Wokingham wants a Valentine's Card

There are now only 9 days left before Wokingham's consultation about its new Maiden Erlegh plans closes.

Incase the issue has passed you by, these are the plans by Wokingham Borough Council to prevent South Park's children being able to attend their closest school, Maiden Erlegh. For fuller details click here .This plan will also strangely exclude a large number of Wokingham children who live on the Wokingham Road and also in the roads around Maiden Erlegh. This is also the plan that was welcomed as "equitable" by Park Ward's Conservative Councillor. I attach an extract of his letter to Park Ward above for your amusement.

I was at the drop in meeting yesterday arranged by the Parents' Group. I was surprised to see that the Conservative Councillors were there but I was glad to see that they were getting a serious earful from the parents who are effected by their "equitable" solution.

So I am urging all residents of Park Ward, and those affected in the WBC area to write to Wokingham Borough Council as a matter of urgency. The Park Parents' Group have produced a very useful letter which I reproduce for you here. Please feel free to copy and paste it to use as a basis for your leaflet.

We will keep fitting and keep working to make sure that we get a fair solution that does not descriminate against Park's children. So 9 days to save the catchment area.

Sample Letter

Secondary Schools Admission Consultation YOUR ADDRESS HERE

 

Wokingham Borough Council

 

Civic Offices,

 

Shute End,

 

Wokingham, RG40 1BN

 

DATE HERE

 

Secondary Schools Admissions Consultation

Dear Sir or Madam

I appreciate the need to review the admissions arrangements but there is no pressing or urgent need for change in the case of Maiden Erlegh and Bulmershe (as confirmed by the Independent Review commissioned by WBC). The current DA and tie-break works perfectly well. Maiden Erlegh has a strong community from areas in both Wokingham and Reading.

 

It should be noted that all currently linked schools have very close ties with Maiden Erlegh and have exceptionally high transfer rates for pupils where that is possible.

I strongly object to the proposed changes to the Maiden Erlegh DA and tie-break for the following reasons:

Yours NAME and SIGN HERE

 

Reasons for objection

 

 

Size of Designated Area: It makes no sense to enlarge a DA so it is massively too big for the school capacity (as confirmed by the Independent Review commissioned by WBC)


Tie Break: The proposed tie-break gives many parents no way of assessing of a child will get a place at Maiden Erlegh. It is unstable near Maiden Erlegh and prioritises pupils that live 3km away over children that might live 300m away


It makes no sense to name the alternative when other schools (John Madjeski, Reading Girls and Forest are much closer) – the Borough Boundary is irrelevant in this matter. This system is not used anywhere else in the country – for good reason!


Social/Demographic Issues: This proposal clearly does not comply with the Schools Admission Code on this matter. The first area to be excluded by the tie-break is the most deprived area of the DA. It will adversely impact the diversity of Maiden Erlegh and The Bulmershe and deprive children of a chance at an ‘Outstanding’ school

Community: All children in Reading Borough and many children in Wokingham Borough Council will be allocated a place at Bulmershe in Woodley, which is not part of our community and much further away.



This will divide our community which surrounds the school, with some getting in and others not. And with no real certainty in any year where the cut off will be. In time, Maiden Erlegh School will become detached from the community living on its door step, serving a community which lives further away.



Many local parents made a decision to be in the Maiden Erlegh catchment area and are part of the Earley community that it serves. Our community has contributed Governors, PTA members and other people who have provided both professional and voluntary skills and talents to the school for many years. Why should these parents now be penalised when other residents did not make the active and positive decision to be part of the Maiden Erlegh catchment area?

Linked Schools: This will also impact on the links between the local primary schools (Aldryngton, Alfred Sutton, Loddon and Earley St Peters) and an outstanding secondary school. The staff and pupils benefit from close links with Maiden Erlegh –through staff training (for example the visual arts department). Transfer rates for children who attend these schools and live in the current Designated Area for Maiden Erlegh are very high. Siblings who attend Maiden Erlegh pick up their younger siblings at the end of the day at all of the local primary schools. This is a benefit recognised in the Admissions code in section 2.22. Moving these children to Bulmershe, makes this impossible

Child Safety: Parents without access to a car will have to let their children make an often hazardous journey to Bulmershe School. Children will have to cross a dangerous, busy road and negotiate a narrow bridge over a railway and motorway, all in darkness in winter. They will have to walk past a lonely, expanse of grassland, on their own if they have stayed at extracurricular activities after school.

