Consultation on proposed permanent expansion of Belleville Primary School

Dear Parent/Carer

Consultation on proposed permanent expansion of Belleville Primary School

I wrote to you on 6 October outlining the exceptionally high demand for reception places in many Wandsworth Primary schools, due to the rising birth rate. The Council created temporary additional places at a number of popular and oversubscribed schools including Belleville for September 2009.

My letter outlined details of a proposal to permanently expand Belleville Primary School and invited suggestions and comments from stakeholders. The results of the consultation exercise carried out in October and December 2009 showed that a sizeable number of parents of pupils at Belleville School had major concerns about the proposals to expand Belleville School on the current site. The main objections were in regard to overcrowding of the current site, a lack of playground space, local congestion, building noise and disturbance on the current school site. The Council has responded to these concerns by amending its proposals to include the development of suitable additional accommodation on another local site and this change will address those original concerns.

Some respondents to the original consultation suggested that the Council should invest funding in improving other schools in the Battersea area. The Council has an excellent record in supporting schools and has across the Borough 20 schools rated by OFSTED as outstanding. It will of course continue to try to raise standards in all the Borough’s schools but expanding schools in other parts of Battersea will not address the demand for places in the Northcote area. The majority of parents want to be able to access their local school and addressing the demand in the Belleville/ Honeywell catchment area needs a local solution.

New Proposals for Belleville School

The Council now proposes to permanently enlarge Belleville School by creating one new form of entry (30 pupils) at a new site which will be located on the site of the former Vines School in Forthbridge Road, SW11. The site will become part of Belleville School which will operate on two sites. The current admission number for the school is 90 children and the proposed admission number will be 120, with 30 children in each year group being taught on the Forthbridge Road site. Both sites would be under the management of the existing leadership and governance at Belleville Primary School.

The building on the Forthbridge Road site is in need of refurbishment but the accommodation is suitable and generous for a one form entry school and with some remodelling will provide very good accommodation. The playground space available for the pupils will be significantly larger per pupil than at the current Belleville Road site.

As part of this proposal, if there is sufficient demand in September 2010, then an additional 30 pupils will be admitted to the reception age group. Additional temporary accommodation will be provided at the Belleville site until the permanent accommodation at the Vines site is ready in 2011

The Council welcomes views from all those with an interest in Belleville School and looks forward to receiving your comments and suggestions on the new proposals for expansion, which I hope will address the concerns raised by the earlier expansion scheme.

Yours sincerely

Bruce Glockling
BSF (Building Schools for the Future) Project Director

PARENT FORUM ON WEDNESDAY 27th JANUARY

Parent Forum Wednesday 27th at 9.30 am, after School drop off in the new classroom.
It will be a great opportunity to hear about and ask questions about the new proposals for expanding Belleville, and the plans for taking on another 4th reception class next year.

Message from John Grove

I have sent a newsletter that updates the situation about the proposed expansion. I hope I will be able to send out the Local Authority consultation paper early next week.bI have already offered an additional forum meeting to discuss this and any other issue and further meetings will be offered as soon as we can check diary dates.

Plans to expand Belleville site 'withdrawn'

Councillor: "The physical expansion of the Belleville School buildings has been withdrawn"

Reply from Councillor Mrs. Kathy Tracey to email from parent:

Thank you for your email/memo. You will have seen from Paul Robinson’s paper that the physical expansion of the Belleville School buildings has been withdrawn from the suggested increase of primary places and replaced by the Vines School building. During the initial consultation on the expansion of Belleville School it was made clear by the present parents of pupils at Belleville School that they felt the educational opportunities for their children could be affected by the physical expansion of the school. I promised in the public meeting to listen carefully and not compromise the outstanding educational achievement of the school. If it is possible to open the Vines School site as a split site school under the governance of Belleville School I believe I will have fulfilled that promise.
In your final paragraph of the memo you talk about our other Wandsworth schools and nurturing them, I can assure you that we do. The primary places expansion has to take into account where the pupils of the future are living and if it is not possible to expand the schools in the areas they are, I believe any journey those future parents will have to make should be as easy as possible to our very best schools rather than journeys to schools to areas that serve very small communities and might have spare places because of that.
It is a long and sometimes fraught decision making process to provide sufficient primary places in the right locations. Wandsworth Council believe in a full and public consultation process and your views and those of other parents are valued. Sometimes the Council has to take strategic decisions that do not accord with the view of present users of a service however I believe in this case both present and future parents will be happy with a decision to use the vines school site if it is as I hope administratively possible.

