New Secondary School for West Reading

[AnneInReading]

Following the well-publicised need for more secondary school places especially in West Reading, a group of local parents have joined together to form WREN (West Reading Education Network) which is applying to create a new Free school, potentially on the old Elvian school site. We need to prove public interest in sending children to this school and thus need to engage with parents with the area, and have a very tight deadline to do this in! If you are interested in more information, please see the website and/or join the facebook group? This is especially the case if you have Year 4 or 5 children, but we would like to hear from all parents of primary-age children in the area. This will be a normal community school to make sure that all children in West Reading get a school place in years to come. Please do add your support :)

There are public meetings in the next few weeks. Come along and find out more to lend your support:

Tuesday 4th December 3.30pm to 6.30pm
Battle Library, 420 Oxford Road, Reading RG30 1EE

Friday 7th December 4.30pm to 7.30pm
All Saints Junior School Hall, Brownlow Road, Reading RG1 6NP

Sunday 9th December 5.30pm to 7.30pm
All Saints Junior School Hall, Brownlow Road, Reading RG1 6NP

Although there has been no official statement, it seems clear from info on WREN'S twitter feed that the EFA have purchased/offered the DEFRA site in Coley for a new West Reading secondary school. WREN clearly only want the privately owned Elvian site in Southcote. Why? what's the matter with Coley - it currently has no secondary schools at all, Southcote has two.
At one of the WREN public meetings it was stated the group was so committed to opening their school they would do so with' a portakabin in a car park' Other free schools would dearly love a site like the DEFRA one ( have The Heights in Caversham got a site yet?) It's only half a mile from the Elvian site and the local roads etc. are just as bad in both areas.

Hi coleygirl. The reason the WREN group want the Elvian site is very simple- it is over twice the size of re defra site! The amount of children would not differ if we were to have a school on the old defra site- children would be crammed in, have very little outside space and would need to be bussed out of the area for sports lessons! We have nothing against coley- it is at the edge of the area of need however, over 2 miles away for many in the Oxford Road area. Also the defra site is at the end of a cul-de-sac- hardly good for access by coaches and parents dropping off children in the morning.

But the Elvian site is not available is it? It's all very well saying the WREN vision means only the Elvian site will do but equally I could say I can only function living in Buckingham Palace but it's not going to happen!! as a parent I would have severe reservations about your school opening on time anywhere, you bang on about being committed but come over all 'sulky kid' when you don't get what you want. Clearly the EFA are happy that the DEFRA site is a suitable site for the school you wanted to open (it was one of your choices in your original application after all) but now you won't play if you don't get want you want. Not an ideal message to send out to children is it?
I fear you have been played like a good 'un by the Labour councillors who have used you to try and get their own way and secure the votes of the locals in the next council elections.

Well I see the WREN group have now confirmed they will not open until September 2015, as I predicted in my earlier post. Can we also just clear up the fact that the site has NEVER been 'available' to the WREN group - they give the impression in news reports that Taylor Wimpey have somehow 'stolen' it from them. The LTC own the land and following the closure of the previous school on the site back in 2010 sold it to Taylor Wimpey, subject to planning permission. WREN didn't exist then and only decided it was 'theirs' when they formed in 2012.The LTC, a charity trust which owns other schools, have also confirmed that if the Taylor Wimpey bid fails the land will still not be available to WREN. The DEFRA site has been bought by the EFA for a secondary school in West Reading and if WREN were so concerned about secondary places in the area why delay.

Well, after turning down the DEFRA site in Coley because it was too small, it seems plans are now afoot for the Wren school to be built on the Elvian site but with 120 dwellings as well !! Wren get just over half the site which is not much bigger than the DEFRA site they turned down nearly 2 years ago. Taylor Wimpey also want to build 70 houses on the DEFRA site. The whole site looks cramped and only a third of the playing fields will be left. On top of that they intend to demolish the two Victorian villas that are there to make way for a four-storey school for which there appears to be no plans or design. How wonderful is that. Wren seem to be very quiet on the whole subject and frankly I'm not surprised.