Angelina - am happy to collect names of those interested in getting together. I’ll create a separate post on here, and utilise the facebook massive to see if I can get any more names. Can you forward anyone you know with children starting at the school to contact me please.

Looking forward to the naming ceremony!

Don’t know if anyone knows, are they planning to relocate the prefab away from the very large building/construction going on literally just over the path in Woolstrop house? Just thinking of noise, dust, health and safety even…thanks

Opening the New Building: QUVL has re-stated that the school building will be handed over by 30th November. We hope that they can hand over the school earlier, but we can’t count on it. Although the building may be completed by September there could still be problems off site.

Opening in Temporary Classrooms: not all the children we hoped to offer places to could be accommodated, we had to restrict offers to just reception children at this time. That makes life really difficult, especially for parents who wanted children of different ages in the same school.

We have been assured by the schools commissioning team at the County Council that the temporary classrooms will be fully redecorated, and kitted out with new equipment, and will be a nice learning environment.

New Pupils: From next week, the Head teacher, Mrs Needham, will have an office in Shire Hall and she will be contacting parents with details of the induction process, as soon as possible.

Applications for Places: The schools admissions team is continuing to co-ordinate the waiting list for places at the school address as advised by Clive. When Mrs Needham has an address to work from, parents will be able to contact her direct.

Pre school and Extended Hours: we will be making arrangements to provide this service, it is high on our priority list, but at present we are busy recruiting staff.

There are several nursery school providers in the area, some linked to schools, others independent, as well as toddler groups. Quedgeley News carries adverts for some of them. As I understand it, parents make enquiries direct with the nursery. Perhaps somebody with more recent experience than mine could give some advice?

Teachers: The core of the staff will be employed from the start of the school year, so pupil teacher ratio will be small, (it could be as low as 1 teacher for 12 children for the first year - but that might change as pupil numbers change), and that is bound to be of benefit to the children.

Parents Association: An excellent idea from mac for parents to support the school. Frankly we had not anticipated interest coming so soon, so that bodes well. Until the school has an office such enquiries can be sent to me at j.r.powell@blueyonder.co.uk

Naming Event: There will be a naming ceremony at the school at 11:00 next Saturday.

It is disappointing of course that the new school won’t be ready in time but I see it this way: It’s better that they get the school right and safe before our children start than not, and I’m going to tackle it in a fun way (making the trip to school a game) with my little one, so hopefully it won’t be a traumatic experience for her.
I have already showed her where the Kingsway School is and explained that she won’t start there straight away, and I’ve made a point of explaining to her - every time we drive past the Beeches Green construction - that is where she will go first; then I explain that she will then move to the new building in Kingsway.

JoJo,
I asked about pre-school at Kingsway previously (for a neighbour of ours) and I had feedback from Julian Powell (on a previous post here); he advised that there isn’t any plans for a pre-school at Kingsway in the foreseeable future

Our Daughter Phoenix goes to Little Owls - Fieldcourt Infants/Juniors Pre-School (Tel is here) and I have to say that Little Owls are absolutely great even with children potty training etc.
You need to look into registering/ putting your little ones name on the list quickly as they are very popular and places are quickly filled.

Amanda,
I think it would be great to get all the little ones starting reception class in September together so that they can all get to know eachother before starting.
If you are collating a list please put me and Phoenix on it, my tel’ number is here, so please do give me a call to arrange meeting up

I’m not sure what can be done right now about supporting the school, perhaps Julian Powell might give us some feedback on it.

Hi Jo,

You could start by contacting the School Admissions Team (see details in my comment from April 5th above).

I don’t know much about pre-school registration, our daughter goes to Little Owls at Fieldcourt (Tel’ is here), but there’s some information (and contact details for our local “Childcare Development Officer”) on this page of the Glos County Council website.

Meanwhile, you are both welcome to the site and thanks for posting