Complexity and Clarity: The proposed tie-break is impossible to understand and unclear and gives parents in many areas no chance to predict their chances of a place. Again this clearly breaches the School Admissions Code

Traffic/Green Issues: WBC traffic surveys using the national guidelines are completely unrealistic. Independent Research states that as soon as the travel distance increases over a mile car travel vastly increases (despite what certain Lower Earley residents may be saying). This will vastly increase the numbers of car journeys to Maiden Erlegh and increase the number of car journeys to Bulmershe


Greenwich Judgement: The Schools Admissions Code and the Greenwich Judgement make it very clear that neighbouring boroughs must not be disadvantaged. That this is being done via an obscure tie-break rather than a boundary line is irrelevant as the effect is the same.

Reading children are being deprived of a place at an ‘Outstanding’ school and that fact that a different group of Wokingham children is being disadvantaged is irrelevant.

Appeals and Finances: Given that Maiden Erlegh will be first choice for more than 90% of parents in the new catchments area, many will be disappointed and will appeal against the place they have been allocated. This will in turn raise the number of appeals, the costs of which will fall to the school. As an academy, Maiden Erlegh School will have to employ a full time independent appeals co-ordinator – a huge waste of public finances and tax payers’ money

Parental Choice: This effectively removes all parental choice for all except a band stretching into Lower Earley

 

Please add your own arguments here: (e.g., your personal situation and any personal views you might want to add, including comments about the consultation process itself or the psychological impact on older primary school aged pupils, especially year 5 who have been left in a state of indecision about their education)

 

Wokingham's New Catchment Proposal -Bad News

I have just sent the email below to the peole who signed the Maiden Erlegh petition.

Dear Neighbour

Conservative led Wokingham Borough Council has now responded to the comments made by you and I to their initial consultation regarding the Maiden Erlegh catchment area. You may have read that Reading’s Tory Council administration and MP have welcomed the plan, however reading the documentation it is clear that the new proposals will leave Park Ward parents worse off rather than better off.

The new admission system effectively means that Maiden Erlegh will fill up from Lower Earley to Maiden Erlegh. This means that while South Park houses nominally remain in the Maiden Erlegh catchment area our children will be at the bottom of the pile for admission to Maiden Erlegh, their local school.

Each area is in a band which shows where children living in the new “joint” catchment will go to school.  Tory Wokigham’s Education Officers have stated  that, based on current admission estimates Maiden Erlegh will be full by the 1000m band on the map.

Tory Wokingham has produced the map below to explain the new catchment system. Looks simple doesn’t it?

Note: South Park is marked and its boundaries are approximate, they should not be taken as an indication of whether individual houses are in or out of the 1000m zone.

As  you can see 99% of all the homes in South Park are outside the 1000m zone.

As you can imagine many of those who have examined this map are extremely frustrated to hear or read than our Tory MP and Councillors have welcomed this proposal while it excludes South Parks children.

Next Steps

Wokingham have said that they plan to consult on this proposal. I would suggest that all those who commented at the last consultation write again to Wokingham expressing their dissatisfaction with their plan and proposing either a return to the Status Quo or a shared catchment based on simple linear distance from Maiden Erlegh.

As this situation develops I will, of course, keep you informed. Please feel free to forward this email to your friends and neighbours who might not receive this mail and feel free to email me back with any questions or comments you have.

Best regards

Cllr Ralph Tries to justify the unjustifiable

Cllr Mark Ralph is meeting the Parents Group this evening to try and justify why he has welcomed the new Wokingham proposals for the Maiden Erlegh catchment area, despite them virtually excluding Park's children from the school.

It will be a tough job. I remember sitting in meetings where he, and Cllr Balsdon, said they were foresquare behind parents and our fight. Despite this he has led the Condem coalition to support a proposal that is so blatently anti Reading children that it would be laughable if it wasn't so serious.

How will he do? Time will tell but I imagine he will have a difficult job. I will report after the meeting, could be an interesting one.

Torys Let Park's Children Over Maiden Erlegh Catchment Area

Came home from work to read Wokingham's proposed response to the Catchment Area Catchment area.