'It is proposed to re-consult on the option to expand Belleville School from a 3FE to a 4FE school but this time based on a split site'.

The following are extracts from a paper that has been put on the Council website.

Here are the extracts which I seem to confirm our feeling that The Paddock/Vines site (PHOTOS HERE) looks like the most likely option for the expansion of Belleville School:

13. PRIMARY SCHOOL PLACES
The Forum received a report (Paper No. 09-960) on the expansion of a number of primary schools in the Borough in order to meet rising demand.
Mrs. Haddon declared a non-prejudicial interest in this item as a member of the Governing Body of Alderbrook School, which it had been decided should not be expanded at the present time. She reported that the agreed expansion of Belleville School had raised concerns at Alderbrook that higher-attaining pupils might be lost to Belleville in the higher years. In reply, Councillor Mrs Tracey indicated that the details of the expansion of Belleville had yet to be decided, and that the expansion might affect only the infant classes.

New School - Former Vines site [Paddock], SW11, (Shaftesbury)

16. This site is currently occupied by the Paddock Primary School which will relocate to its new site in Putney in Summer 2010. The site could be improved and made into a 1FE mainstream school at a relatively low cost. At the same time, it would be possible to sell the former schoolkeeper’s house attached to the site. Any expansion of places is required to address the shortage of places in Northcote Ward around Belleville and Honeywell Schools, so the catchment area for this School needs to be based around one or both of these two schools. As the site is located closer to Belleville School, it is proposed to reconsult on the option to expand Belleville School from a 3FE to a 4FE school but this time based on a split site. Utilising the former Vines site in this way will address the objections to the previous expansion proposal which were based on the lack of playground space, building disturbance and local congestion. As work would be required on the current buildings to make them fit for purpose, this additional site would not be available until 2011.

PERMANENT EXPANSIONS
14. The following options for permanent expansion are proposed. More detail on each of the options is set out after the table. The costs at this stage are very round estimates and further work would be required to firm up the details proposals and the costs. At this stage, it is recommended that initial consultation is undertaken on these options.

TABLE 3
Schools Completion Date Cost £m Additional FE
Hillbrook September 2012 £4.6M 1 Form Entry
New School-Former
Vines site September 2011 £2.0M 1 Form Entry

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[For info:
THE MEMBERS OF THE CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE'S SERVICES OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE are hereby summoned to attend a MEETING of the COMMITTEE which will be held at THE TOWN HALL, WANDSWORTH HIGH STREET, LONDON, SW18 2PU (ROOM 123) on THURSDAY, 14TH JANUARY, 2010 at 7.30 p.m.
The agenda for the meeting is set out below.
G. K. JONES
Chief Executive and Director of Administration
COMMITTEE: Councillor Peter Dawson (Chairman); Councillors Mrs. Strickland,
Mrs. Dunn, Walden, Cuff, Davies, Ms Gasser, Gibbons, Mrs. V. Graham, Jacob, Knowles and Larsson.]

Councillor Dawson confirms that The Vines/Paddock site is under consideration

Dear Eileen
Thank you for your letter about the proposals to expand Belleville School.
First can I confirm that I formally presented the petition from parents that you gave me at the November Belleville meeting at the Council meeting yesterday evening though as you are probably aware it was referred to in the supplementary report to the Council's Executive at their meeting on November 23rd.
Further I want to assure you that all the various submissions from current parents, prospective parents and other local residents; the comments at the meeting with parents in November and the response from the school governors are being considered very seriously by the Council before it reaches any conclusions. In the meantime the Council's Executive has asked officers to continue working not just on the feasibility of expanding the school but to look also at possible alternatives that could provide additional places in this area including the use of the school in Forthbridge Road (formerly The Vines which is being used on a temporary basis this year by Paddock school). I would hope that the outcome of this further work will be available fairly early in the new year.
Thank you again for letting me know your views.
With kind regards,
Peter Dawson
Councillor Northcote Ward Battersea
Tel 020 7223 7542

