Ley Park Primary School
Cozens Lane East
Broxbourne
Hertfordshire
EN10 6QA
01992 444320
[email protected]
www.leypark.herts.sch.uk
Ley Park Primary – Governing Body
12 September 2006
Dear Sir,
We are writing following the Education Panel’s meeting today concerning the
Hoddesdon Review, and in particular the future of Ley Park/Wormley School.
We acknowledge and are delighted that the officers of HCC listened to the views of
all stakeholders and have made what we feel to be a positive recommendation, in
terms of the new school being situated at the Ley Park site.
However, we would like to highlight and reinforce the message that we gave you
today concerning our belief that an amalgamation of the two schools, with a new
name [Wormley Park CofE?], a new uniform, new governing body etc, would give
the message to our children and our community that Every Child Matters.
This has, after all, been carried out successfully in the past with Hazelwood and St.
Paul’s School in Hoddesdon, now called St. Catherine’s.
We are concerned, as voiced by one of the members of the panel, about the
negative effect on Ley Park children as a result of Wormley being extended and our
school closed. Ley Park was commended today for its campaign being run on the
notion that no school was better than the other and all we wanted was the best, most
equitable solution for ALL children.
We believe that by extending Wormley, Ley Park children will already have an unfair
stigma attached to them, that Ley Park just wasn’t good enough to stay open and
that Wormley is the “superior” school. We have the 11% traveller population,
already stigmatised in the local community. Ley Park children will be met with a sea
of unfamiliar faces in terms of staffing in September 2008 and until then, no
representation at Governing Body level. We had the chairman of Wormley
governors today saying, “please put the needs of Wormley children first”.
By extending Wormley, this is the message that is being given loud and clear to our
community, that Ley Park children did not, in fact, matter. This is not, we believe,
conducive to a harmonious school community from the outset.
Children from both schools will be affected by Wormley and Ley Park coming
together. However, we continue to emphasise the fact that parental preference and
Wormley being a “more popular school”, is not a good reason for the needs and
wants of Ley Park children to be ignored.
What is certain is that in September 2008, a new school will be created by the
bringing together of these children on the Ley Park site. As stated in our speech
today, Wormley was chosen by their parents for certain reasons, Ley Park parents
for theirs, the fact is that this will become a school that neither sets of parents initially
chose, so the parental preference issue disappears.
Parental preference is about seeking the best for your children, keeping them safe
from harm and offering them the best environment and education possible. We
submit that the most equitable way forward for all is to have a new beginning.
Now is not the time for counting numbers, in terms of the amount of parents who
chose Wormley in the past compared to those that chose Ley Park, it is the time to
look to future parental preference and consider the needs of ALL the children
affected, hence Every Child Matters!
Why not give these children in Broxbourne a new start? Let the children from both
school communities be part of an exciting new beginning of primary education in the
south of the Borough. A new uniform, new name [maybe something completely
new, incorporating Broxbourne into the title?], together with the CofE status being
carried over from Wormley School would give an equitable solution to all children.
The Education Panel and the Cabinet has the opportunity to lay the foundations for a
new and forward thinking primary school that all can be proud of
We implore you to reconsider the recommendation for Wormley to extend and give
everyone in the community a new start.
Yours faithfully,
The Governing Body
Ley Park Primary