Star is now in year 7 at a school across the road from my other two children’s primary school. A brand new school building has been built and Star will be moving into it after the Easter Holiday. She’s very excited about it. Then in September, Boo and the Little Man will also be moving into the new building as it is becoming an ‘All Through’ school for children from 4 to 16 years.
Apparently, All Through schools are on the increase, particularly in Academies and Free Schools. My children’s school are already Academies, and run by the same company. They already have six All Through Schools in London.
So, it will be a primary and secondary school in one building. Or, they may build another school on the same site for the younger children.
There are advantages of All Through schools, it means that the children won’t suffer the anxiety of moving to another school and that the younger children will have access to more equipment and learning opportunities that would normally be available in primary schools. It should be a great opportunity.
It just feels like such a huge change.
I can’t imagine 4 year olds sharing the same buildings and facilities as teenagers. I really hope that there will be a lot of segregation between the younger and older children.
We haven’t been given much information and it all seems rather sudden. Surely, this has been planned for a long time, but us parents have had no idea until now. There was one meeting planned but it was the day after we received the letter and we didn’t have time to arrange childcare to go. I’m thinking this may have been the case with a lot of parents, with such short notice. Not only that the letter was sent from the Secondary School only so the Primary School parents were not invited!
The head teacher of my children’s primary school left as soon as the letter went out. She had done some good work in turning the school around and her leaving was a bit of shock. The newsletter sent from my children’s Primary School just told us about her decision to leave and the news about the new head teacher that was taking her place. Nothing else, nothing about the merger.
In the Secondary School letter they talked about the head of the Primary School leaving and stated that She she approved of the merger but it was time for her to move on. It left me thinking that her message had been dictated by someone else. It has been said that all teachers at the primary school will be keeping their jobs, so the children can move with their teachers.
It feels so quick, the letter was sent out just before half term and the final decision will be made at Easter. Then the children will be moving in September.
I’m not worried about Boo, she’ll be in year 6 anyway so moving over in September. It will probably make it easier for her as one of the reasons stated for the merger was to make the transition to Secondary School easier.
I am worried about The Little Man who will still be in what used to be called the Infants. He’s got four more years of Primary School education. He’s tiny compared to some of the children in the Secondary School. Far too young to be mixing with teenagers!
Hopefully it will all work out and we can all be happy about it. I’m not sure, How would you feel if your 6 year old was mixing with Secondary School kids?
Ahh! Try not to worry….It might not be as bad as you think.
My teen goes to a secondary school which has a primary school on the same campus. They share the facilities like the music, cookery, science rooms and sports halls but secondary and primary students never mix. They even use the same dining room but the primary have their lunch at midday and the secondary have their lunch at 1.20pm. The primary has their own entrance, classrooms, playground and toilets. The only time little one's see the teens is when they come in on a morning for the start of school but the teens go one way and primary the other.
The only reason my youngest doesn't go to the primary school at the secondary is because she was settled in her school before they all joined together to become an academy.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I think if they are separated then it won't be too much to worry about, at least they will get a brand new building and be able to use the new schools facilities. I guess they could possibly have separate entrances and exits too when the old school is knocked down as it will be a huge area.