Parents raise concerns over school merger
Parents raised their concerns about plans to merge two Northampton primary schools at a public meeting last night.
The county council announced a proposal last week to combine Woodvale Primary School in Thorplands with Sunnyside Primary School in Boughton Green.
In order to merge with their partner school, Sunnyside Primary School would have to close and re-open as a campus of their expanding partner school.
Parents of children from both schools attended a public meeting at Woodvale Primary School where they listened to a presentation from the headteacher Erica Holt about the implications of the proposal.
Mrs Holt said the plans would benefit both schools as it would increase the leadership skills of all members of staff and would help staff retention by providing more development opportunities.
However, some parents questioned the need to merge the two schools and asked whether the process would lead to Mrs Holt compromising her work at Woodvale.
Lesley Turner, who has a child in Year Five at Woodvale primary school, said: "I don't think we will benefit, it seems all in favour of Sunnyside. It has taken eight years for Mrs Holt to get this school up to a good standard and I think we will lose teachers."
Another concern expressed at the meeting was the possibility that Woodvale would have to inherit Sunnyside's budget deficit but Rachel Singer, head of learning, achievement and school improvement for the county council, reassured parents that Woodvale would not lose out financially from the merger.
Ms Singer said the council would work with Sunnyside to make savings and give it possible grants before it was closed so that it was no longer in debt.
She said: "Just having a headteacher does not mean a school is good. You have got to have a distribution of leadership. The most outstanding schools I know all have a leadership this is shared and a decision making process that is shared."
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Friday 10 February 2012
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