Blogs - Long Ashton school crisis

Sibling Link – Consultation for 2010 Admissions

Email to Bill Mcentee re Sibling Rule.doc North Somerset are currently consulting (open to all) on the 2010 admission arrangements. This gives us a great opportunity to express our opinion about the newly amended sibling link rule. Just to remind you… The sibling link rule used to give preference within the over-subscripti… Continue

Added by Hannah Mainstone on February 2, 2009 at 9:55pm — No Comments

Public Meeting - Green Belt Under Threat - 27/1/09

More homes more pressure on our schools. Long Ashton Parish Council are having a Public Meeting to update everyone on the planned release of Green Belt land for development 7.30pm Tuesday 27th January 2009, Long Ashton Village Hall, Keedwell Hill BS41 9DP Continue

Added by Sarah Hughes on January 20, 2009 at 9:00pm — No Comments

Background

For the benefit of people new to the campaign, here's a bit of background info: There are two primary schools in Long Ashton: Birdwell and Northleaze. Each has a pupil capacity of 210, consisting of seven 30-pupil classes, one for each year group. Between them, the village schools can accept up to 60 Reception class pupils each year. However, in 2008 twenty three Long Ashton children were denied a Reception Class place in the village. This is a trend forecast to worsen over the next few… Continue

Added by Guy Kingston on December 23, 2008 at 11:32pm — No Comments

A Councllor Writes ...

An email last week from a NS District Councillor commented: "Jeremy Blatchford's defence about the difficulties in predicting number for reception class seemed very weak. Generally, there are pretty good indicators from health data. ... "I was surprised to hear about the scale of the problem and surprised about the lack protest from your elected members." Continue

Added by Guy Kingston on November 25, 2008 at 12:43pm — 1 Comment

LASCG Meeting, can you come?

Are you interested in getting more involved with the LASCG? If so please read on. Following Guy's newsletter #1 we want to arrange a meeting next week to run through how we intend to maintain momentum with the campaign. A few of us have been involved with a series of activities over the last month or so, and we have reached a stage when we would like to get further input, ideas and involvement from other members of LASCG. In particular, at the meeting we intend to: 1) Discuss and agree a strat… Continue

Added by Ann Hodgetts on November 21, 2008 at 2:18pm — No Comments

And Another Story ...

The Clevedon Mercury has also published a decent length piece today: Click Here. Cllr Blatchford is being very disingenuous. Whereas it may be technically true that so far only one child is being sent by taxi to Pill the fact remains that 23 children didn’t get a place in Long Ashton and are having to go to school elsewhere. These kids are still being transported… Continue

Added by Guy Kingston on November 20, 2008 at 10:30am — No Comments

Evening Post Article

More press coverage - this time in the Evening Post: Click Here Please add a comment to the article - the more comments they get, the higher they will rank our story for future coverage. Guy Continue

Added by Guy Kingston on November 20, 2008 at 9:30am — No Comments

Speech to North Somerset Council

On behalf of LASCG I spoke at a full meeting of North Somerset Council this evening. Rather than engage the council in a futile debate based on procedure, process, clauses and budgets I went for the human interest approach. You can find the text of my speech here. Continue

Added by Guy Kingston on November 18, 2008 at 9:16pm — No Comments

Petition Information...

Does anyone have a copy of the petition handed over to the council in the summer with the associated email addresses of supporters? We are trying to get a bit of momentum going again and are keen to canvas those that signed up previously. Thanks Continue

Added by Ann Hodgetts on November 17, 2008 at 9:56pm — 2 Comments

LASCG Represented at C&YP Scrutiny Panel Meeting

Oscar (my 2-year old) and I went to the Town Hall in Weston-super-Mare today and made a five minute speech to the Childrens and Young Peoples Scrutiny Panel. It was mainly me speaking but Oscar did grab the microphone and throw in a little snippet near the end! 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

Added by Anna Oxberry on November 12, 2008 at 8:00pm — 2 Comments

LASCG Meeting Minutes - 02-10-2008

02-10-08 Minutes, issue 1.doc The LASCG Council Working Group met with Councillor Jeremy Blatchford in October to better understand the current status of the LA school crisis, and to be briefed on the solutions being developed by the council. The aim of the meeting was to become involved with the proposed solutions, and attempt to work… Continue

