Welcome

STOP PRESS: PUBLIC MEETING OF 18 JANUARY 2012: click here

The Action Group has been established by Maple Cross and Mill End parents concerned at the appalling situation facing them as they seek to transfer their children from primary into secondary school. The closure and transfer to independent status of secondary schools in the area has resulted in parents having to send their children to the other side of Watford to the worst three performing council-run schools in the county. This problem has been exacerbated by:

1) Local, independent schools setting admissions criteria that end up disadvantaging Maple Cross and Mill End children.

2) Bordering councils offering their residents more application choices than that offered by Hertfordshire County Council so that they can compete with Hertfordshire children for Hertfordshire school places without Hertfordshire children being able to compete on an equal footing.

We are seeking to meet and organise ways in which we can place pressure on the different parties involved in providing or auditing the provision of fair and equal local school services across all of Hertfordshire.

If you wish to get involved by signing any petitions; writing letters; attending action group, council or other meetings; helping with research; or in any other way; please look at the next section below or contact us on wd3school@yahoo.co.uk

Our campaign is seeking 2 goals:

1) New LEA secondary schools serving the increased Maple Cross, Mill End and Rickmansworth children population.

2) An increase in the number of school preferences (from a paltry 3) that secondary applicants can list to match the application process offered to applicants by neighbouring LEAs.

TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THESE OBJECTIVES, click here.

NEW FREE SCHOOL: APPLY NOW

Those of you who attended WD3 SAG’s public meeting in January 2012 will be aware that Reach Learning is a group of teachers applying via the Free School route to the Department for Education to establish a local Secondary School by September 2013. Since this overlaps with WD3 SAG’s objectives of seeing more local school places for local children, we have been collaborating with this Reach Learning project.

To open this school, the Department for Education must have evidence by 24 February 2012 that local parents would be interested in sending their children to learn at this school.
For year 5 children, this school would be an extra choice in addition to the 3 made through Hertfordshire County Council.
To provisionally apply, learn more about Reach Learning or show your support, register on www.reachlearning.co.uk or contact Reach Learning via admin@reachlearning.co.uk or 07552 358200.

For more information about Free Schools, click here.

SECONDARY SCHOOL SITE CONSULTATION

Three Rivers  District Council is inviting local residents to feed back their views on how land will be used in the district in future. This includes locals’ views on which of the recommended secondary school sites should be used. To reply by 5 March 2012 to the Three Rivers District Council consultation on possible secondary school sites, click here and then follow the link just below the words ‘Welcome to Three rivers District Council’ where it says ‘We want to know your views on the future of development in the area’. Click on the ‘Site Allocations DPD Consultation’ and answer the questions raised by the ‘Education Sites’ section of the document.

To view the detailed Hertfordshire County Council reports on each site submitted to Three Rivers District Council, click here.

The three proposed secondary school sites are:

a) Mill End/Maple Cross: Land east of A405 (North Orbital)/north of A412.

b) Mill End/Maple Cross: Froghall Farm and adjoining land.

c) Croxley Green: Land north–east of Baldwins Lane.

Please note that the Education experts, Hertfordshire County Council, is seeking TWO sites (one on Croxley and one in Mill End) and only recommends that a successful school will be able to operate on sites a) and c). For your information only, it is the opinion of the WD3 SAG that the Three Rivers District Council’s recommendation to build a school on Site b) ignores the weaknesses of that site highlighted by the education and highways experts, and the abnormally higher cost to the tax-payer of building on Site b).

Based on the detailed Hertfordshire County Council technical studies (see link above), our concerns about whether a successful school can be operated at Three Rivers’ recommended site include:

1. The playing fields would have to be located remote from the school buildings – this would result in a security and child safety problem for staff.

2. The school buildings may not be possible because the building zone would be limited by development to the existing roundabout. A big enough school may not be possible. Irrespective of Three River’s claims, it is the Highways Department’s policy to not consider alternatives to the re-development/move of this roundabout to facilitate the school’s entrance as long as another possible school site exists.

3. Abnormal costs will be incurred due amongst others things to the re-development/move of the existing roundabout, resolution of purchase of the site from the at least 5 land owners, removal of a raised concrete platform on the playing field part of the site, resolution of possible soil decontamination, and resolution of building on a former landfill site.

Consultation documents and response forms are available for you:

(i) At the Council’s offices (Three Rivers House, Northway, Rickmansworth, WD3 1RL).

(ii) All libraries in Three Rivers.

(iii) The Council’s website via the above link.

The Council’s website page tells you about consultation events that its Development Plans Team will be holding to which you can go and learn more. We recommend you call the Council on 01923 776611 (Minicom 01923 727303) prior to attending to check that the event details are still correct.

Awareness Leaflets to Download

Two new leaflets have been produced to increase awareness of the reasons why the Secondary School situation in our area is so dire.

The first is a very visual leaflet highlighting the main issues and outlining how adult family members can help. This is a PDF leaflet and you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it. You can download this leaflet here.

The second leaflet is a Word document and answers and corrects some of the common misconceptions about the Secondary School crisis and the WD3 School Action Group. You can download this leaflet here.

Herts County Council Report

Herts CC have cunningly removed their damning ”Meeting the rising demand for school places” report from their website.

However, you can click here to download it.

