Summary of responses to consultation on the proposal for

Heatherlands First School to become a primary school from September 2013

Total respondents - 150

91Parents of children at Heatherlands

Of which 48also have children attending 1 or more of the following schools:

Preschool (43) Branksome Heath Middle (7)St Aldhelm’s Academy (2)

11Parents of children at other schools including:

Branksome Heath Middle (7), Sylvan First (4),St Aldhelm’s Academy (2), Manorside Combined (2), Winchelsea (1)

15Parents of pre-school children

Sunbeams (10), Little Fish pre-school (1), Sandcastles Daycare (1)

1Residents

5Governors of Heatherlands school

Including 1 Councillor

24School staff

Including 2 staff from on-site nursery

1Councillor

2Not stated

OPTION / NO. OF RESPONSES / COMMENTS
Option 1 – support the proposal for Heatherlands First School to become a Primary School from 2013. / 142 /
  • Parent –Both my children went to Heatherlands. It is a very good and secure school and I would like to see it become a Primary School to benefit its future pupils and to help parents who currently experience the rush of getting different aged children to separate schools (i.e. Heatherlands and Branksome).
  • Parent - I would like my child to attend this primary school.
  • Parent - I would like to comment that I think the school needs to seriously review its before and after school facilities as current options are not ideal for older children and will not be enough provision for extra pupils.
  • Parent of current pupil and child in preschool - A great opportunity for growth, continuing education in a great environment and siblings to be at same school for longer.
  • Parent of current pupil and child in preschool - Very keen for proposal to go ahead. Have never understood First and Middle school set up. This hopefully will encourage more people to walk to school too, as they will not have to do 2 separate school runs.
  • Parent - I feel that Heatherlands becoming a primary school is essential to the community.
  • Parent - I feel that Heatherlands becoming a primary school is essential to the community.
  • Parent - I think it would be great to expand the school. I have seen the plans and it looks great and my child would be happy staying there.
  • Parent - With Sylvan expanding to 5 form entry, Branksome Heath cannot cope with this increase in numbers. To convert Heatherlands to a Primary school seems the most logical and practical solution.
  • School staff - The continuity of education from Reception through to Year 6 will be of huge benefit to the local community.
  • Headteacher - I believe that Heatherlands Primary School will be an outstanding asset to the local community!
  • Deputy Headteacher - A well-equipped primary school at the heart of the community will help provide a centre of excellence for young people to thrive both emotionally and academically.
  • Staff / Parent of child at a combined school - I am excited to think that the expert teaching and care the staff provide at Heatherlands will soon be extended to children up to age 11! About time!
  • Governor - A primary school will ensure the traffic congestion is eased as parents will not have to take to a first and middle with children of varying ages. Continuity of education from 5 years to 11 years is more beneficial to our young children. (Heatherlands)
  • Parent – the proposal meets the current and developing needs for school age children in these year groups. It is definitely in the community’s interest to extend the school to a primary.
  • Parent of children in pre-school and first school – This is a fantastic idea and opportunity for all children.
  • Parent – It would be great if Heatherlands became a primary school as children gain more confidence and learn more when they are secure and happy. Staying at Heatherlands till they are 11 would be the best start my girls could have.
  • Parent of pre-school child – Very happy for my children to attend one school throughout their primary years.
  • Pre-school staff - Brilliant idea.
  • Parent – very happy for my children to stay at one school for the whole primary years.
  • Parent – This proposal would enable both our children to remain at Heatherlands (an excellent school) until the age of 11. This would be hugely to their benefit.
  • Parent – This would benefit both of our children hugely. Heatherlands is a fantastic school and for our children to stay there until 11 would be brilliant.
  • Parent of pre-school child – We are very excited by the proposal and support it fully.
  • Parent - Heatherlands needs to expand to a primary status, due to the high number of children living in the area.
  • School Governor – No alternative option. We need the extra places to fulfil our legal obligation to or youngsters.
  • Parent of pre-school child - I am very please to hear Heatherlands will be changing to a primary school.
  • Parent – this proposal gives much needed extra places and is very well planned. I very much hope that you go ahead with it. I would love to see my son stay on here.
  • Parent of a pre-school child – I support the proposal for Heatherlands First School to become a Primary school from 2013.
  • Parent - This is an excellent proposal that perfectly meets the needs of parents and pupils in the area.
  • Parent of pre-school child– An excellent proposal. Any impact on traffic and parking will be offset by parents not dropping children at Heatherlands and Branksome. This should encourage parents to walk to the school.
  • Parent of pre-school child - We are fully supportive of the proposal for Heatherlands to become a primary school in 2013. Our child loves this school, to be able to stay on would be fantastic.
  • Parent of pre-school child – I think it will be better as a primary school because it will save moving your child to a different school once they are used to it.
  • Parent – as a parent and local resident I am 100% behind the proposal and truly believe that the new school system will be an improvement and reduce travel congestion in the local area.
  • Governor – the Governors saw a need for the school to become a primary school to provide continuity for pupils and avoid unnecessary change of school and interruption in their education. I will welcome a return of Heatherlands to primary status.

