Education

Parents in East Reading are “livid” at the news some children from the borough may not be able to go to Maiden Erlegh School in future
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Parents ‘livid’ at Maiden Erlegh catchment review

By Linda Fort
September 01, 2010

Parents in East Reading are “livid” at the news some children from the borough may not be able to go to Maiden Erlegh School in future.

Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) is reviewing its catchment areas following the closure of Ryeish Green School and a recommendation by an independent adjudi-cator states the present catchment areas are no longer “fit for purpose”.

As a result the council will be carrying out a consultation on new catchment boundaries in September and October.

Although the consultation document has not been published yet it appears one proposal is likely to affect children from Alfred Sutton Primary School in Wokingham Road, East Reading, many of whom will no longer fall in the Maiden Erlegh catchment area.

Former Reading borough councillor Richard McKenzie, right, whose two children both attend Maiden Erlegh, said: “As soon as I heard about this I contacted about 200 people by email to let them know what was happening.

“From the responses I have had back, people are absolutely livid.

“I will be campaigning first to make sure everyone knows about this and then to try to stop it. I will be contacting our local MP Rob Wilson about it to see if he can put some clout behind the campaign.”

Reading’s only Green councillor Rob White has set up a Facebook group called No To Maiden Erlegh Catchment Area Changes.

He said: “The set up of schools as they are at the moment with Reading children going to Wokingham secondary schools dates back to when Berkshire County Council looked after education. I think it is massively unfair for Wokingham council to use its control of these schools to disadvantage Reading children who have as much right to go there.

“I will fight the corner of Reading parents and children.”

Rachael Wardell, head of strategy and partnerships in children’s services at WBC, said it was “absolutely not the case” that there were any proposals to exclude Reading borough children or children from Alfred Sutton from Wokingham schools.

She said the review of catchments included all kinds of factors including the size of the school, distance from the school and whether the children would have to cross major roads.

While children with siblings at a particular school would have preference, she acknowledged the review would result in changes to the Maiden Erlegh catchment boundary and might affect some children at Alfred Sutton.

She said Maiden Erlegh was an oversubscribed school which had expanded as far as was possible, adding parents were entitled to put any school as their first preference even if they did not live in the catchment area.

She said the matter was being discussed with Reading Borough Council officers and added: “We know that there is going to be a continuing significant need for secondary places for children from Reading borough in Wokingham borough and are well aware that we will be continuing to take children from across the Reading borough boundary.”

She said the consultation would be conducted on both sides of the boundary and would be followed by a statutory consultation based on the decisions made in November.

lindafort@trinitysouth.co.uk

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I live on the edge of Reading (cemetery junction) near Franny's and Benny's. Maiden Erlegh isn't far from me only 15 minute walk and 9 minute drive, it was my second choice. I applied for a secondary school place in September 2010, I got my first choice instead.

Christian Boaitey
06/07/2011 at 17:24

More updates could be found here:

http://www.walktomaidenerlegh.com/

Earley Parent
27/01/2011 at 13:06

Latest Update: www.maidenerleghcatchment.com

Resident WB
08/01/2011 at 10:43

what happens in 5 years when emmbrook closes/moves as well ?

str3
03/10/2010 at 00:58

As usual the same biased headline "Wokingham excluding Reading children". What Wokingham are actually doing & should have done years ago, is include local Wokingham children. These children live as close & some closer than the 'Reading' children.

Reading BC should have been more pro-active instead of burying its head in the sand & looked at its own provision for school places.

Why does Reading wish to exclude the few children from Earley & bus them to various schools at a greater distance than the Reading children going to The Bulmershe?

EarleyBird, Earley
25/09/2010 at 09:03

Whilst I understand the frustrations from parents I am against the petition. We live next to Earley St Peter's School, closer to Maiden Erlegh than Alfred Sutton, pay council tax to Wokingham and we are still not in the catchment area. You can always put Maiden Erlegh as first choice but it is oversubscribed so is understandable.

el atc
08/09/2010 at 09:28

I have set up a Facebook group called No to Maiden Erlegh Catchment Area Changes to bring people together to fight these changes:

http://tiny.cc/catchment

If you aren't on Facebook and want to be kept updated please get in contact.

Rob White
03/09/2010 at 13:10

How about the feelings of those people that pay council tax to Wokingham Council and cant get their children into their prefered local school because it is over subscribed. Reading BC has been quietly happy to allow this to happen for many years as they have not had to readdress the closure of Alfred Sutton and look to build a new secondary school to replace it in east Reading

Ian Armstrong
02/09/2010 at 16:39

I appreciate the concerns of parents wanting the best education for their children (I am one myself), but when you look at the maps, this makes perfect sense. Much of East Reading is closer to Bulmershe and there are currently Wokingham district residents that have to travel from homes in Lower Earley past Maiden Erlegh to their ‘catchment’ school. At the end of the day, it is an unfortunate legacy of boundary changes, but Wokingham Borough Council should be looking after its own residents first and foremost and I have to agree with the proposal.

RobinS
02/09/2010 at 16:35

I have rounded up a protest group of high profile MES alumni such as Chad Shepherd and the one with the ears out of Big Brother. They are furious I can tell you.

Does Mrs Hastings still teach there by the way? She was lovely.

Nessa from Eldorado, Burghfield Sailing Club
02/09/2010 at 14:27

I suggest the headline to the article is renamed "Homeowners ‘livid’ at Maiden Erlegh catchment review" as surely this will affect house prices for those whose homes drop out of the catchment area.

Forbury Lion
02/09/2010 at 13:35

interesting to see what happens when emmbrook shuts/moves in 5 or 6 years what will happen then - another boundary change ? The whole arborfield redevelopment is looking like it could be a totally different number of houses from when the original ryesh green closure consultation was done - there could be carnage

Reading Biker, Reading
02/09/2010 at 09:28

Those involved in the campaign against the closure of Ryeish Green warned about this 5+ years ago! RBC said WBC could do what it liked it had no comment to make (then again that was the year before the Academy and 60+ intake to 180 overnight with the closure may have been a reason). But RBC are still 200 places short of secondary places for its students who have to travel to WBC, West Berks, or Oxon schools.

Glo, Reading
01/09/2010 at 19:14

I shall be very interested to see the outcome of this "consultation on boundary changes" My experience of Wokingham council consultations is they ask questions that don't elicit uncomfortable answers, and ignore anything which asks them to reflect on their proposals or god forbid consider other options. I was told 13 years ago (when I moved to Lower Earley) that they would be looking at the catchment areas, and that a new secondary school was proposed. Since then they have built on the proposed school site, ignored the catchment area problem, and closed Ryeish Green (my catchment school) forcing parents to send their kids to Emmbrook or Bulmershe. They need the right hand to talk to the left and sort out a proper strategy for education. Chucking "Reading" kids out is not a strategy, just a knee jerk sop to the Wokingham snobs. On this note Les miserables should note that according to Wokingham figures about 20% of maiden erlegh students are from Reading, that must account fro their appalling results then!