Sadly some of the most compelling letters expressing concerns about the impact on the mental health of children are just to personal for me to post on a public site. They make me realise that while I am against this on the basis that I feel it is not a good thing for MY childrens education there are other people with significantly more to lose than me. Perhaps I'm just a "sensitive little flower" but I felt fairly emotional reading some of the letters from Kings and Tomlinscote parents. Stability is the cornerstone of healthy child psychology and development of well adjusted adults. Even the instability of the "proposal" of the merger is damaging to the children - in actuality it is going to be much worse. I hope the governors read these letters and understand the depth of the problems that proceeding with the merger may create.
"How will the two groups of children be integrated at a crucial time for their education with out to much disruption. At the meeting the main speaker, a man referred to by his colleagues as “PJ” made the comment that they would “Experiment”"
"....it would cause problems to both our childrens education and current confidence in school."
"This year’s Year 7 students will have one year in Tomlinscote and will then have to move over to new premises and have to get used to new year groups— the psychological effect of constant changes will have a significant impact on their academic performance."
"I think this will cause considerable disruption to both sets of children and have a huge impact on their most important years of schooling."
"They have a difficult time just maturing and growing up and an unstable school environment makes the entire growing up process nearly unbearable. Teachers need extra patience when handling behaviour and if teachers are being asked to rush around between two separate school sites, they are not going to have the time or energy to pay attention to the students."
"...will be just starting her GCSE’s in the midst of all this uncertainty. It is a very critical time in their life to cope with such change"
"I am deeply concerned about how this will have an adverse effect on their education."
"It is a huge move for students moving to a secondary school from a junior school. They will then be expected to move to the Kings site for one year and then back to the Tomlinscote site again."
"Disruption to my children’s secondary education"
"Then, in the most important time of his education, in year 10, he will be expected to move back to Tomlinscote, settle into a new environment again! meet new teachers, and begin his GCSE'S. And, this will also the case for the many other new students of Tomliscote and Kings. How can this not be detrimental to the mental, physical and psychological wellbeing of these students?"
"Year 7 is fundamentally about setting into a new school environment and routine. For a large number of children this takes time but ultimately builds confidence in the early years. We believe that having to move to an entirely different school to begin the GCSE courses, involving new staff and new routes and new surroundings, would be totally detrimental and disruptive for all children."
"A change in head teacher alone can cause a level of anxiety within the children, the discussion about a possible merger and major change to the school environment where they have both settled well and are happy and developing well is causing major stress and anxiety to both my children. They now realise they would have to travel to separate sites and would not have each other’s support at school as they do now"
"As well as the effect this ‘proposed merger’ is going to have on the mental health of my children"
"He will be in the first year that is expected to use the system for the first time. The school will still be settling down from the re-organisation and again, having been through that when I was at school, I know what issues this can cause. I do not want his first experience of high school to be one of uncertainty, unhappy teachers and children with unhappy families who feel they have been forced into a situation they wouldn't have chosen."
"It has taken my child a year to adapt to the school surrounding and the thought of them once again struggling to adapt to new school surroundings, if the merger is completed, is extraordinarily frustrating."
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