The Paddock/Vines option is still under consideration

Our sources have suggested that while the expansion of the existing Belleville site isn't being ruled out, the Paddock/Vines site is indeed being examined, although there needs to be a feasibilty study of some kind.
Should the Paddock option be chosen it seems likely that Mr Grove would be involved, but a variety of logistical problems would need to be overcome first (assuming the site is big enough). For example, should there be a new single form entry mini school, or should years 5 & 6 occupy the new site? How would parents/carers cope if they had children at both sites. What, if any, alterations would need to be done, and how much would they cost? Would parents be happy to send their children to the new school?

Two recent letters from parents to council

Dear Sirs,

I have been keeping up to date with the proposed expansion & attended the initial pre-consultation meeting at Belleville School on Nov 2nd.

The issues that I share with many parents & my personal insights into this are as follows:

The initial plans that we were shown have been ill thought through with regards to the access, safety of the children at the school.
No matter how big the demands of the community, the children who are already attending the school come first.
Adding 150 children to the school will not be enough to satisfy demand. A new primary school in a new location is the only realistic solution.
The school is already at capacity in the playgrounds & common areas – No amount oof time scheduling will alleviate another 150 children, parents & teachers.
There are already detailed case studies that illustrate how 'super sized' schools can affect children's well being & learning capabilities.
Adding lifts into the school will not make it more desirable, just that it will make children less active.
The proposed playground space per child will decrease – these spaces are already overrcrowded.
No amount of safe guards or financial penalties will be enough to 100% guarantee the health & safety concerns on the actual building works. Major issues over dust, noise pollution, objects falling into the playground + adjacent occupied classrooms will be subjected to major disruption too.
Contractors rarely deliver on time even with financial penalties in place.
Long term strategies cannot be allowed to happen if our children suffer in the short term - this is not a simple cost / benefit scenario – Our children have to come first. This is non-negotiable.

My conclusion is that I cannot support the expansion of Belleville School & I would like this email to go on the record to that effect.

Geoff Smith
Digital Director, Catalogue
EMI Music
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Dear Mr Dawson,

My name is Eileen Kiernan and I am a parent of two Children at Belleville School. I have been very active in the consultation and voting process regarding the permanent expansion of Belleville School.

As you know, there is much evidence to suggest that Belleville School is not the only option and certainly not the best option that Wandsworth has to supply spaces for children in September 2010. There are many empty spaces around the borough and also a [soon to be] empty school (Forthbridge Road, SW11) waiting to be filled and transformed.

Belleville parents and registered voters will want to know how their Council Members voted in regards to the permanent expansion of Belleville School. A vote for expansion will disrupt the education of hundreds of children, decrease the outdoor space they have and make Belleville School the most densely populated primary school in the country.

The Council’s short-term focus on education will have a drastic effect on the entire borough. Wandsworth Schools will continue to lose students, and therefore funding, to Belleville School. This will create a massive imbalance in the educational opportunities for children across the borough.

I implore you to make a difficult decision to vote against the expansion of Belleville School.
All schools need funding and nurturing…a strong Head to lead, funding to recruit outstanding teachers and government support to improve facilities. This funding can only be obtained if enrolment stays high and the current government creates equal opportunities for all schools and therefore all children.

Thank you for your consideration,

Eileen Kiernan, Parent

Small primary school tops league table

Read about it here

Wandsworth Council to receive money for primary places

[This is an interesting development and it's hard to know how this might affect the proposed expansion. Taken from: http://www.martinlinton.org.uk/ ]

.... Wandsworth has received the third highest allocation of funds from the Department for Children, Schools and Families for the provision of primary school places. Nearly eighteen million (£17,902,000) has been allocated by the Government to create sufficient primary school places in Wandsworth.

This money is very welcome support from the Government due to the shortage of primary school places. Former school sites such as John Milton, Ehelburga, Joseph Tritton and The Vines have been sold off by Wandsworth Council which has contributed to the shortage of school places. This deficit is worrying with the growing population of children entering primary school in Wandsworth.

