SABLE st albans battle for local education. Petition here for a new school!

[HenriettaJones]

Hi all, so this years figures show that 89% of st albans families got one of their 3 choices. But what about the other 11%? This was 80 children, a whole school year's worth!

Not only that, but 40 children out of that 89% got their 3rd choice, not much of a choice then!

We urgently need a new school in the centre of town. If you agree, please click on the link to sign this petition. Please DO NOT sign online if you have/are going to sign the hard copy.

This issue might not seem relevant to you now but it could easily affect you in a few years time if we don't act now. Also anyone who wants to reduce congestion should sign - parents are being given schools over a mile away across town.

Thanks

www.gopetition.co.uk/online/26564.html

ok, just learning how to do links!

the petition link is

www.gopetition.co.uk/online/26564.html

I've signed

Thank you!

Interested in this story and agree that something needs to be done to address the problem, but not sure where you're propsing this new school is built and whether any thought has been given to where all these children are going to go to secondary school. Secondary school may seem a long way away, but it's only 5 years until the beginning of this bulge (currently in Year 1)is in Year 6 and considering the number of children that didn't get places this year, cannot begin to imagine how bad it will be then unless something is done sooner rather than later.

Have signed

Secondary school will definitely be an issue as the primary schools have been expanding in recent years. It will particularly be an issue for the city centre children as we are far away from the secondary schools and places are allocated using the same criteria as the primary places were

JLo, we propose several options:

There is the Tesco site on London road of which the council have previously threatened a compulsory purchase order. There is the Jubilee Centre on Catherine Street which has cut back on its services to the elderly and was previously a school building. I hear that there is an exhibition in the town hall that shows sites earmarked for development.

I don't understand why you think it is an extra primary school that will cause the problem at secondary - surely it is the extra children?! The problem will happen at secondary whether we have a new primary or not! And as Googly says, it will affect the same families.

If we can petition the council to build a new primary, surely this will give weight to the campaign for a new secondary? I fully support the need for a new secondary school and will sign a petition for this if one is made.

Thanks googly for signing!

I completely agree that an extra primary school is not going make any difference to the secondary school issue - I obviously did not make myself very clear

I like the idea of the Jubilee Centre building for a primary school as that seems to be the side of town where places are needed, although there will no doubt be planning issues due to the traffic problems (at either site). In theory, a new primary school would mean more people could walk rather than drive, but would that happen in practice?

Presumably if a new school is built, this will mean schools such as Bernards Heath (and others outside the city centre) will lose numbers and will therefore lose out financially. Herts have spent an awful lot of money adding extra classes to these schools and are not going to want this to happen as it will be money 'down the drain'.

I don't think there are enough numbers to warrant a new secondary school, but they need to urgently sort out the one failing school that is undersubscribed and therefore putting huge pressures on the other schools. My point about secondary school is that noone (i.e. Herts County) seems to yet have any plans for what will happen in 5 years time when this bulge starts at secondary and it will take 5 years to sort it all out.

I hope you don't think I'm trying to start a row, I'm honestly not. I'm just trying to get my head around the whole picture and think it through.

What is the "failing" school to which you are referring?

I think JLo is referring to Francis Bacon, which is currently in Special Measures, and due to its proximity to Beaumont, children who might normally have listed it now get in to Beaumont, making the Beaumont catchment smaller, having a knock on effect on families further away.

And yes I agree JLo, the council seem to be ignoring that from 2007 there have been an extra 90 primary places, where are these children going to go?! (and there are more than that in our year, at least an extra 120)

I have to disagree though about the need for a new Secondary, children in Wheathampstead are being allocated schools in Hatfield. There is clearly a need for a Secondary school in the triangle between Batchwood Harpenden and Wheathampstead. The only schools in this area are a faith school, private school and a girls school.

With regards to the implications to bernards heath and other expanded schools, I agree that there could be an implication, however with BH especially it will probably keep its numbers as it is a popular school. The funding as of 19 April had not been agreed upon though, so it depends on the outcome of the meeting that was held on 20th April. I have to question why the council chose 3 undersubscribed schools to expand. (Ok, I know the answer, they had the space and the inclination). But it doesn't held families living in the middle of the triangle between these 3 schools (1 and a half miles away from each.)

The schools will get extra funding to expand to improve facilities, but schools also get money each year according to the PAN (published admissions number I think) so if in future the schools had to lower these numbers then they wouldn't get the money (the new school would instead). The permanent money (for facilities) is surely not money down the drain if it improves the schools for the current pupils and raises the quality of education there? Remember that public money is split in to categories so money for schools is only ever going to schools, it is not taking away money that would have gone to hospitals for example.

Thanks for your comments JLo, it's good to get talking about it and see the whole picture as you say.

One of my issues is the secondary transfer, personally I think junior schools should be attached to secondary schools so that if your child goes to (for example) Sandridge, Bernards heath or wheatfields, you get priority for Sandringham. (Or Cunningham hill, Camp, Windermere - Francis Bacon; Prae Wood, St Peters, Mandeville - Marlborough) That way it's not so random, no one has to move house and the kids get the chance to go on to a school with friends. I don't think it should be obligatory, but I think there should be priority. Kind of like a replacement for the closest school rule.

Henrietta - I've been through secondary transfer once and will do again soon - I can assure you that if you were allocated FB (or even M for some people) purely on basis of which primary you attended, there'd be even more people move house 'northwards' than there are already - it's already a dog-eat-dog world to get a decent secondary place down south!

Hi Queen, I've replied on another thread but I'll just say, this wouldn't necessarily be the case if the schools linked to FB were on the north side! (And the schools linked to Sandringham were on the south/central side!) The problem at the moment is that there aren't enough secondary school places in the right areas - to serve central/south st albans, wheathampstead and harpenden.