Added by Ann Hodgetts on November 4, 2008 at 8:45pm — 4 Comments

BBC Radio Bristol

Listen 8am on Tue 4th Nov to hear Guy Kingston being interviewed about Long Ashton School Crisis on BBC Radio Bristol. Continue

Added by Anna Oxberry on November 4, 2008 at 3:44am — 3 Comments

Article in the Clevedon Mercury

Thanks to Guy Kingston for organising this press release in the Clevedon Mercury http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/clevedon/news/education/Sign-hope-parents-school-places/article-437141-detail/article.html Continue

Added by Anna Oxberry on November 3, 2008 at 6:30pm — 1 Comment

Health Visitor records for recent number of children born in Long Ashton

I know we previously had figures from the council based on doctor's records for children born in long ashton, which is how they did their forecasting, but given that some families chose to be registered outside the village maybe where they used to live or near to their work I thought it may be helpful to the cause to confirm local records of children in the village who will be starting school over the next few years with the health visitor. Of course this may also not be the true picture if they… Continue

Added by Susie Pocock on October 1, 2008 at 10:16pm — 1 Comment

new primary school in Congresbury

North Somerset council have posted a news item on their website at: http://www.n-somerset.gov.uk/Education/news-20080923-primaryprovisionprogress.htm The article 'Primary provision progress' is copied below. It does not mention Long Ashton, but it is interesting to see the time scales for a new school in Congresbury: the community has expressed their wish 'for some time', the news has been announced Sep 08, and (as long as there are no objections) the new school could be in place in Sep 09. I… Continue

Added by Michael Pocock on September 25, 2008 at 9:10am — 2 Comments

Concerned and want to help but not sure what to do?????

Our goal is to obtain provision of sufficient primary school places in the village. If you want to help us to achieve this then please email me: 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

Added by Anna Oxberry on September 7, 2008 at 12:02am — No Comments

more houses, more problems

Members of Dundry Residents' Action Group have created this petition: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/YANLEIGHHOUSES/ to object to plans to build over 10000 houses in the greenbelt, between the A370 and A38 near Yanley Lane. This development will affect residents of Long Ashton, so please view the petition, and sign if you object, as I do, to the loss of greenbelt land. See the North Somerset planning web pages for more information about the development. Nancy Jennings Continue

Added by Nancy Jennings on August 27, 2008 at 8:35pm — No Comments

Meet the admissions team in the village this Wednesday 23rd July

We’ve asked North Somerset Council Admissions Office to come along to Northleaze toddler group on 23rd July to explain the general admissions procedure, and discuss issues regarding which schools to choose depending on where you live. Two representatives will be at the group between 10am and 11am on the morning of Wednesday 23rd July. Come along if you fancy hearing what they have to say! Continue

Added by Tabetha Newman on July 21, 2008 at 10:01am — 3 Comments

Sibling Link – The Adjudicator’s Determination

Thank you to everyone who supported our objection to the Council’s amendment to the Sibling Link rule. We had a great response from you all but unfortunately not such a great response from the Adjudicator. We actually received the Adjudicator’s decision last week and I apologise for not updating you sooner – I think we were all just a bit too depressed. As you will have gathered, we were unsuccessful in getting an amendment. If you want to read up on his reasoning please click the link (… Continue

Added by Hannah Mainstone on July 18, 2008 at 8:30pm — 1 Comment

Planning Application for the remaining new homes on The George Wimpey site

Despite being promised that the remaining land to be developed on this site would consist of single storey bungalows, to provide some accommodation for elderly residents, George Wimpey has submitted their latest plans (the last 2 were rejected) which consist of 18 new 2 storey 3-4 bed family homes. These would back onto Fenshurst Gardens which is close to Birdwell school. (See the application of 13th June at www.n-somerset.gov.uk (go to planning)). If this gets accepted, it could result in 30 +… Continue

Added by Anne Penman on July 18, 2008 at 11:28am — 1 Comment

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