SAVE OUR SCHOOL
SPRINGSIDE PRIMARY
In view of the council’s proposal to amalgamate Springside Primary with Dreghorn Primary School the Save our School committee, Parent Council and residents of Springside have collaborated in putting together our strong objections to this proposal.
Together we submit our objections, arguments and outline how detrimental it would be to our community, children and livelihood if Springside village lost its Primary School.
As the consultation period is upon us, firstly you must acquaint yourself with the very heart of our community and the facility you wish to demolish. Since 1937 our children from the age of 7 years commuted to other schools in Dreghorn or Crosshouse for their education, children between five and six went to the infant department within our Community Centre. Springside residents fought for over 38 years to see the provision of primary education for their children until a new primary school built in 1979 opened its doors. It beggars belief that after only 28 years North Ayrshire Council wants to shut our school.
COMMUNITY CONCERNS
Education: The primary school is providing adequate accommodation, excellent education and recreational activities for the children. HMIE report also rates the school well and is performing to a satisfactory level in all areas of the education programme. The nursery facilities and curriculum are also described as excellent in the HMIE report. Our classroom numbers are smaller but this is obviously a benefit to our children who are receiving better education as they are able to have more one to one interaction with their teacher and children who have learning difficulties/problems are identified quickly and given the necessary support. Our school has a prime location within the village which makes it accessible to all by foot and sits on plenty of open space, we can boast that not only do we have a large playground for the children but they also have a memorial garden, enclosed nursery play area and vegetable patch area on the grounds.
There are after school activities every night of the week too which range from netball to the garden club. Do you really think a new school would bring us any further educational benefits for our children when we have all this at our current school?
Social: The school participates in extra curricular and local activities and interacts within the community, providing carol singing for the sheltered housing and raising funds for charities. We are encouraged to be involved in the school with fetes, assemblies and family fun nights. This gives an excellent opportunity for our whole community to interact, socialize and meet other people within this village. Our children are making friends with people who live in their own village as too are the parents. If you close our school children and adults may become isolated and unaware of their fellow residents of the village. An amalgamated school will mean less of the school activities will be centered within our community i.e Christmas fetes etc. Our children and children in the future have a right to be educated in the community and village in which they live and belong to.
Identity: By amalgamating the two schools, our children would lose their sense of identity, self esteem and belonging to a community. This in turn could mean they have less respect for their village and the people that live in it. We also have concerns about the amalgamation as we are two separate villages with very different identities and background, Springside being the poorer relation. Therefore it is very possible that our children will suffer bullying as a result of simply coming from Springside.
Development: There are future housing developments in Springside which are not accounted for or considered in the council report. A major factor to attract families in to new housing developments is the performance of the local school and distance to it. The decision not to have a school in Springside could discourage developers and families to the area. People already living in the village may also consider moving to other areas as they no longer have this vital amenity. Very rapidly we could see a decline in the village and other local amenities may be at risk. It is also fact that there is an abundance of land around this village that would be suitable for future housing developments and so it is very likely that our population would grow and not decline as suggested. In the past Springside has not been viewed as a desirable location to move to but with recent new housing developments we’re proud to say that people are choosing to live here and enjoying the benefits of living within a small, close community. We don’t want our community to go, we want Springside to grow!
Environment & Safety: Currently most children are able to walk to school which again is a policy the government advocate. It is far healthier for the children and our environment but under the new proposal it would be impossible for most parents and children to walk to school. That means either more buses or cars on the road and higher carbon omissions. Due to the close proximity of our school we have the luxury to accompany our children and therefore can guarantee their safety. How will we be able to ensure the safety of our children if they have to travel by bus to get to school every day? Under the new proposal the council have budgeted £114,000 a year for transport alone for the amalgamated schools.