At the time of Wandsworth’s closure Martin Linton gave evidence against the closure of John Milton school in 2004, predicting that Wandsworth would need additional school places in the near future. His prediction has been proven right.

The Government has made these funds available as it became apparent that local authorities needed not only more money but larger flexibility in its application criteria. It is now the responsibility of the Wandsworth Council to appropriately maximise these funds for the thousands of families in Wandsworth in need of primary school places.

Wandsworth Borough Council update on expansion for Belleville

Read it here

Teachers' view on expansion

The teaching staff at Belleville are said to be positive about the proposed expansion. They say that they would be happy to offer a good education to more children in the area and feel that the logistical problems could be overcome, as has happened when the school expanded in the past.

Paddock School - more info

The following are extracts taken from Wandsworth consultation document:
"Full proposal for the prescribed alteration to Greenmead, Linden Lodge and Paddock Schools."

Paddock School
Paddock School’s primary department is temporarily located at Forthbridge Road, SW11,whilst its future site at St Margaret’s Crescent, SW15, is undergoing refurbishment.These works are due to complete in December 2009. Work on the additional classroomwill start immediately on completion of the refurbishment. It is anticipated that the primary department will relocate to their new site for September 2010.
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There is currently a major redevelopment programme taking place for Paddock School. Once this is complete the primary department will be permanently located at St Margaret’s Crescent next to Greenmead School. The secondary department at Priory Lane is also being refurbished.
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Expansion of capacity
Some respondents from Paddock were concerned about the possibility of over-crowding following the increase in capacity. Prior to the current redevelopment the single site of Paddock School was cramped and presented challenges in dealing with the mix of age groups. The school is now split over 2 sites and once the building works have been completed will be in accommodation which has been specifically designed to meet the needs of the children. Funding for an additional classroom at the primary department has been agreed to extend the nursery as there is pressure on primary placements.
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All of the above should mean that the Forthbridge Road site should be empty at the end of the summer term 2010. Would this give the council enough time to turn it in to a new primary school that might satisfy the demand for primary school places in the Northcote Ward? One might speculate that saving £6.72 million by not expanding Belleville should leave plenty of scope for the development of a new school, or even one run as a new wing of Belleville, although it's possible that the site may have been earmarked for a different use or for selling off.

Read/download the full council report here

Telegraph article about Supersize Primary Schools

The Daily Telegraph article mentions Belleville School. Read it here.

Belleville School Expansion: Questions from Concerned Parents

A group of concerned parents have drawn up a document of questions and concerns regarding the proposal to permanently expand Belleville Primary School from a three form entry to a four form entry. The document examines the rationale for Belleville, the overall Wandsworth wide strategy, the benefits versus costs, research on the issue of size of primary schools and the funding issue. It has been made available to the School Governors and to Wandsworth Council. You can access it here

Summary of Council's proposal for expansion

SUMMARY
Advantages of Option 1.
1. All accommodation is kept within or extended from the footprint of the existing main building which maximises the outside play area. This is an important consideration for the school especially as the number of children using the play area will be increasing.
Disadvantages of Option 1.
1. The site levels mean the existing building steps down in two places. The major extension work would make it necessary to improve accessibility which is complicated. Three new lifts have been allowed for which improves access for wheelchair users but do not make the building fully compliant. Zones of the building will be fully accessible but connecting these zones is not practical without severe disruption to the building.
The access strategy would need to be discussed with the school and a careful management plan implemented.
2. The existing WC facilities would be demolished at the main extension through the school house end. Therefore temporary WC accommodation would need to be provided throughout the works.
3. The school house would be demolished. A new school house could be built near the demolished nursery in line with the existing terraced housing. This has not been allowed for in the cost.

CONCLUSION
Option 1 satisfies the brief, increasing accommodation and improving some existing fabric whilst maintaining loss of playground. It is the most compact solution to a difficult site.


Click here to download the above as well as the Architectural, Mechanical and Electrical consultants' comments

Paddock School photos

The Paddock School on Forthbridge Rd (backing on to the brilliantly named Meteor Rd) is being talked of as another option that Wandsworth Council are looking at.

