APPENDIX 3

E-Mail Responses

Please note the views below are not the views of the Council, but are the views of people who responded to the consultation.

I am a parent of a child currently in Y8 at High Storrs and one in Y2 at Sharrow Primary.

My eldest also went to Sharrow Primary, and when we applied for secondary back in Oct 2007, we didn't put Abbeydale Grange on any of the three preferred choice.

So I know support the closure of Abbeydale Grange and having High Storrs/King Edward VII as the catchment, as this will make it easier for my youngest, when the time comes to get into those school.

There is no issue of distance, it's only a bus ride away, and my daughter frequently walks home with her friends from the same Sharrow area.

I'm a mother of a child that goes to abbeydale grange school. My daughter, started at the school just last week and has already settled in really well. she is very happy at the school, is making new friends something she wasn't very good at doing before, likes the subjects and thinks the teachers are all really nice. When she was at primary school it was sometimes a real struggle to get her there, only in the final year did she start changing. Now , at abbeydale there hasn't been any of that which was such a relief. she loves the school. it is easiest for her to get to, we live just off london road and don't have a car. being a small school means the teachers have a better relationship with all pupils and she says she's already noticing that. of course all parents want the best possible education for their children and i do believe that is achievable at abbeydale, it is up to each individual child to make the most of their education no matter what school they go to. my daughter has expressed her views to me about the closure and is really worried and upset about it closing. we all are. she would rather stay at home instead of being shifted to another school something i've heard from another parent. why shove all the pupils into other schools which are already full? it makes no sense. the kids are going to end up being seperated from their friends and will have to try and fit in with all the other children whom will have already formed friendships. it isn't fair on the kids and the teachers who will be out of work. all because the council want the land for new homes!! it disgusts me that you'd rather cause upset and heartache for new homes. schools are far more important. i'm backing the school to stay open a million per cent. i'll do all i can for it. please please listen to the kids involved there. please. i beg you.

I think its better to close it and redistribute resources. I would not want my child to go there - sadly. But do the other secondaries have enough places and resources to take all the children?

I am writing about the future of Abbeydale Grange as part of the review to suggest it be used as a specialist secondary school for children with disabilities and Learning difficulties.

I am co-founder and co-chair of ACCT: Asperger's Children and Carers Together and also one of the lead parents of the interim forum, the new group currently forming to represent all parents with children with disabilities here in Sheffield. One of the recurring themes and concerns of parents is the lack of specialist provision for our children here in Sheffield and this is behind this

i enquiry about consideration of SEN children for the future of Abbeydale Grange.

Please let me know if this suggestion is being considered and if you require consultation to be carried out amongst the parents of children with LDD about this issue?

As the father of a pupil in Year 5 at Carteknowle Juniors you have asked for my views on the proposal to close the school and reallocate schools as detailed on the Sept 09 consultation document.

I am very much in favour of closing the school as soon as possible. It is no longer a realistic choice for parents. Due to :-

• so few of the parents in the catchment area actually choosing it for their children. This means the schools population does not reflect the children in this area. It is disproportionately made up of children who are low academic achievers and or have special needs such as behavioural problems or English as a second language. • it would be cruel to send my son to a school where none of his close classmates will be going • the very low academic success of the school compared to the other secondaries such as High Storrs, Silverdale etc • the school is not viable in the long term and I do not want my son to have to start at Abbeydale only for it to have the fear of closure hanging over it or for it to shut before he has finished.

I am very happy for Carterknowle to be made a feeder for High Storrs as my daughter goes to High Storrs. She is happy at this school and is making good progress. It is fairly easy for her to get there and back. There are a number of buses and it is walkable.

I would comment that its important for all the secondaries in the area to get a fair mix of children from different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. To facilitate this Silverdale ought to have either Abbeydale Primary or Sharrow as a feeder school with buses provided for the children to get there. At present Silverdale is a small cosy school with very few children from a poor background or having English as a second language compared to High Storrs, King Ecgbert or King Edward VII.

I would also like to point out that the present difficult situation with Abbeydale Grange is having a negative effect on its 3 feeder primaries. Some parents are moving house to ensure they are in the catchment area of a good school, whist others seem to be moving their children to other Junior Schools that are feeder schools for other secondaries. Both factors are reducing morale and pupil numbers at Carterknowle, Abbeydale Primary and Sharrow and having a negative impact on the wider community.

Many thanks for your invitation to participate in the consultation on the future of Abbeydale Grange School.

We chose High Storrs because we were instantly won over when we attended the open evening (with friends; we were not even considering High Storrs before and probably would not have visited at all). High Storrs had a very bad reputation among our acquaintances at the time, and we know two families who had removed their children from the school. If we had followed the consensus, we would have rejected High Storrs out of hand.

ii Our positive choice for High Storrs means that we rejected Abbeydale Grange by default rather than because we felt there was anything wrong with AGS. My daughter learnt a lot at Porter Croft, so we know better than to believe global condemnation of an entire school on the basis of league tables or – worse – the family backgrounds of its pupils.

