Leyton schools George Mitchell and Beaumont Primary will become one 'all-through school' as of September 1 (From This Is Local London)

Leyton schools George Mitchell and Beaumont Primary will become one 'all-through school' as of September 1

2:19pm Thursday 9th July 2009 in

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A LEYTON primary school is set to “merge” with a secondary school as of September.

Beaumont Primary School, in Burchell Road and George Mitchell School, in Farmer Road, will become George Mitchell All-Through School, although they will remain on different sites.

Current George Mitchell headteacher Helen Jeffery is now acting as head of both schools and the age range will be from three to 16.

However, a primary head has already been appointed and will initially be based on the Beaumont site.

Mrs Jeffery said: “I'm really excited about it – we've already started working together.

“There hasn't been one all-through curriculum and students have come in to be greeted by secondary staff who don't really know what's happened to those children.

“I'm really excited about not having that break.”

She added that children from both schools were looking forward to the change and that staff were pleased to have a “seamless curriculum”.

“Even now, the primary children are starting to use our specialist facilities,” Mrs Jeffery said.

“I genuinely think that secondary colleagues can bring expertise to the primary phase and primary staff have so much expertise in literacy and numeracy.”

The two schools will eventually share a building and concerns have been raised over how safe it will be to mix older and younger children.

“We will be responsible in the way we design the building,” Mrs Jeffery said.

She confirmed there will be separate playgrounds for the younger children and said older pupils were already protective towards them.

“They're really looking forward to working the younger ones – many of them are their brothers and sisters anyway,” she said.

Mrs Jeffery added that there would be “complete parity” in pay and conditions for primary and secondary school staff.

The two schools will officially “merge” as of September 1.