Thanks so much for contacting the governors - keep up the good work. I have been very interested to read your letters, all of which are passionate and do a great job of getting your feelings across. I am taking the liberty of publishing a few snippets from your letters as an easy way for governors and others to see what people feel on different subjects.
First split-sites
First split-sites
"We are anxious that you recognise that running a school on split sites would cause major operational problems on a day to day basis. Anything from the teaching cover, timetables, options, lockers, travel for both teachers and students between sites, lack of peer support and sixth form involvement with the lower years would be affected. We will have children based on two separate sites with the problems that brings of how to get both of them to school and home at the same time. Everything would be much more complicated and have a much greater risk of failing. No one involved with this proposal seems to have had experience of merging a school, let alone running a large school over two separate sites at least 2 miles apart."
"We are concerned that teachers will choose to leave Tomlinscote rather than have to cope with the stress of a merger and the day to day problems of having to move across sites. "
"At the meeting the main speaker, a man referred to by his colleagues as “PJ” made the comment that they would “Experiment”. Not what I wanted to hear and added to my concerns that they really have not thought this through. You do not experiment with children’s futures!"
"I also have concerns about the competence of the council officials to manage the changes, at the meeting they made so many mistakes in the presentation and used examples to support their argument that are not relevant - at one point they used another local school as an example of when a split site can work but did not seem to realise that it was a private school and so totally irrelevant to us."
"Disruption to my children’s secondary education and a fear that standards will fall during the transition phase, which I suspect will take many years. I think a split site school does not foster community spirit within the student body"
"The stress of travelling or teaching in two sites 2 miles apart is bound to take a toll on the staff"
"I cannot even begin to comprehend the effect this merger is also going to have on the education of my and everyone else’s children. The research has proven that ‘Split Site School’s’ do not work and have a detrirmental effect on educational standards. To date the effect this uncertainty is having on both the teaching staff and students is evident and is not good and very worrying as this can only get worse."
"The lack of balance of student ages at each school site. By this I mean that the younger students will not have the older student example to look up to and the older students will lose the fantastic opportunity to take on additional responsibilities"
"Difficulty for teaching staff of working over a split site."
"I am concerned that teachers will need to travel between sites. I was taught on a split school myself and remember most of our lessons being shorter than the planned curriculum to allow for teachers to travel between sites. The teachers were also frazzled by the travel and this didn't encourage the best professional behaviour as they struggled to teach all of the curriculum to classes who were already bored by waiting in corridors for lessons to start. Being on one site is the best situation for a teacher who can then ensure all of their work/preparation/lunch(!) is where they need it to be for every class or break."
"My primary objection is that split site schools have a track record of not working. The issues involved here are as follows; transportation/traffic issues, staff communication,pupil/staff communication and a sense of community,belonging and pride."
"Evidence suggests that educational standards can fall at split site schools and this becomes more likely if the schools are further than 1 mile apart."
"I am concerned that teacher retention could be a problem during the 2011 / 12 academic year as teachers will not want to stay to work on two sites."
"We do not want our children at different sites, for all manner of practical and social reasons. The sites are too far apart and in effect you will be creating a middle and upper school which are totally separate."
"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."
"Research seems to indicate also that is highly likely their education will suffer too as it appears teachers do not like to work in split site schools, they are rarely as smooth-running as single site schools, and if the solution were adopted I think it very likely that Tomlinscote could lose a significant number of very good teaching staff and those remaining would inevitably more less efficient."
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