Long Ashton School Crisis Group
This year there will be about 90 children after 60 places primary school places in Long Ashton. Children living as close as ¼ mile to either local school will not get a place, with the situation forecast to worsen in future years.
North Somerset’s answer is to put 4-year olds on a bus, unsupervised, with adolescents. These transport arrangements are completely unacceptable to Long Ashton parents, so those that can drive their children to school.
The LASCG has been formed to respond to this crisis and is campaigning for both a short term and a long term solution.
The village has an immediate need for at least one temporary classroom for the start of the 2009 school year. This can be provided at a cost of £8.50 per child per week, less than the cost of transport to schools outside the village.
Please support us by visiting www.lascg.org.uk or emailing info@lascg.org.uk.
Background
There are two primary schools in Long Ashton: Birdwell and Northleaze. Each has a pupil capacity of 210, consisting of seven 30-pupil classes, one for each year group.
Between them, the village schools can accept up to 60 Reception class pupils each year. But for the 2009 intake there will be about 90 children after 60 places.
In recent years Long Ashton has become an attractive place for newlyweds to move from Bristol to start families. Moreover, 300 new homes have recently been built, many of which are occupied by young families.
For reasons as yet unfathomable, North Somerset Council seems to have completely missed both these trends and its solution is to send Long Ashton children to other primary schools outside the village, some as far away as Pill.
Of the 60 places for the September 2008 Reception class intake, 10 were given to children outside Long Ashton, on the basis they already had a sibling at one of the schools. That meant there were just 50 places for Long Ashton children.
For these 50 places there were 73 applicants, meaning 23 families were unable to send their children to a local school in 2008. Children living as close as 0.3 miles to Birdwell and less than 0.25 miles to Northleaze did not get in.
A few went to Flax Bourton Primary but others were allocated schools at Backwell, Felton and Pill.
The council is obliged to provide transport for children schooled more than 2 miles from their home. North Somerset’s answer is to put 4-year olds on a bus, unsupervised, with adolescents. Where an existing school bus service is not available then the council provides taxis (apparently without child seats).
Needless to say these transport arrangements are completely unacceptable to Long Ashton parents, so those that can drive their children to school.
For 2009 and the foreseeable future things will get worse. The Council admits its projection that 30 children will not get a place for 2009 is likely to be an underestimate.
In response to the shortage of primary school places in the village the Long Ashton School Crisis Group (LASCG) was formed in early 2008. The group has set up a website at www.lascg.org.uk and encourages everyone to register their support for its campaign to get significantly more primary school places provided both in the short term and long term.