This page is produced by Andy Shallice – Area Co-ordinator for Burngreave Area Panel.
The view from the school
Six months ago, we reported on how local children and students from Burngreave were getting on at school. We said that the Area Panel was going to discuss these findings with local schools and see how successes could be maintained, and any difficulties could be overcome.
Secondary Schools
Just over half of students of secondary school age in Burngreave attend Fir Vale; about one-fifth attend Parkwood. Before Christmas, the heads from Parkwood and Fir Vale were invited to the Panel.
Lesley Kay from Fir Vale wanted to build on the recent success of the school. She explained that Fir Vale: “Comes out top in the city for ‘added value’”, taking into account the wider context of the school – the extent of poverty and household incomes, the number of families with languages other than English etc. Lesley suggested that students’ performance increased by one-sixth if their parents were confident and knowledgeable about the school and the curriculum – hence the importance of parental involvement and the proposed new business and enterprise centre.
Chris Mallaband echoed these thoughts. Chris has been successful in strengthening ties between Parkwood School and the Burngreave area in the new service district boundary (which we’ll cover in future Messenger). He said: “We want to achieve the next step in our development as we try and become a specialist modern languages school”. He repeated the importance of schools having a close link with local communitybased projects – especially those that were able to offer help to kids and families who were finding things hard, and who might be in danger of exclusions.
Primary Schools
The six primary schools met the panel in January. Both Owler Brook and Whiteways wanted to see action on the frequent chaos that engulfs their gates before and after school. And both schools had concerns about the health of some of their children.
Marcia Carter from Whiteways also explained how the school’s location, “We’re uphill from Fir Vale and some distance from Barnsley Road”, didn’t help encourage parental involvement at school.
Dina Martin at Firshill was pleased with how the school has grown in the last two/three years, and especially pleased (as Owler Brook are) with the number of mums/parents attending classes and courses at school. She hoped the school site could be redeveloped and modernised but was worried about how “Some three-year-olds coming into the nursery seem to have had very little experience of being with other children”.
Fiona Rigby from St Catherine’s felt “more support was needed for families and children moving into the area”, and wanted to make sure that all the national initiatives didn’t harm the basic principle of children, parents and school staff working together. Fiona also explained the decisions that the school had taken to increase the reception class intake to two classes a year for the next three years which was vital to tackle the shortage of school places.
Rita Storr at the new Pye Bank School said that the transition from two schools to one had been successful, the governors had been “strengthened by new blood from both Somali and Pakistani parents” and that school attendance was very good.
What were the schools worried about? Four things.
Religious/cultural holidays – like the recent Eid ul-Adha – needed to be on an agreed day for all local schools, with all children taking the same day off. Some schools wanted to question the wisdom of having a long six-week break.
Secondly, the links between local schools and specialist agencies could be stronger. Children might be on a ‘waiting list’ for a referral (for ‘challenging behaviour’ say), but while they waited, they remained at school without extra help – and schools had to make do.
Thirdly, could the new service district which had met with widespread support (producing closer links between schools, social care and health services) deliver the expectations that so many people have?
Lastly, what is the longer-term solution to there being more children than local school places? The Panel agreed to keep all these matters under close examination, and agreed to help develop a schools’ places project group.