Kingsway Villagers

Kingsway Primary School will be actively endorsing a ‘Walk to School’ ethos for our pupils and we aim to reduce, not add to, the traffic concerns of many residents.

This ethos will be included in all our literature and will be part of the vision for the school. Indeed, we are just about to start working on a School Travel Plan with QUVL and Gloucestershire Highways to support this aim.

Mrs Paula Needham
Headteacher

This post was submitted by Paula Needham.

I thought I would update all readers about the remaining places available at the school for this academic year. After a flurry of new admissions, the following number of places are available:

Reception - FULL
Year 1: 9
Year 2: 9
Year 3: FULL
Year 4: FULL
Year 5: 11
Year 6: 10

In summary, of the 120 places available for this year, only 39 remain. I know that some residents are waiting until the school opens its doors in January for Y1 to 6 but it may be too late by this point. Please do enrol in your local school and help build our community.

If you require a place at the school, then call 01452 425077 and speak directly to the Headteacher, Mrs Needham. If you want a place in a year group that is already full, then please do contact us and we can try to help you.

Mrs Needham

This post was submitted by Paula Needham.

I just thought I’d put a post up detailing what I know about the meeting on Friday.

The location is still assumed to be the Community Centre, but Cllr Bryan Claridge is still chasing it.
Any issues and/or venue changes will be posted as soon as they are known.

The actual meeting will be chaired by the Parish Council to ensure it is properly done and has oversight!

The agenda will (roughly) be:

• Welcome and introductions
• Overview of the Association and what is required of the meeting.
• Job descriptions to be filled.
• Election of officers.
• Any other business.
• Date of next meeting.

Apologies for things not being more definite. As soon we have any more information it will be passed on.

To say a bit more about the roles:

We will need to elect at least a Chair-Person and a Secretary.
The Chair will be responsible for running meetings and representing the organisation.
The Secretary will be responsible for ensuring that people know what they are supposed to be doing and for keeping minutes of the meetings.

These are very rough and will not be the only roles, but are the minimum of what we will need to allow a mandate to be developed and push the organisation on. I would like to see a Social Secretary too, and any other role which may be useful.

However, people do need to volunteer for these roles and be willing to do them, otherwise nothing will happen except wasting everybody’s time, so please think carefully about whether you can contribute!

This post was submitted by Baz_k.

I have visited the blog for the first time today and it’s interesting the issues that residents have about the Village.

I moved to Kingsway 4 months ago and have cringed at the amount of near accidents I have seen on the bend which leads up to the new Kingsway School.

I thought the majority of people would use their common sense when parking, but obviously not!

Does it have to wait until a child is hurt for people to stop doing it?

I do understand people’s comments about visitor parking but - to be honest - when it comes to residents cars, you should make sure that the house you buy has adequate parking for your needs.

Kingsway Village was not designed for off-street parking and this was very clear to me when looking for a suitable property.

This post was submitted by cac.

I am rather upset at seeing certain dogs not on leads in Kingsway. There are 2 in particular which have caught my eye:
1 is a black Rotweiller that I’ve seen quite a few times now. On one occassion my partner said “it looks old and harmless”, until he saw our dog (on a lead)… he never moved so quick! Went from looking old to looking as agile (and scary) as anything! This worries me as I have a smallish dog, a young child and live where other families let their children play outside.
The second is a Staffordshire Terrier. No lead again (and if you read the ‘papers today, a “Staffy” ripped out part of a 7-year-old’s throat)!

I feel it is the owners responsibility to keep their dog on a lead and the local Community Police Patrol’s responsibility to intervene if they see it happening. So far - every time I’ve been about to mention it - they’ve gone by the time I’ve got out of the house (apart from the incident with the Rotweiller… which was shocking)!

I read the previous post on this subject (Kingsway Canine Concerns) and noted the comment posted by Clive which said:

“I found this information about the law regarding this subject:

The Dangerous Dogs Act 1991
UK legislation introduced in response to various incidents of serious injury / death due to attacks by aggressive / uncontrolled dogs, (particularly on children).
These incidents received heavy media coverage, causing much public concern and - ultimately - resulted in this legislation.
Four breeds in particular were targeted by the Act: Pit Bull Terriers (Note: ‘Pit Bull’ is not a breed but refers to several different breeds), Dogo Argentino, Fila Brasileiro, Tosa.
The legislation makes it illegal to own any of these dogs without specific exemption from a court, and the dogs must be neutered, muzzled and kept on a lead in public. They must also be registered and insured and receive microchip implants.
With regard to where to report them, I looked around and it seems like it’s the responsibilty of the Police, but you could also contact the National UK Canine Helpline on 0844 856 3303 to ask for advice / guidance.”

I hope someone who reads this can make the owners aware, or any other dogs seen not to be not on their leads… I would hate to come back here to report that something terrible has happened to my little one (or anybody’s)!

This post was submitted by MissC.