It seems from the Council's consultation document that there are plans to move the pupils to a different site: "There is currently a major redevelopment programme taking place for Paddock School.
Once this is complete the primary department will be permanently located at St Margaret’s Crescent next to Greenmead School. "
This would seem to leave the council with an empty school on its hands, possibly providing an alternative to the expansion of Belleville School.
Could this be good news for those against the expansion plans? It would seem on the face of it to offer a solution to the immediate shortage of suitable school places in the area, although those seeking to share the Belleville experience would be putting their faith in a new school. Would there be a possibility of Belleville School and/or its head being involved in the new school were it to be created?
As a single story construction one would imagine that the school could easily be enlarged to increase capacity if necessary.
And rumour has it, this is becoming a more viable option for the council.

Leave your comments by clicking on the header above, and filling in the box.

The comment below was posted by me but not written by me - Jim

Another letter to Governors from parent

To: Sue Harris, Chairman of the Governors, Belleville School
As a parent and a local resident I am writing to express my concern at the proposed plans for expansion of Belleville School. Whilst I appreciate the need to address the pressure on primary school places in the local area, I am concerned that there does not appear to have been effort put into developing an integrated plan involving numbers of schools across Wandsworth. Instead, putting all investment money into expanding a single school in a property hotspot will largely benefit a few wealthier residents at the expense of other schools in the area.

Secondary Schooling

The most significant problem in education provision is the lack of secondary school places. Those parents with children leaving primary education have two choices; put their children into private education or leave the area.
Providing more primary places does not address this issue, and spending significant capital sums on further provision of primary places will result in fewer funds and opportunities to develop secondary provision.

Demographic

The recent November 3rd meeting at Belleville to discuss the expansion plans, the issue of the rising birthrate was discussed. This was presented as a demographic issue, whereas what is being seen is the influx of couples or young families into the ‘between the commons’ area, rather than a statistical quirk. The Ofsted success of Belleville is clearly a factor in driving demand for property, with demand driving up property prices in the area.
As a result of these pressures, the catchment radius was presented as a few hundred yards. If the radius is 400 yards, then increasing to a four form entry will increase the catchment radius to at best 500 yards. The marketing power of this ‘super primary’ will further attract young families, which will:

1) erode the margin gained , driving back the catchment radius
2) Ensure that the Belleville parent profile becomes increasingly narrow and self selecting to those wealthy enough to be able to afford the £1M+ properties.

As the secondary school provision is non-existent, this increased number of Belleville parents will still be forced to send their children to private schools or leave the area as their children near secondary school age.

Other Options

Whilst it is legitimate to at least consider some expansion of Belleville as part of a plan to address primary education in the Wandsworth and Clapham Common areas, the weakness of the proposed plan is that this is the only option being considered.
The pressure on places is highly localised. For instance, Wix’s Junior School Reception is undersubscribed. Surely a more cost effective, balanced and equitable plan could deploy some of the successful teaching practices and staff that have driven the success of Belleville into other schools in the area area, raising the standard of educational attainment in the area as a whole and ensuring that a wider cross section of children can benefit from improved educational standards, rather than just those who can afford properties between the commons.

In summary, this is a weak plan for the following reasons:

1. Belleville Catchment Radius gains will be modest, and at least partially self defeating as demand will be further escalated, increasing pressure on places and driving the radius back down.
2. The investment of £6M will only benefit those wealthy enough to afford expensive housing in the immediate area.
3. It will not address the secondary school, issue, and indeed exacerbate it, as more primary school children will be left without state secondary education places, driving their families out.

John Simpson, Parent of Children in 3C and 1VB

Letter from parents to the Governors

We are writing to you because, unfortunately, neither I nor my partner Judith will be able to attend your open session on Monday and we wanted to have the opportunity to register our view. We are parents of a child in year 2 and hope that our daughter will follow him in the future.

On balance, we support the plans to expand Belleville. We are extremely fortunate to have Belleville in our community. We should consider not just the needs of children currently at Belleville, but also of those children who are currently denied places because they do not live quite close enough. We believe that children should have the opportunity to be educated in their local school. That is not currently possible for all children living in our area, given Belleville’s and Honeywell’s popularity and the demand for places. The expansion will clearly allow more local children to go to their neighbourhood school.

