Kingsway Villagers

We applied for a place at the new school for our daughter Phoenix Rose who is currently attending Little Owls at Quedgeley (Fieldcourt) and is due to start school in September this year.

On 28th March we received a letter from Glos CC confirming acceptance, which also warned that QUVL have informed that “they are not able to guarantee the hand-over of the buiilding in a safe environment until late November“… and adds: “As the safety and well being of children is the most important consideration we have put in place contingency plans for the period September 1st to December 2008“.

The letter continues: “Arrangements have been made to provide suitable accomodation at Beech Green Primary School in Quedgeley. The council is working closely with new headteacher Paula Needham and the chair of governors of Beech Green School to ensure thatchildren will be taught in a safe and appropriate environment with all relevant teaching resources on hand. The council will arrange transport for both children and parents to and from Kingsway to Beech Green and details of timing and pickup arrangements will be confirmed nearer the start of term.

The council will continue to make every effort to open the new building on, or close to, it’s original schedule but I’m sure you will appreciate the need to inform you about the curent situation as early as possible.”

The Citizen published a front page story about it today, adding a quote from Councillor Jackie Hall, who said: “While this news is disappointing for everyone concerned, the safety of pupils and staff has to be paramount and we have reluctantly agreed to a delayed start date. We shall be working with the developers between now and September to try and open the school on time, but at the moment it looks unlikely. We are putting in place arrangements to ensure that all pupils who were due to start at the school in September will be taught in suitable accommodation at Beech Green Primary School for the interim period.”

The full story is available (by searching for “Kingsway School”) at the Citizen’s website (along with some pretty colourful comments)!

For myself I’m not too disappointed, Phoenix won’t mind a few short daily bus rides for a limited period and I’d far rather they get it right than rush it and compromise the quality/safety of the school.

For the last 10 years my family has always had a firework display. Myself and a group of friends put money into a pot and purchase about £600 of fireworks. As you can appreciate these have to be let off responsibly. I used to do it on a local farm but I then moved to Kingsway.

I called the Police and asked if there was any law about me letting them of on the open space by the large play area. They told me that as long as everything was done properly I was allowed to do it.

For the last two years I have done this. Only about 20 people have come (friends who contributed) but they have all said what a fantastic display it has been. The Police who came to watch last year were also very impressed not only with the display but the sensible approach we took.

I think it would be good for Kingsway to have its own firework display. I would be happy to get involved in organising it.

Any ideas or thoughts?

This post was submitted by Nephros.