Parents oppose plans to move schoolchildren from Elm Wood Primary School, West Norwood
5:00am Tuesday 30th October 2012 in News By Alice Foster, Reporter
Parents outside Elm Wood Primary School
Parents are deeply worried about plans to move their children into another school's premises for a year.
Elm Wood Primary School, in Carnac Street, West Norwood, is going to build extensions in March to allow it to increase its intake in coming years.
Parents received a letter last week proposing years five and six classes should move to spare classrooms at sister school Kingswood’s upper site, in Gipsy Road, next summer.
The mother of a boy, who will be in year six next year, said that as a result of the outcry from parents the school is also considering moving years four and five instead.
She said: "Most parents are up in arms at the moment.
"We all need to unite as parents because if we split as year groups we are not going to stand as a big united group and fight this."
She said her son would be going into his final year next September so needed to concentrate on his SATs exams and would not have a chance to come back.
But she said: "I don't think any child should be made to leave the school."
In a letter to parents, head of school Susan Holt outlined advantages to vacating three classrooms such as giving builders more room to work and giving children the chance to make more friends.
Ms Holt said: "Like me, you may have concerns that paper plans sometimes run up against unforeseen problems in real life.
"With this in mind, I would like to propose that our Year 5 and 6 classes in the 2013 - 2014 academic year are located at Kingswood Upper site, where there are spare classrooms that could accommodate them."
She added: "I would like to assure you that the quality of education offered will be no different to that on our Elm Wood site."
Building work is expected to start in March and finish in July 2014.
