Presentation to the Education Children and Families Committee
08/09/09 12:18
This morning three of the parent council from Trinity made a deputation to the Education Children & Families Committee at the city chambers, protesting against the proposed closure of Fort and the transfer of all children to Trinity. The format of the deputation was that each school threatened with closure was given 10 minutes to make a presentation, followed by questions from the committee. Receiving schools, such as Trinity, followed each of the schools targeted for closure with their own presentations.
During their session, Fort presented an alternative proposal to the committee that would allow Fort to remain open while closing Victoria Park Child and Family Centre, to combine it with Fort’s early years centre. This proposal addresses the council's need to reduce surplus capacity at the school and also generate capital from the sale of the Victoria Park Child and Family Centre. As well as avoiding the overcrowding of Trinity and loss of community at Fort, this proposal avoids one of the fundamental problems with the council's proposal, the fact that Fort would only close temporarily and there would be additional costs associated with the conversion from a school and then back again. This is a proposal that we feel should be taken seriously by the council as if reflects the needs of this area and puts the needs of the individual children first.
Our presentation was focused upon the impact to Trinity of accommodating the additional children from Fort and the high levels of overcrowding that would result from this move. In particular we highlighted the huge class sizes that would result from this move, the loss of the specialist rooms that are presently within the school and the practical difficulties in running the schol with this level of overcrowding. The councillors took the opportunity to question us on the detail of the changes within the school, the background to the 'creation' of the 15th classroom and the safety of the routes to school of children travelling from Fort.
During the question and answer session we were also asked our views on how circumstances had changed since the previous proposal to close Fort and merge with Trinity was dismissed in 2004. Our viewe on this is that, aside from the creation of a convenient additional classroom, little has changed - the school roll has only fallen slightly and the only significant change is in the council's budget.
The presentation we made to the committee is available through the downloads page of the website.
The Fort presentation is now also available through the downloads page.
During their session, Fort presented an alternative proposal to the committee that would allow Fort to remain open while closing Victoria Park Child and Family Centre, to combine it with Fort’s early years centre. This proposal addresses the council's need to reduce surplus capacity at the school and also generate capital from the sale of the Victoria Park Child and Family Centre. As well as avoiding the overcrowding of Trinity and loss of community at Fort, this proposal avoids one of the fundamental problems with the council's proposal, the fact that Fort would only close temporarily and there would be additional costs associated with the conversion from a school and then back again. This is a proposal that we feel should be taken seriously by the council as if reflects the needs of this area and puts the needs of the individual children first.
Our presentation was focused upon the impact to Trinity of accommodating the additional children from Fort and the high levels of overcrowding that would result from this move. In particular we highlighted the huge class sizes that would result from this move, the loss of the specialist rooms that are presently within the school and the practical difficulties in running the schol with this level of overcrowding. The councillors took the opportunity to question us on the detail of the changes within the school, the background to the 'creation' of the 15th classroom and the safety of the routes to school of children travelling from Fort.
During the question and answer session we were also asked our views on how circumstances had changed since the previous proposal to close Fort and merge with Trinity was dismissed in 2004. Our viewe on this is that, aside from the creation of a convenient additional classroom, little has changed - the school roll has only fallen slightly and the only significant change is in the council's budget.
The presentation we made to the committee is available through the downloads page of the website.
The Fort presentation is now also available through the downloads page.