ePetition - Keep Carden Nursery & Primary School as a thriving 2 form entry
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Keep Carden Nursery & Primary School as a thriving 2 form entry
Situated in the border between Patcham and Hollingbury, Carden Nursery and Primary School has been a thriving community hub for the families of this area since 1948.
Carden is a fantastic school on a trajectory of growth. It has agile leadership that has continued to improve the quality of its educational offer. This has happened regardless of fluctuation of pupil numbers over the years.
The most recent Ofstead inspection (Good, Sep 2021) described the school atmosphere as ‘buoyant’, the early years programme as ‘highly effective’, and recognised pupils’ wider development as a particular strength of the curriculum.
Hence, we strongly reject the proposed reduction of pupils on the following basis:
1- Reducing the intake in the school will mean significant
budget cuts, for an area rated in the 20% most deprived in the
country.
This puts additional pressures on Carden School because a
single-form school:
o is at greater risk of financial difficulties due to lack of
economies of scale
o is more likely to attract a higher concentration of SEND pupils
than larger primary schools
o will result in staff reductions and fewer resources for building
maintenance, equipment and enrichment activities.
This is all to the detriment of current and future pupils.
2- Reducing the PAN at Carden will directly result in more
pupils needing to travel to other schools by car, and/or have
longer commutes in public transport. This adds to pollution and
congestion.
o Carden is at the edge of town, in a hilly area, making it
impractical to walk or bike to other schools further away.
o This contravenes the Council’s Climate Emergency plans
toward a carbon neutral city
o It also further disadvantages families in this area by increasing
their drop-off and pick-up times, and cost of transport.
3- Reducing the number of pupils will tear the social fabric of
this truly diverse school where:
o 36% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, 20% have
Special Educational Needs, 44% are BAME and 15% have English as an
additional language.
o Carden is host to a Speech, Language and Communication Unit, and
specialises in this provision.
o Ofsted (Sep 2021) commended the school’s commitment to
equality and diversity, and noted Leaders are highly successful at
engaging members from all corners of the school community.
o By reducing places available to local families, you will be
splitting children in the area from their friends and neighbours,
taking away the opportunity to foster interconnecting social tissue
and a sense of belonging and pride in the neighbourhood that Carden
currently enables.
4- Reducing Carden to a single--form will create significant disparity in choice and outcome for children in Hollingbury and Patcham. This is at best unfair, and at worst discriminatory.
We acknowledge the Council is concerned with surplus primary
school places across all of Brighton and Hove. This is particularly
projected to affect the City Centre, The Deans and City East.
o We call for an equitable city-wide approach that doesn’t
further disadvantage smaller, thriving schools like Carden that
often have large well-ventilated buildings with lots of green space
to accommodate pupils.
o A reduction of an entire entry form would affect Carden School
disproportionally, compared to larger neighbouring schools.
5- We request that an Equalities Impact Assessment be carried out before any more consideration is given to reducing the size of Carden.#
In summary, we strongly request that Carden Primary School
remains a viable 2 form entry for the future of our children,
neighbourhood and great city.
This ePetition ran from 11/11/2021 to 15/12/2021 and has now finished.
1628 people signed this ePetition.