Financial: A full breakdown of the figures the council is basing their proposal on are available from North Ayrshire Council website. However to make it clear, our school cost £103,600 in building investment in the last 3 years, it requires only £25,000 for 2008 for various improvements with a possible £70,000 of improvements to follow within the next 3 years, this is the estimated cost to replace fire and safety alarms. Transport to the new school for one year will cost more than possible maintenance for Sprinside Primary in the next 3 years, which is a staggering £114,000! Dreghorn Primary needs £560,000 spent in the next 3 years as this school has been graded C, which means poor – showing major defects and not operating adequately. Dreghorn will need a new school and North Ayrshire Council has already approved £6.255 million for this purpose. Even after the surplus school grounds are sold for private development the net saving in the first full financial year is only £53,000 to amalgamate the two schools.
REGENERATION – SPRINGSIDE
We also feel it’s important to point out at that Springside is considered an area of regeneration, 29.2 % of our population is considered Income Deprived against the whole of Scotland which is only 13.9% deprived. Currently the total population who are employment deprived is 24.2%, the national figure is 12.9%. Only a small minority of people living in the village own their property at 23.1% when the national figure is 62.59% in Scotland. These are startling figures against the national stats and clearly show that Springside is in much need of regeneration and support. It’s therefore amazing that North Ayrshire Council proposal to amalgamate Springside with Dreghorn wishes to add further financial burden on the most financially vulnerable people of our community. It is estimated that the cost to parents with two children traveling by bus to school will cost £1.80 per day, that’s £9 per week. Adults will want to accompany their children to school and this will result in a further £7.50 for one adult per school week. A total of £16.50 a week for the lowest income houses! Over a month a total of £66.00 and this is based on current bus fares to Dreghorn, for one adult and two children who are making one return journey a day! We think this is crazy and is a huge expense for not just the income deprived but to normal working class/tax paying people.
Our primary school is obviously included in the regeneration programme which receives funded after school activities. North Ayrshire Community Planning Partnership adopted the 5 national regeneration properties which include the following; Getting people into work, building strong, safe and attractive communities, improving health, raising educational attainment, Engaging young people.
Our school provides essential support and engages in all of these priorities set out by the regeneration programme for it to achieve its goals. Listed below we have taken each property and demonstrated the impact and consequences of removing the school from its vital role in this programme.
Getting People into Work – Immediately we have to think of the local people who are currently employed at Springside Primary and hold various roles within the school.
How does the current proposal reflect the CPP priorities as with the amalgamation we are sure there will be some job losses? Lets not also forget that our area under the regeneration also means that we have higher unemployment that some of the poorer residents of Springside will certainly be put under further financial strain to pay for transport costs to and from school depending on where the new school will be located.
Building strong, safe and attractive communities – we believe our school is the heart of our community and helps us to achieve this statement. Strong – our whole village is against this proposal and everyone is participating in some form of activity to prevent the closure of our school. Furthermore as the school is within easy walking distance of all streets in Springside, elderly and young alike can all come along and watch the many services, concerts and performances the school produces. Safe – as our children and adults are mixing during the many activities at the school and the community centre. They are forming relationships, have respect for each other and the properties within it. Attractive – what could be more attractive than a community that cares about the people that live in it, the facilities and most importantly the provisions for its children? Close our school and you instantly make our village less attractive to developers and families moving in to the area, if people don’t get the opportunity to mix and come together for events at the school how will this build for a stronger community. Close the school, will the elderly feel safe when they no longer have the opportunity to meet with their fellow younger residents?
Improving Health – Our school boasts a prime location in which all children and adults accompanying them can walk to school. It’s healthier than traveling by car or bus in which the majority of the pupils will have to do in the future if the current council proposal went ahead. In turn this will mean higher carbon omissions, more cars/busses on the road, congestion and all other health hazards this contributes to. The school also promotes healthy eating and the children have learnt to grow their own vegetables and this is prepared in the kitchen for school lunches. The garden club has been a huge success within the school and the children are gaining skills and understanding in growing their own food.