Northwood School – Additional Places

The WD3 School Action Group has received contact from a head teacher who wants to make WD3 parents aware there is capacity at their school that can be considered within any Hertfordshire parents’ 3 choices of secondary schools. We would like to make it clear that under no circumstances are we recommending this school. However, we do feel it is our duty to pass this message on. You can access this message by clicking here.

County Councillor Email List and Suggested Letter

Below is the suggested letter text as discussed in the meeting on the 10th February.

Beneath this is the full list of 77 email addresses.

Please copy the letter text into an email, edit as you see fit and then copy and paste the list of emails into the “to:” address field.

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Dear Councillor

As a parent/carer of a child in the WD3 area, I am extremely concerned at the lack of secondary school places in Rickmansworth and West Watford.

I demand Hertfordshire County Council, in conjunction with Three Rivers District Council, commence work to build a new community secondary school in the WD3 area, with a target opening date of September 2015.

At the Council Meeting scheduled for 23 February 2010, I urgently request that you adopt the ‘Meeting the rising demand for school places’ report and the budget associated with this programme as part of Hertfordshire County Council’s IPP.

Additionally, I also request that on or before 31 March 2010, Hertfordshire County Council advises me of what measures HCC will implement to ensure local children have fair access to sufficient local school places in the interim period between now and when sufficient new schooling becomes available.

Yours faithfully,

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david.andrews@hertscc.gov.uk; derrick.ashley@hertscc.gov.uk; john.barfoot@hertscc.gov.uk; roger.beeching@hertscc.gov.uk; nigel.bell@hertscc.gov.uk; clare.berry@hertscc.gov.uk; philip.bibby@hertscc.gov.uk; ian.brandon@hertscc.gov.uk; chris.brazier@hertscc.gov.uk; morris.bright@hertscc.gov.uk; nigel.brook@hertscc.gov.uk; frances.button@hertscc.gov.uk; rose.cheswright@hertscc.gov.uk; geoff.churchard@hertscc.gov.uk; caroline.clapper@hertscc.gov.uk; malcolm.cowan@hertscc.gov.uk; maxine.crawley@hertscc.gov.uk; terry.douris@hertscc.gov.uk; steve.drury@hertscc.gov.uk; mike.ellis@hertscc.gov.uk; keith.emsall@hertscc.gov.uk; wilf.eynon@hertscc.gov.uk; deirdre.gates@hertscc.gov.uk; sgm@cix.co.uk; paul.goggins@hertscc.gov.uk; robert.gordon@hertscc.gov.uk; bryan.hammond@hertscc.gov.uk; christopher.hayward@hertscc.gov.uk; teresa.heritage@hertscc.gov.uk; dave.hewitt@hertscc.gov.uk; fiona.hill@hertscc.gov.uk; nick.hollinghurst@hertscc.gov.uk; steve.holmes@hertscc.gov.uk; terry.hone@hertscc.gov.uk; tony.hunter@hertscc.gov.uk; matthew.hurst@hertscc.gov.uk; sara.johnston@hertscc.gov.uk; barbara.lamb@hertscc.gov.uk; aislinn.lee@hertscc.gov.uk; david.lloyd@hertscc.gov.uk; john.lloyd@hertscc.gov.uk; bernard.lloyd@hertscc.gov.uk; jan.maddern@hertscc.gov.uk; steven.markiewicz@hertscc.gov.uk; chris.mitchell@hertscc.gov.uk; michael.muir@hertscc.gov.uk; leanda.newlyn@hertscc.gov.uk; sally.newton@hertscc.gov.uk; steve.obrien@hertscc.gov.uk; audrey.oaten@hertscc.gov.uk; robin.parker@hertscc.gov.uk; duncan.peek@hertscc.gov.uk; stuart.pile@hertscc.gov.uk; jane.pitman@hertscc.gov.uk; alan.plancey@hertscc.gov.uk; terry.price@hertscc.gov.uk; rob.prowse@hertscc.gov.uk; seamus.quilty@hertscc.gov.uk; ian.reay@hertscc.gov.uk; eddie.roach@hertscc.gov.uk; richard.roberts@hertscc.gov.uk; peter.ruffles@hertscc.gov.uk; derek.scudder@hertscc.gov.uk; alan.searing@hertscc.gov.uk; ray.shakespearesmith@hertscc.gov.uk; richard.smith@hertscc.gov.uk; bill.storey@hertscc.gov.uk; sharon.taylor@hertscc.gov.uk; richard.thake@hertscc.gov.uk; ron.tindall@hertscc.gov.uk; john.usher@hertscc.gov.uk; mark.watkin@hertscc.gov.uk; chriswhite@cix.co.uk; andrew.williams@hertscc.gov.uk; allan.witherick@hertscc.gov.uk; colette.wyatt-lowe@hertscc.gov.uk; james.fraser@hertscc.gov.uk

How can you help your child get a school place NOW

There are a number of ways that you can help your child out.

You can get involved in the secondary transfer action group. Even a little task would help us out. To find out more, click here.

You can help us petition Hertfordshire County Council for a new WD3 secondary school. To find out more, click here.

You can help us petition Hertfordshire County Council on behalf of those children entering year six from Autumn 2010. They are at a disadvantage simply because they live in Hertfordshire. To find out more, click here.

Useful files

To the right of this page under “Pages” is a link to Useful files to download.

This page will be regularly updated with relevant documents, presentations and files for you to download to your computer.