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No loss of playground
• FURTHER to your article (Pupils would lose third of their playground space, July 10), I wanted to write and clarify the misinformation contained in your item.
As you know, at the meeting on July 7, Councillor Andrew Mennear and I were glad to have the opportunity to answer questions about the proposed co-location of Frank Barnes and Edith Neville schools. Indeed, the question of loss of outside space came up. As I said then, there will be no loss of playground space for the children.
The figures which show this appear in the feasibility study and reflect the calculations provided by the architects. The instructions to the architects clearly set out the requirement that play areas at Edith Neville are not to be less than existing. The study showed one way in which the new schools could be built on site – but there are many ways to do this and we expect that the exact plans will be worked out with the involvement of Edith Neville and Frank Barnes schools. The executive summary of the feasibility proposals shows that the proposed play area under the plans could actually be greater than the current usable play area at Edith Neville Primary School.
The new schools could be built on the site in a way that would give an increase of 73sq metres from Edith Neville’s current net usable outdoor play area. This would be 643sq metres more than the government’s recommended minimum for confined sites (2,948sq metres) for the existing numbers of children at the two schools. In addition, more space could be provided, for example, by creating a protected external play terrace on the roof, as several of Camden’s schools already have. I hope this makes it clear that playground space is not being reduced for Edith Neville children.
I understand that the parents of pupils at Edith Neville School are anxious about the future. I would like to repeat that the two schools will not be merged. Although they will share the same ground, the schools will remain as separate schools with two headteachers and two separate governing bodies. The children of Edith Neville and Frank Barnes schools will be taught in their own classes and will not be integrated during lessons. Edith Neville School will remain open while the work is carried out to upgrade the school with brand new facilities. Nor will Edith Neville be reduced in size. It will have the same number of pupils as now, around 250 pupils as compared to Frank Barnes which will have only 30 pupils.
As you know, I will be retiring soon from my post as director. It has been a great pleasure to lead both the Building Schools for the Future and Frank Barnes developments and I am absolutely sure that the proposed developments will provide much better facilities for Edith Neville, Frank Barnes and secondary schools across Camden. I wish the children of all those schools the very best during their school years in Camden and look forward to seeing even better results in future.
HEATHER SCHROAEDER CBE
Director, Children, Schools and Families,
Camden Council
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