Option 2 – do not support the proposal fro Heatherlands First School to become a Primary school from 2013 and would prefer it to become an Infant School (Yr R-2) from 2013, under the existing plans to change the age of transfer / 2 /
  • Governor of middle school- The Heatherlands site location is unsuitable for an increase in pupil numbers. The roads are grid locked at school times, especially Recreation Road, this would get worse. Better to increase capacity at Branksome Heath.
  • Parent at Manorside School - This would have a direct impact on the existing schools in the area which already have these facilities. They will suffer if these plans go ahead – do we not already have enough in this area as some of the existing schools are not up to capacity. It would be a waste of funds and resources.

Option 3 – alternative option / 0

Mrs Burgess - did not tick for or against the proposal but left the following comment:

My concern is that Branksome Heath will be left with a mainly Council estate catchment. PISA survey states that students from schools with a largely poor background tend to do worse than others.

From:

Sent: 07 October 2011 10:33
To: Laura Cook; Rachel Folley
Subject: Heatherlands First School Primary Status

Dear Laura / Rachel,

Following on from yesterdays consultation meeting at Heatherlands First School, I would like to submit some comments and observations in connection with this matter.

As a former pupil, local resident, former employee and new parent to the school, Heatherlands is a very special place to me and holds a lot of happy memories. Both my husband and I are whole-heartly behind the proposals to change the school to a Primary School and feel that the benefits that this will bring far outway the short term inconvenience anticipated with traffic and construction.

However, there are two key observations that I would like to document for consideration and are in no way a criticism of the existing practice conducted at the school, but feel as though they should be considered as part of the reformation process.

Firstly, is the issue of staffing. I know from experience that all the staff and governors at the school work exceptionally hard and always endeavour to go over and above when it comes to making the learning environment at the school the best they can for the children that attend. Our concern is that the leadership team will be in a position where they are having to recruit new staff to cover the curriculum for the older children and will be reliant on the experience of new members of staff in order to drive the key stage 2 aspect of the school. I would welcome the notion of some support being provided to the school's leadership team, even if it is only temporarily, assist with the recruitment process to ensure that the right people are appointed first time as well as supporting the first year of the primary school to troubleshoot and resolve any issues that may arise in order for the children not to be affected by any mistakes or learning experiences that could have been avoided.

Secondly, is the issue of reputation and perception. Having worked within the school, I personally feel that despite the efforts made by staff to provide an excellent standard of learning to the pupils, the reputation of Heatherlands as an excellent school is not as widely known as it should be. With other schools in the area, such as Lilliput and Courthill, many parents I have spoken to put these schools as preferential learning establishments purely down to their reputation and location. If the planned change to Heatherlands takes place, I would welcome the notion of some support being provided to staff to start promoting more of the activities that they do and raise the profile of the school through reputation and perception to include a review of the correspondence issued from the school, school logo, as well as other promotional opportunities such as media coverage on their achievements. If this course of action was taken, I feel as though this would have a positive impact on not only the school but also on the catchment community as a whole.