Raising Educational Attainment – As we have our own school within our community our children are happy, healthy and well educated in adequate and well maintained building. Due to our regeneration status they also receive extra curricular activities as part of this programme. The HMIE reports that our school is satisfactory and is excelling in many areas. We understand that a new school will possibly bring new and better facilities, however why fix something that isn’t broken and appears to be functioning well and more importantly the children are very happy within this facility and it doesn’t appear to need major improvements both from a maintenance and academic perspective.
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
We feel extremely let down by our local council and that they are blatantly ignoring government policies to cut down classroom sizes and promoting children walking to school. If the proposed amalgamation goes ahead we won’t have a choice. Our children will have left a fantastic facility and will face adapting to classrooms of more than 23 (average number taking from the amalgamated figures from NAC). The government want to reduce the number of children in classrooms to 18, how does the amalgamated school proposal aim to achieve this?
Although a site has not been advised for the proposed school, we do feel it’s highly unlikely that a new school will be built in between the two villages due to the lack of suitable land available. Until we learn of the proposed location our arguments would be based on speculation but lets be clear a new school would mean transport by bus or car to any new location.
We understand from the committee reports from the North Ayrshire Council website regarding a review of the School Estate, members of the review group and the education board based this proposal on the following criteria:
Decline in School Rolls and trends
School Rolls and Capacities
Condition Rating
The facts relating to Springside Primary is that it currently accommodates 86 pupils with a capacity of 192. We wonder if you considered that two rooms within this building are used for General Practice in which it houses the school’s smart board and the other is used as a Library. The capacity in these rooms would hold 25 pupils if they were used as classrooms and play a vital role in the day to day events of the school and could not be housed elsewhere. We argue that the capacity of our school is not 192 but nearer a 142 as the combined capacity are 50 for the classrooms used for other provisions. This would effectively mean that the occupancy of Springside is in fact 60.6%.
Second point to make is that the current roll projections for Springside indicate from 2007 in which 86 pupils are enrolled will fall to 70 in 2012. We assume this information is predicted from the registration of births and deaths within North Ayrshire, however this does not take in to account the 40 new houses erected in 2006/2007 in which any infants or pre-school children will not be registered living in this area. Nor will it account for any new families that have recently moved to this area in the last five years and again are not registered as Springside as their place of resident. Is it possible that this prediction is totally inaccurate and short sighted when you consider the amount of land available for housing developments in and around Springside? Placing requests for 2007 were +5 which would suggest there is a growth of families moving in to Springside in view of recent and new housing developments.
Third and very importantly our school is given a condition rating of B which is satisfactory – performing adequately but showing minor deterioration. The highest rating is a grade A. Has the council really looked at this major factor? We all agree that Dreghorn Primary requires a new school and accordance with this North Ayrshire council have £6.5 million capital set aside for this provision, but you want to add another £3 million to make a bigger school to accommodate Springside children. Why, according to the council report that current repairs for Springside Primary for 2008 is estimated £25,000 and possibly a further £70,000 in the next 3 years. The building and facilities are not in a state of disrepair and in the last 3 years it’s only cost just over £100,000 for maintenance and repairs. Right away there doesn’t seem to be any financial justification for building a bigger school to accommodate both villages, before we even mention all the other points for consideration.
Also contained in the council’s proposal of amalgamation of the two schools there will be transport costs of £114,000 full year, again this does not make financial, economical or environmental sense when transport alone costs more than 3 years total maintenance of our current primary provision. Further more they aim only to save £53,000 in the first year of the amalgamated schools and it seems that this will only happen if they manage to sell the land on which the schools are on to developers.
TO CONCLUDE
Many of you may ask “Why wouldn’t they want a new school”, the answer is simple. There is no education benefit for our children and the cons to the proposed amalgamation totally outweigh the pros. To re-cap this is our main benefits for having our own primary school, right in the heart of our village and our community:
We hope that we have demonstrated how valuable our school is to our community, the pupils and the parents. Please consider all these views when you get the opportunity to vote to save its future and the future of our village and community.
