West children to get local places after all

Greendown headteacher Steve OšSullivan, looking forward to improved education opportunities for West Swindon children created by expansion

West Swindon parents' fears that children might have to travel to Hreod Parkway or Churchfields School because of the lack of space at Greendown and Bradon Forest schools have been allayed after the Greendown governors agreed to expand the school in Grange Park by 150 pupils over the next five years.

Following a meeting with Swindon's education managers Tribal Group on 10 June, the governors accepted Swindon Council's proposal to spend £3 million on new construction and internal rebuilding.

Parents of some 27 children were due to make appeals to Greendown , after they had been rejected from thei r first choice of Bradon Forest School. If the governors had not changed their position they would have faced making a trip outside West Swindon to schools which are in special measures after failing their Ofsted inspections.

The governors had been in negotiation with Swindon Council about further growth for nearly a year, but after the council erected unfit buildings in 1999 they refused to agree to expand until they had guarantees about the quality of the buildings, appropriate provision of classrooms, a hall and social space as well as good management of the project.

Chair of governors Andrew Basson said, "whilst we recognised the need to cater for West Swindon families, we had to be satisfied that our students and staff would be well catered for. We are happy to form a partnership with Tribal for the benefit of existing and future children at the school."

Greendown headteacher Steve O'Sullivan said the new building programme would create excellent educational opportunities for the school.

Temporary classrooms will be installed in August and new buildings should be ready for January 2004.

West Swindon Parents Improving Education (WSPIE), which has been campaigning for more places at Bradon and Greendown since February when it became clear that not all primary school children transferring to secondary school could be educated in their local community unless more spaces were made available, has expressed relief that the situation has improved.

Marc Tielemans,WSPIE secretary, said, "having dealt with the immediate crisis of obtaining a place for our children in September, we are now turning our attention to next year as well as the wider educational issues in Swindon. WSPIE has become the mechanism for parents to voice their concerns to the Council and we want to continue this role. We have developed into an experienced team of individuals who understand what the issues are in Swindon as far as education is concerned and are keen to make sure parents can go somewhere for help.

"We are busy recruiting parents from other parts of Swindon to join our group. It is important that we represent not just the Western expansion but also the whole of Swindon and we would encourage interested parents to get in touch as soon as possible.

"We will be working with Tribal Group to address issues such as admissions for September 2003, home-to-school transport, expansion of Bradon Forest school, communication with parents and schools, improvement of educational standards in schools across Swindon . Many parents are ill informed and believe that, with the expansion of Greendown going ahead, the future looks bright in West Swindon."