Thursday, October 06, 2005

Save Kingsley St.John's - Site now live

The Save Kingsley St. John's web site is now live at http://www.kingsleyvillage.co.uk/sos/
(along with an unhappy looking Christopher and Zoe in the front picture :)

Monday, October 03, 2005

Save our school - part II

As part of the Save Our School campaign we are writing letters to the Powers That Be and I got a bit carried away. Tamsyn won't let me send the following - can't think why....

Dear Sir/Madam,
Both my children are pupils at Kingsley St Johns Primary School and I have been shocked to hear of the possible merger with Norley CE Primary School due to funding being plundered from local authorities by a corrupt government to pay for a war we don’t want in a country we don’t care about.

Kingsley may be a small rural village in Cheshire but the school is the centre of the community and provides excellent education for our children as well as extra curricular activities.

The proposal to merge Kingsley and Norley, resulting in the closure of one of the schools means that the children from the school that gets closed will have to travel further meaning we all have to use our cars and burn more fossil fuel because of the distance and unsafe road – there is no pavement for a good deal of the way either, though I don’t suppose that really matters; After all if we lose a few children to traffic accidents on the way then that’s even more money that can be diverted to our glorious cause in Iraq.

And what about those children with parents who do not own a car?

There is little public transport available, and none between the two villages, so how are these children expected to get to school? Young primary school children are far too young to be put on any school bus so the use of a car will become mandatory.

Some of the problems this merger will cause are:
• Larger classes will result in the children getting less of the attention they need to progress,
• The loss of a successful and caring school with a broad and balanced curriculum
• As mentioned above road traffic, pollution and parking difficulties will increase.
• Once a school has been closed and the land used for building (more houses no doubt) there is little chance it will ever be re-opened in the future. Plus, new houses will probably mean more future pupils!


Needless to say I've written another and sent it out :)

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Please help save our school!

If there is anybody out there who has been through a similar situation as this then I would appreciate some advice on what we can do to stop it.

The UK government has decided that small schools in Cheshire, UK are to be amalgamated to cut costs (to help fund invading some other country that is nothing to do with us no doubt) and my childrens school (Kingsley St Johns Primary School) is one of those. We are a small rural village in Cheshire and the school is the centre of the community providing excellent education for our children as well as extra curriclar activities.

The proposal is to merge Kingsley and Norley resulting in the closure of one of the schools. This means that the children from the school that gets closed will have to travel further to school making walking impossible So now we all have to use our cars and burn more fossil fuel because of the distance and unsafe road - no pavement for a good chunk of the way.

And what about those children who's parents do not own a car?

There is little public transport available, and none between the two villages, so how are these children expected to get to school? Young primary school children are far too young to be put on any school bus so the use of a car will become mandatory.

Some of the problems this merger will cause are:

Larger classes will result in the children getting less of the attention they need to progress,
The loss of a successful and caring school with a broad and balanced curriculum
As mentioned above road traffic, pollution and parking difficulties will increase.
Once a school has been closed and the land used for building (more houses no doubt) there is little chance it will ever be re-opened in the future. Plus, new houses will probably mean more future pupils!
I could rant a little more because I really am woried about the future education of my children and I really do not understand this government. On the one hand they are telling us that children are failing to learn to read and write properley and to sort this out they decide to close a number of schools that are successfully addressing this issue!

Anyway, enough ranting. If anybody anywhere has successfully fought a similar situation then please could you contact me (leave comments here) so that we can try some of the things you did.

Thank you.