That said, we very much sympathise with the concerns of parents about the potential impact of the expansion on the quality of education at the school in the long-term as well as the potential short-term impact of the building works. We do not believe that enough has been done to explain how the quality of education currently provided will be maintained. Parents are being asked to take too much on faith.

There are very few primary schools in the UK of more than 800 pupils (according to a Parliamentary answer on 29 October 14,127 pupils are currently studying in primary schools of more than 800 pupils, i.e. at most, there are 17 schools of this size in the UK). If you move on to the next stage of consultation, which we hope you do, it would be helpful to look in detail at the evidence on impact on quality of education in these schools. It would also be helpful to set out much more clearly the plans for continuing to deliver a high quality education at Belleville. Currently, these appear very sketchy. We would welcome a commitment from you and the Local Authority to reconsider the expansion plans, should such evidence show there is a detrimental impact on quality of education in schools of this size.

Peter Holland & Judith Kent

Addendum to report by the Director of Children’s Services on the provision of Primary School Places

The consultation period for the proposed expansion schemes at Beatrix Potter School, SW18 (Wandsworth Common) has been extended to 16th November 2009, to allow more time for comments and response in light of the recent postal strikes. At the request of both parents and governors the consultation period for the proposed expansion scheme at Belleville School, SW11 (Northcote) has been extended to the 20th November 2009 to allow for full consultation. An update on the current position for both schools is summarised in this addendum report.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. This report is submitted to the Children and Young People’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee for information. No decisions are required to be made on it by the Council, the Executive or the regulatory and other committees.

2. However, if the Children and Young People’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee decides that recommendations on it need to be made, these will be submitted to the Executive and/or appropriate regulatory and other Committees for consideration.

UPDATE TO CONSULTATION RESPONSES

3. PA3 (Earlsfield). A total of 45 responses to the consultation have been received to date for Beatrix Potter School, SW18 (Wandsworth Common). Responses continue to show a large majority in favour of the expansion. Of these respondents, 41 are parents and four are staff. A number of respondents have raised concerns about the school’s catchment area, available play space and possible disruption to the school during the building works. This will be addressed as part of the building development process.

4. PA4B. (Balham and Northcote). Following a request for more information on the proposals, a question and answer sheet on the Council’s proposals to expand Belleville School, SW11 (Northcote) was distributed to all parents at the school prior to the October half-term holiday. A consultation meeting for parents, staff and governors was held at Belleville Primary School on 2nd November 2009. The proposals were explained in more detail and attendees had an opportunity to put forward their views on the proposed expansion scheme. The Council has also shared its feasibility studies with parents and stakeholders by ensuring that links to these studies have been posted on both the Belleville Primary School and Council websites. The main concerns raised by parents were about disruption caused by the building works, the impact on playspace of the both the works and the additional number of children and the organisational difficulties of a very large primary school. A number of respondents queried the possibility of expanding alternative schools nearby, or building a completely new school instead.

5. Following this meeting the governors plan to hold an ‘open day’ on 16th November 2009 to give parents an opportunity to meet the governing body and discuss the proposal. The Governors will then hold a governing body meeting and submit their response.

6. In addition to these meetings the School has been holding meetings for prospective admissions in 2010. These meetings have demonstrated that there remains a buoyant demand for a 4FE school. While 4FE primary schools are uncommon there are sufficient to show that schools of this size can work well but concerns regarding the practicality of operating a school of this size on the Belleville site remain. The consultation needs to be completed and further feasibility studies undertaken on both the building scheme and the future operational arrangements prior to any recommendations being made on whether to publish a notice for the expansions of the School. In addition, further consideration will be given to possible alternatives to provide additional places in the area.

CONCLUSION

7. In the light of increasing demand for school places it will be necessary to ensure that there are sufficient additional places to meet this demand. Further work on the options for Belleville and the surrounding area will be undertaken before making recommendations on any expansion scheme

PAUL ROBINSON (Director of Children’s Services)