Lots of children, no school places. We need the council to listen to us now!
Anna Oxberry's Page
Profile Information
- Where do you live?
- In Long Ashton
- About Me:
- I moved to Long Ashton in May 2007. I have a son at Apple Tree who was born in Feb 06.
Anna Oxberry's Blog
LASCG Represented at C&YP Scrutiny Panel Meeting
I spoke about how Councillor Blatchford had spoken about a "short term" solution involving the addition of temporary classrooms at Birdwell school, about how this could be funded from the Council budget, and about how a temporary solutio… Continue
Posted on November 12, 2008 at 8:00pm — 2 Comments
BBC Radio Bristol
Posted on November 4, 2008 at 3:44am — 3 Comments
Article in the Clevedon Mercury
http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/clevedon/news/education/Sign-hope-parents-school-places/article-437141-detail/article.html
Posted on November 3, 2008 at 6:30pm — 1 Comment
Concerned and want to help but not sure what to do?????
annaoxberry@hotmail.com
I am trying to identify some core members for some Long Ashton School Crisis Group (LASCG) Working Groups; the main ones of interest at the moment being:
- North Somerset Council Liaison Working Group
- Publicity Working Group
- LASCG Consolidation Working Group
- Central Government Working Group
This follows on from the action… Continue
Posted on September 7, 2008 at 12:02am —
Meeting with Liam Fox last night
1. To find out the reason why our Sibling Link appeal was rejected. His words were along the lines of, "seeing as you were good enough to point out your reasoning and arguments, it would be nice to get a reasoned response, rather than a simple "no"".
2. To write to the leader of North Somerset Council to ask the council to work closely with us (Long Ashton School Crisis Gro… Continue
Posted on July 12, 2008 at 1:00pm —
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I've got a pile of cuttings which I'll copy today in work. Will bring with me on Wed and give them to you either in the morning when Tamar hands over the petition or before the meeting at 7.30.
T: 01275 392234 (home)
T: 01275 394400 (work)
M: 07963 092 074
Regards
Laurence
This (if it works!) is a Q&A doc from the council - very interesting
Thank you for your comments - they're very helpful.
I can answer the question regarding the pupil projection figures. These figures are before any adjustments for future housing developments, ie they are based entirely on current GP records. As you say, this does therefore raise the question as to why it is necessary to wait for the Regional Spatial Strategy. We'll ask!
The questions that we prepared follow. Please do let us have additional questions/comments - we would really appreciate your input.
Best wishes,
Hannah
Questions regarding Long Ashton Schools Situation – Thursday 27th March 2008
The Past
1. Why are there insufficient school places in Long Ashton for the children entering reception 2008?
In particular:
2. Why were section 106 contributions not obtained for school development from Barrett Homes when the 100 houses were built adjacent to Theynes Croft in 2002?
3. When planning school expansion following the Wimpey development (350 houses), were earlier build such as Theynes Croft taken into consideration when projecting school admission numbers?
4. How many additional school places were created directly as a result of the Wimpey development (ie in calculating the necessary s106 contribution)?
5. Was additional capacity created equally across each of the school years? And if not, why not?
6. Were projected admission figures altered to reflect the inclusion of flats in the new Wimpey development? If so by how much were they reduced?
7. How many units were finally built on the Wimpey site and of these, how many are flats?
8. We understand that the s106 contribution was used in its entirety on the rebuild of Northleaze School. As it is highly unlikely that any of the children living on the Wimpey development will attend Northleaze, why was the contribution not used to expand the closer Birdwell School?
9. Why was Northleaze rebuilt with such limited additional capacity? Was it considered possible to retain the existing Northleaze site and splitting infant and juniors? If so, why was this option rejected?
10. How much was the old Northleaze site sold for? What has happened to that money?
The Present
1. Do you feel that excluding 23 children from our local schools (over 30% of this year’s admission) is acceptable?
2. We have repeatedly been told that, “The Council takes its strategic obligations to provide sufficient numbers of school places within school clusters very seriously”. From this comment, can I conclude that you do not feel that the Council has any obligation to provide sufficient numbers of school places within an individual community (such as Long Ashton)?
3. Does the Council really think that allocating overspill to a school 10 miles away (for example Yatton which is in our cluster) is adequate when planning for school places?
The Future
1. What do you propose to do to resolve the situation?
In particular:
2. Can you please clarify why the two village schools cannot be expanded? Is this because of a lack of building space or due to legislative requirements for a minimum amount of playing field per capita? We have had conflicting information regarding the possibility of expansion at Northleaze.
3. As a short-term solution, could the pre-school class at Northleaze be relocated back to their previous accommodation at Church House thus freeing up a classroom at the school.
4. We understand that the Council owns land adjacent to Birdwell School. Could you please confirm? Could this land be used for building additional accommodation or as the necessary additional ‘green land’ required by legislation for playing fields?
5. Does the ‘green land’ have to be adjacent to the school? Could the field donated by Wimpey be used as an additional playing field for Birdwell School to satisfy legislative requirements?
6. Does the Council own any additional areas of land in Long Ashton or is there potential to obtain such in the village (for example we’ve been informed that land could be obtained in the near vicinity of Northleaze School)?
7. Building work continues in the village. Should further expansion be permitted if the village has insufficient infrastructure to support it?
The following figures of expected reception intake, based on the Council’s own pupil projection methodology have been provided:
Estimates at September
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Birdwell 34 62 67 56 61
Northleaze 48 48 53 52 52
At what point do you think the Council will accept that there has been a planning failure and that something needs to be done to rectify the situation? Would it not be better to act now than to wait until the situation reaches crisis point?
1) It is not possible to provide additional capacity at either of the existing schools (although one letter implies that it might be possible, just not economic)
2) Potential locations for any new school will not even be considered until a location has been decided on for the additional 9000 new homes to be built in/near Long Ashton as part of the South Bristol expansion.
I struggle to follow the logic of point 2 on the basis that there is demand for a whole new school now, irrespective of the location of the 9000 new houses. I would imagine our case would hinge on demonstrating this current and ongoing demand. We should be pushing for a new school with the utmost urgency and demanding an interim measure; the provision of an extra class, moving up with the children for as long as necessary until the new school opens.
I am keen to get in touch with other concerned people, to link our efforts together and hopefully create a critical mass.