This response, which will be so eagerly awaited by Park's parents, has come down completely in favour of Lower Earley's children. It appears that Wokingham has completely ignored Park parents' and residents' comments. As I read it, the proposal places children, who live further away from Maiden Erlegh in Lower Erlegh, ahead of those who live in Park. This is because of a complicated distance calculation that will stop Lower Erlegh's children having to go to Bulmershe. I am going to spend my evening studying the document in detail. I will make a fuller comment over the weekend.

It is a shame that Tory MP Rob Wilson, and other welcomed the report which clearly discriminates against Park children.

I will be working with Cllr Jon Hartley, the Parents and the Residents of Park to make sure that everyone is fully informed and is able to respond to the consultation in a measured and calm way. We will continue to fight this to the very end.

Both Rob Wilson MP and Cllr Wazir Husain, who is after all a Wokingham resident, both refused to sign the petition in support of the campaign. It is now clear why, they are conniving with Wokingham to discriminate against their own residents. While they talked about supporting Park's residents they have basically allowed us to be stitched up by Wokingham.

Tories and Liberal Democrats on Reading Borough Council Fail their Voters.

This is a picture of the residents of Park Ward before the Council Meeting this evening, where we were bringing the Petition, to ask the Council to support us, Asking two questions, and Park Ward Councillor Jon Hartley was bringing a motion asking the Council to support the residents campaign and be willing if necessary to take legal advice in order to threaten Wokingham with legal action.

As you can see we are all relatively happy and looking forward to a positive meeting. Unfortunately the Tories and the Liberal Democrats combined to thwart the cross party consensus that has been built up and decided to attack members of the Parents group. I am very cross about the meeting, and may have been a little intemperate with my comments in the meeting, so apologise ,in public, if I spoke out of turn.

Petition Presentation.
I presented the petition, and asked the Council to support the more than 600 people who had taken the time to sign it. I asked a simple question, how far was the Tory/Lib Dem Council willing to go in support of parents. Councillor Ralph, lead Councillor for Education, hedged his answer and began to attack the Labour Party, This being despite the all party consensus about the issue that had previously been established.

Questions to Council
This is where it started to really kick off, Karly asked a reasonable question and got a non committal answer. I asked what the Council would do to support the campaign and Cllr Ralph indicated that he would reply to the consultation, but not threaten legal action. He the proceeded to attack me. Very nice, very cowardly, very weak.

Motion to Council
Cllr Jon Hartley had kindly arranged with the Mayor to bring the motion forward so we could hear it at a reasonable time. Jon proposed the motion and Cllr White seconded it. They made clear and cogent arguments as to why RBC should support the motion.

Then something odd happened, instead of Park Ward's Tory Councillor standing up and supporting the motion, which he had had in his hands for nearly 3 weeks, Cllr Ralph stood up and presented a counter Motion which removed any attempt to seek legal advice and which refused to threaten legal action.

And even stranger thing happened,Liberal Democrat Cllr Rebecca Rye, despite saying in an email that she supported parents, stood up and supported Cllr Ralph's weaker motion. In effect she went back on her word and refused to support the parents.

And then something even stranger happened. We were stabbed in the back by the two Tory Councillors who made as if they supported the campaign, that being Park Tory Cllr Hussain and Thames Tory Cllr Balsdon. Balsdon even had the gall to shout at a Green Road resident. Park Tory Hussain, stood up and simply supported his fellow Tories, while trying to soften the blow by soft soaping, myself, Jane and the other parent campaigners.

And then it got worse. The Tories, seemed to enjoy attacking the Parents in the public gallery, and especially me. They seemed to think that the campaign was some kind of political football rather than the cross party and cross community effort that it had been hitherto.

The Lib Dems were even worse. They divided their time between, attacking the parents, attacking the Labour group, attacking the Greens, or was that the Tories who attacked the Greens, I forget now. When they weren't spreading bile about the place they were texting or on Facebook. The two worst offenders were, Cllr Swaine, (Katesgrove), Cllr Daisy Benson ( Redlands). Benson was very rude, because she was actively laughing at the parents..


So the meeting dragged to a close. Balsdon attacking members of the public, Hussain, letting his constituents down, the Lib Dems who promised so much changing their tune and laughing at residents...No change their then.


We fight on.

Winston Churchill had a phrase when things had gone against him, that was Keep Buggering On. That is what we have to do, keep lobbying Reading Borough Council to support its residents, if necessary with legal action, keep lobbying Wokingham Borough Council, who sent a spy to the meeting, and keep responding to the consultation.