SEFTON PARK SCHOOL IS UNSUITABLE FOR EXPANSION

Lead petitioner : Gwinear Lloyd

Status: New > Draft > Rejected > Accepted > Collecting signatures > Awaiting submission > Submitted > Pending owner response > Closed > Withdrawn

Status: Closed

Petition

The Petitioner objects to the expansion and amalgamation of Sefton Park School. The objections are due to parking and conjestion problems, loss of play and PE space, loss of community buildings and green space, the detrimental effect of large schools on children's education and well-being and the recent pressure on the head and governing bodies due to federation of the school. The petitioner believes a new school on the Brunel site, as promised, would be a better remedy for the demand for school places in the area; or failing that, a new school on the old Fairfield site, leaving St Barnabas where it is.

Background information

• The site is too small, and an extra 210 pupils would massively increase problems of parking and congestion, road safety issues and lack of play and PE space, especially during building works.
• We object to the loss of community buildings and green space (scout hut and environs, playgroup, youth centre and after school club).
• There are other sites more suitable for the badly needed school provision, where no community buildings need to be knocked down – the Brunel site, where a school was supposed to have been built as a prerequisite of the housing developments there, the proposed new supermarket site, or the old Fairfield school (St Barnabas should not be moved from a site with ample green space to a site with none.)
• The expansion of Sefton park school will cost 2 million pounds more than building a new school at the Brunel site. That money would be better spent in building a new school and refurbishing Sefton Park School.
• Three form entry schools are not justified on educational grounds. All available research indicates that small schools out-perform large schools in every criteria, with 300-400 pupils being the optimum number (not 690 as would be the case after expansion, taking the nursery children into account). Ethnic minority pupils and special needs pupils especially suffer in large schools.
• Lastly with the school having recently undergone changes to a soft and then hard federation, with the existing infant head taking on the juniors as well, this is the wrong time to rush into expansion, and amalgamation should be ruled out for the same reason.

Signature Count

149