community that has waited years to be taken seriously on this issue. My job now is to make sure this promise is kept.
When I speak about education, it is never abstract for me. As a young mum, I looked like someone whose path would be limited. But the Labour Government I grew up under believed in people like me.
They invested in childcare so I could study. They made education accessible and possible. They believed in ambition before I even understood what ambition was. I would not be here today without that support.
I want children in Bolsover to have the same chance — to learn close to home, without the stress of long journeys or impossible travel costs. I want their talent to be nurtured in a place that feels safe, familiar and rooted in their community.
Our young people deserve doors that open, not barriers that rise up in front of them.
It is time for the Government to do what is right. It is time to get spades in the ground and finally open the doors of the North Derbyshire University Academy.
Bolsover’s children deserve nothing less.
Bolsover’s Young People Deserve a Sixth Form Close to Home
