Merging schools??

Savvy_Sue

I cannot think that they would have all-age playgrounds, so not sure that the worry about a child mixing with much older ones would be valid.

PolishBigSpender

It's funny, despite being Catholic and coming from a Catholic country - I find the Catholic church in the UK to be a very strange entity. Parents (and the Church!) seem to complain constantly if there's any suggestion that their child will mix with those of other religions - and there seems to be a very snobby, elitist attitude in those that attend such schools.

Certain some of the worst people I encountered in the UK were Catholic schoolchildren at some point.

Strange, really.

Surfbabe

I wouldn't worry - When I started school ( a fair few years ago) I went to a C of E VA School and the age range was 4 - 18. It was a big school as well but the infants had their own area as did the juniors and then the seniors.

The cost savings were enormous because of it and so there was more money for actually delivering education !!!!.

Find out which schools are merging - as has been said already VA schools can only merge with other VA schools as far as I'm aware as the Diocese has control over them not the County Council.

Poppy9

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

It's funny, despite being Catholic and coming from a Catholic country - I find the Catholic church in the UK to be a very strange entity. Parents (and the Church!) seem to complain constantly if there's any suggestion that their child will mix with those of other religions - and there seems to be a very snobby, elitist attitude in those that attend such schools.

Certain some of the worst people I encountered in the UK were Catholic schoolchildren at some point.

Strange, really.

Perhaps you ought to alter the circles you mix in then!

My DD attended a RC primary school and I myself attended RC infants, junior and senior school. When I was in school we didn't even bother asking if our friends were RC etc. and as with regard their backgrounds it was unimportant. Nothing elitist about us at all, we just mixed.

Everyone was bussed into school from around the City and if anything it was a much more mixed school population than the state secondary school my DD attends.

DD secondary school catchment area is middle class and there are not many preferred placements so if anything this school is more elitist.

fernliebee

ells888 wrote: »

There is a list of reasons really, i dont want my dd's mixing with 12+ age, they are 4 and 6 and must find school intimidating as it is, i sent my children to that particular school as it has good results and i believe in the catholic ethos, its a very close nit school and everything we do is basically for ourselves as we are voluntary aided.. if we were turned into a superschool the council would have more 'rule' over us, and the children would just become a number, quite a few of the teachers who work there taught me when i went to the same school, i suspect there would be job losses or maybe they would leave?? Basically it all comes down to money??

I know it's only 1 reason amongst many so it won't make much difference to your feelings but schools that are multi age group, often keep the different ages quite seperate eg seperate break times of different playgrounds or assembly times etc so it probably would not be a case of your young DD having to play with 12 year olds.

I went to a combined school nursery until year 7 (they used to have primary inc year 7 in my county but it's fallen in line with majority of UK now) The nursery was a seperate building and was mainly seperate although some sensible yr 7's would go occasionally to read stories to them, and they would come to 'big school for special assembly. The lower school was seperate to the upper school and had seperate playgrounds although we all ate lunch, had assemblies and did a few 'whole school" activities.

IMO I believe this made me more confident and speaking to friends I've had since lower school we feel it made the primary/ secondary transition easier as we were used to having older children as part of our school.

Janepig

The local RC primary and secondary schools in this area are next door to each other - I think it must have been 15-20 years ago perhaps that the RC primary moved from where it was sited previously to a new build next door to the comp (which has also been more or less re-built). So although they are on the same site, and I don't know but maybe there were objections when they moved, they are quite separate schools, but I would have thought the transision from primary to secondary is easier for them than for most primaries.

Jxx

Katyag

Our local council proposed to close a good few school last year as they are supposedly £50 million in debt!

Anyone one was my sons, a good school albeit a small one but very popular. There were petitions, meetings with the council who never did answer our questions, protests, it was even taken to the education ombudsmen (waste of time they are) but in the end the school was closed as per the councils plans. Not closed within the proposed 2 years but closed at the end of that term!

The school has been boarded up on ground level but inside its still like a working school, the council have just left all the supplies inside, its an absolute joke!

Anyway my point is when idea like this come out to the public 9 times out of 10 the decision is already been made and the 'consulation period' is just them keeping themselves in the right and doesnt change anything.

Good luck to you!

LJM

it will happen whatever you do im on the iow yes we got a say in it but it didnt stop it in the end being the council decision,sorry to be negataive.though if they didnt think there was a need or that it wouldnt work they wouldnt have proposed it in the first place

PolishBigSpender

Poppy9 wrote: »

Perhaps you ought to alter the circles you mix in then!

It's a bit difficult when you are responsible for human resources and thus were responsible for conducting interviews

As I said, some of the worst, least tolerant people I encountered were those who had a public Catholic education.

Janepig

fernliebee wrote: »

I know it's only 1 reason amongst many so it won't make much difference to your feelings but schools that are multi age group, often keep the different ages quite seperate eg seperate break times of different playgrounds or assembly times etc so it probably would not be a case of your young DD having to play with 12 year olds.

Is that the case with most large-ish primary schools? DD's school covers ages 3-11. The nursery have their own yard with special play equipment. They also used to have lunch in their classroom until last year when elf and safety dictated that they couldn't do that any more.

Reception go to the big yard to join yr 1 and 2 for one playtime, but they also have their own playtime in the nursery yard. Yr 1 and 2 have separate assembly, playtime and dinner sitting from yrs 3, 4, 5 and 6. Although I think part of it might also be the fact that there's 400+ in the school and space is an issue!

Jxx