Kings Parent - support for Kings as an academy.

A plea from a Kings parent to "KeepKings" praise for Kings staff and a vote for Kings as an academy.

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From: SJ

Subject: Keep Kings Open
To: CAM

Date: Saturday, 28 May, 2011, 14:59

Hi All,

First of all I would like to say a big THANK YOU to CAM and every one who is helping in any way they can.

As you can probably tell I am a parent of a student already at Kings and also a year 6 student who will be making the transition to Kings in September.

I am sure you will all agree that this proposal is ridiculous and will cause disruption in every way. How can they think that this is the right decision?!

As a parent of a Kings student I cannot understand how the school is being portrayed the way it is. This is completely wrong. Kings has a real family feel and this has a lot to do with it's size. Why change this? The teachers are some of the best teachers I have ever come across and they have every individual child's needs in their hearts and minds. Why should they lose their jobs? On the day that the children were informed of the proposed merger the teachers also found out they would lose their jobs. The children were more concerned for their teachers than themselves and there were a lot of tears! This just shows of the love and care within Kings.

My youngest child can find some social situations difficult but was very practical when we went to both the Tomlinscote and Kings induction days, in his own words he said, "I liked Tomlinscote just as much as Kings, but I will choose Kings because it's less busy". This choice had now been taken away from him and this will be the same for a lot of children. Why can't we have a smaller school? Kings wasn't even marketed last year with regards to this years intake of year sevens. I think this was because the merger had already been decided and that they had to ensure that the numbers were low so they could push for the merger or closure if Kings.

How can any of this be fair?! Every child will be affected if this goes ahead. From the start of these consultation meetings they have been saying that they want to expand Tomlinscote and it has been reported that they have run out of capital to do this. We also know that Tomlinscote is already crowded and that they have no way of expanding it outwards. It seems as though this had been part if the plan all along and Kings really never stood a chance.

Kings has students from all areas because parents and children chose it specifically. My son who is in Y9 informed me that a girl in his year has the highest grades across all the schools. Kings caters to every child. They also have many sporting achievements with some very talented children who have prospered at Kings. Why wasn't Kings marketed like the other two schools? Was there a hidden agenda!?

Recently it was proposed through CAM that Kings could become an Acadamy. I looked into this as I feel so passionately about Kings. Oasis is a great organisation. It already has Acadamies all over the country and all of them are portraying an excellent school environment and fantastic reports to support this. I feel this would be the best choice for our children. It would also mean that the current teachers would keep their jobs, which would also be beneficial for Kings and our children.

I recently wrote a letter to Michael Gove our education minister and he replied very supportively. I also forwarded the letter to SCC but yet have had no response. At the last Consultation I attended this Thurs, PJ informed us that the mergers decision for Tomlinscote will be decided by Tomlinscotes Governing body and the Kings closure would be decided by SCC. With this in mind I urge every parent from Kings and Tomlinscote to put your feelings about this in words and send them to the above before it's too late.

Thanking for taking your time to read this.

We need to work together to make the difference.

Many Thanks,

SJ