Oversubscription of The Round House Academy 

The Round House Academy is over-subscribed and not all children living on Love's Farm will be given a place.  Places are currently allocated based on distance to the school, which means children living to the North of the estate will miss out on a place.  And it’s these children who have the furthest to travel to the next nearest school which is at least a 40 minute walk away.

Love's Farm has grown at a fast rate over the past few years, and has a particularly high proportion of young families; however the capacity of the primary school has not been increased to reflect this.

Residents have spent a huge amount of time building Love's Farm into a wonderful community and at the heart there's a fantastic primary school.  It’s so deeply disappointing that the school does not have enough space for all of the children on Love's Farm. Preventing more and more children from attending the local school is likely to have a huge impact on community spirit.

It’s so disheartening to see the majority of children in our neighbourhood being able to walk to school, whilst a small minority have to be driven past all of them, past the local school, in order to attend another school much further away. Living close to the school they attend not only makes travelling much easier for both the parents and children, but it also provides exercise, gives the children an opportunity to socialise, make friends, and really feel part of the community. It makes it far easier to attend extra curricula and social activities, and it will also mean they will live close to their school friends.

This is clearly a very concerning issue for parents are we’re trying to take a co-ordinated approach in finding a solution for this year’s intake but also for children on Love's Farm due to start school in future years.  We would like the capacity of The Round House Academy to be increased in time for the September 2017 intake.  We recognise this will likely have to be done through temporary measures (i.e. Portakabins), and could be done for a few years on a temporary basis until a longer-term solution can be found, for example the opening of the primary school on the new Wintringham Park development.

We have set up a group on Facebook group called Oversubscription of The Round House Academy.  Anyone is welcome to join, whether you are affected (either directly or indirectly), would like more information, what to talk to other parents, or just to show your support.

We have also set up a petition and are trying to get as many signatures as possible.  Please click here to sign it.

If you would like to discuss any of this further please contact Emma Stevens via emma_stevens@rocketmail.com.