I hope the content of this mail is constructive and I truly hope that this concerns are incorporated into the considerations that need to be made with the change to Primary status but should you wish to discuss any of these issues in more depth, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kindest regards and warmest wishes for the progression of the project,

From: Joanna Loader

Sent: 07 October 2011 10:11
To: Rachel Folley
Subject: Yesterday

Morning Rachel…

Seemed like a really positive meeting to me – like I said in there, my only concern is the safety aspect of the recreation road crossing point, which I’m sure will be addressed – other than that, plans look great.

From: Sarah Marley-Shaw
Sent: 21 October 2011 14:10
To: Rachel Folley
Subject:

Hi

Sorry I am having trouble accessing your website today, so I am emailing instead

I would like to agree to increasing the age at Heathlands school 4-11.

Thank you

From:Philip Eades (Cllr)

Sent:19 September 2011 08:19

To:Rachel Folley

Subject:Heatherlands School Expansion

Hi Rachel

Thank you for my copy of the consultation document

I wish to offer my full support for the plans to expand Heatherlands to a 3-form primary school from September 2013. There is no doubt in my mind that local parents who consider Heatherlands to be a most successful and popular local school wish their children to stay to complete their primary education without changing to Branksome Heath

I wish to raise however a couple of notes of caution – I would urge the school to come up with and enforce a robust green travel plan – the expansion of the school to older children inside a very tight geographical boundary should improve the numbers scooting, cycling or walking to school and I would encourage the education of parents to keep car movements to an absolute minimum around the school site

Further a couple of local schools have run up against local opposition when trying to expand the timings and range of activities on site. I would urge the school to keep activities on site within a limit of early evening weekdays term-times in order that none of these issues occurs at Heatherlands

Kind regards

Cllr Philip Eades

24/10/2011 11:21 1

40 Recreation Road
POOLE

Dorset

BH12 2EB

T/N: 01202 386069 E:

20 October 2011 Dear Ms Folley

PROPOSAL CHANGES OF HEATHERLANDS FIRST SCHOOL

Although we fully support the decision to upgrade Heatherlands School from a First to a Primary school, as residents of Recreation Road, we have serious concerns about the ongoing traffic congestion which is currently bad enough, and with the extra pupils proposed to join the school; this could bring even more problems to our road infrastructure.

During school opening and closing times (08.30-09.00hrs & 15.00-15.30hrs), there is a problematic situation of traffic flow in Recreation Road around the un-manned side gated entrance situated between no's 50-52. This is caused by parents parking on both sides of the road, around the entrance and up as far as Albert Road, thus reducing the width of the road to one vehicle in any direction at a time. The driveway to the now unused Cedars is also used us a drop off point. Please see attached photos and map.

In numerous instances this has caused a hazard situation, whereby cars have to back up and negotiate into the next available space, to allow on coming traffic to move forward whilst parents and children are trying to cross the road. Also in our situation when driving out of our driveway at these times, we have to negotiate with cars parked either side of our driveway, across the road in Cedars driveway, cars moving up and down the road, as well as keeping watch on children and parents walking on foot, some running or scootering ahead of the parent and being oblivious to cars coming out of the driveway. As you can appreciate this is not an ideal situation and we are fearful of an accident waiting to happen!

We commend the school's proposal to address this issue by encouraging a walking bus from the Recreation Ground, and for parents to park in that car park, however, in our opinion this is fine on days that are dry, but maybe counter productive on days of inclement weather and parents will continue to park near to the side gated entrance. Therefore, more needs to be done to address this issue.

Also another point of consideration on a separate issue is that depending when Cedars is sold for development and when work starts, this could add to the traffic congestion during the day in Recreation Road especially if work happens to coincide with the schools re-development and parents of the school continuing to park around this particular area.

After some thought we would like to suggest possible solutions as follows:

1Side gated entrance leading into Recreation Road to be closed at all times to encourage parents that
drive not to park in and around this area, but to continue down to the Recreation Ground Car Park to join
the walking bus.

2Parking restrictions during school drop off and pick up times be introduced to one side of the road to ease
traffic flow, not only for passing traffic but also for us residents trying to get out of our driveways and go to
work ourselves.

We hope our concerns are taken into consideration and the appropriate action undertaken to resolve this issue.

Yours sincerely

T A & Mrs D V Wyatt Enc.

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