Lane End Primary School

Wednesday 16^th May 2012

Dear Parents and Carers,

We are writing to update you on the Local Authority’s feasibility study into the expansion of Lane End to create a two-form entry school.

All parties knew from the outset that the biggest hurdle to overcome was going to be the road situation. Increased traffic, parking difficulties, drop off and pick up times and most importantly safety were the challenges which needed good workable solutions before the project could be considered at the next stage.

Traffic Services have looked carefully at the road situation and, from their conclusions, both the Local Authority and Governors agree that there is not a satisfactory way forward to meet the problems caused by the increase of traffic on Ramillies Avenue which a two-form entry school would bring. Indeed, from the information from Traffic Services it can be concluded that a one form entry primary school is all that Ramillies Avenue can cope with, particularly with the Ramillies Hall School being situated across the road. The points from Traffic Services highlighted some of our existing problems, including access and turning for coaches and parking at drop off and pick up times. We have written and asked if they could offer any help with this situation and also with speed calming on the road. In short, the challenges faced were even greater than the Local Authority initially envisaged and even with major investment may not be overcome satisfactorily, so they are left with no other option but to look elsewhere for extra school places.

So what does this mean for Lane End?

Lane End will remain as a one-form entry school. We will continue to thrive, look for continual improvement and provide an excellent education for your children. We are very lucky with the amount of field and playground space that we have for the children and we will be able to continue to enjoy and make good use of this excellent resource into the future. Now we know the outcome of the feasibility study we can look to the future with some certainty about our make-up, and plan accordingly.

Some of the benefits that the expansion would have brought in terms of resources and investment for playground equipment, ICT resources etc. will now need to be funded from our current budget. This will take longer, but we still have high aspirations for our infrastructure. As always, PTA fundraising will provide us with a way of accelerating our investment in school and we thank you for your help with this.

What does this mean for Cheadle Hulme?

We know that birth-rate is projected to increase and that Cheadle Hulme is an area where more school places will be needed in the near future. On entering into the feasibility study we were being proactive in trying to help find a positive way forward for the school place situation. However, because the information from Traffic Services tells us that this is not possible, the Local Authority will now have to look elsewhere and find other means of finding the necessary capacity.

This doesn’t help the parents of children in our catchment area who may be worried about whether they will get a place at Lane End or not and we understand that concern. Unfortunately we aren’t in a position to do any more. When applying for a primary school place, parents now have to write down six choices of school in order of preference. Although there is never any guarantee, putting us as your first choice gives you the best chance of getting a place at Lane End for your child. If more children apply than there are places then places are allocated by the Local Authority’s criteria.

The policy used for allocating places in 2012/13 is set out below:

We were pleased to be able to enter the feasibility study with the Local Authority and certainly saw potential benefits for Cheadle Hulme and the school. This new information from the Local Authority’s feasibility study gives us a greater certainty about our future make-up, and we go forward positively from this position.

We feel very privileged to be part of Lane End Primary School. We have a lovely community school which we can all be very proud of and we look forward to it continuing to thrive into the future.

With best wishes,

Ashley Elliott and James Twigg

Chair of Governors and Headteacher