From all I have seen of AGS for myself and heard from pupils and their parents, this is a school with highly motivated teachers and a culture of positive, and frequently very successful, learning. Results are improving, and maintaining one small secondary school is, in my opinion, of great value for children who thrive there, but would sink in the bigger secondaries.

I suspect the school is held back by the fact that it cannot offer a Sixth Form anymore, and a clearer onward link might make it more attractive to some parents. I also believe that school is about more than academic performance: Learning to appreciate children with different backgrounds and abilities is a very valuable life lesson, of huge importance for each child and for social cohesion in Sheffield. Not only in this respect, AGS is successful.

I have no opinion on the reallocation of catchments, but I feel that their publication gives the impression that the closure of the school is, despite all protestations to the contrary, a foregone conclusion. This is not likely to help the school to „regain the confidence of local parents“.

I would be dismayed to see the school close, as I do not see how pupils would benefit from this. There are several schools in Sheffield with worse results, less improvement and considerably more serious discipline problems, yet only AGS appears to be the target for ill-informed and downright nasty calls for closure (see, for example, the frighteningly poisonous comments on the Sheffield Forum website).

In my opinion, the aggressive and ill-informed manner in which this school is attacked by some people is, in itself, a very strong reason for supporting AGS and its pupils.

I come at this from several angles. My mother, who died this year, attended Abbeydale in the 1940s so it is a school I have always been aware of and from a sentimental view would be sorry to see go. However I am a local resident living in the Abbeydale Grange catchment (but not in Dobcroft catchment area), my own children attended Dobcroft. My eldest son lost an appeal to get into Silverdale to be with his friends and spent half a term at Abbeydale – with which I was very impressed - before a second appeal (it was an odd year) which he was then placed at Silverdale. At that time, under a previous head, Abbeydale was a smashing school for some children and I’m sure many children attending Dobcroft but choosing to go to Silverdale would actually have been better suited there if parental prejudice had not been involved. No matter what is decided about the school’s future if it is kept open I cannot see any local residents wanting to send their children there – the lack of a sixth form has always been a disadvantage and given the social make-up of this area most parents will want their children to attend a school with a sixth form. The other schools in the area are all successful and there is no reason to ‘risk’ your child’s education with an unknown. Although the school caters well for those coming to the city during the year etc it has to be better that they are educated within the communities where they live, avoiding bus travel and enabling better community cohesion. However I would be very opposed to the site being sold off for prime building land which would be a pressure on local resources, other local schools and the removal of a valuable green breathing space that is much appreciated by the community – who would fight vehemently to stop this happening I’m sure! I would like the site (with existing or more likely new buildings on the same footprint to be used for community purposes – we are a long way from a public library for example – our nearest being Ecclesall, Totley or Greenhill, a health centre, community resources are

iii actually overstretched in this area and perhaps there would be scope for a nursery, meeting rooms for hire etc. A site for running evening courses such as currently run at Norton College would also be good as there is nowhere nearby for these or perhaps a partnership with University of Third Age I can imagine being popular. A community centre with different all-age activities is something we don’t have here and combined with a public library/café/health centre would be an excellent amenity for the local people. We tend to miss out on the provision of these things because of the lack of ‘deprivation’ in the area but community needs are still there. The suggested replacement feeder school policy seems sensible although I would request that they take the opportunity to tweak the areas slightly. It always seemed strange that the boundary between Carterknowle and Dobcroft ran down the centre of Springfield Road (until further up the road) and it would seem to make much more sense to include all Springfield Road, Hastings Road, Helston Rise in the Dobcroft catchment area (and would reflect what actually happens in practice). The natural boundary has to be Carterknowle Road itself (both sides going to High Storrs). We are not talking about large numbers of houses – as long as the Abbeydale site isn’t built on – but the large green space and the hills make that the logical boundary.

Makes no difference to me personally now as my children are past that age, but if it saves children the trauma of appeals then that would be great. Best wishes, I am copying this to Councillor Sylvia Dunkley as I realise some of my comments fall outside the remit of your consultation.

Thank you for your letter regarding the Abbeydale Grange Consultation.

I would like to point out the following;

• I have absolutely NO intention of sending my children to Abbeydale Grange • The attainment and GCSE grades are appalling and show little signs of improvement • The staff have an incredibly hard job dealing with a wide range of disruptive pupils and pupils (through no fault of their own) with English as their second language (not a racist statement) • The problem with this school is that many of the pupils are ill disciplined, disaffected and bussed in from areas where education is not seen as important • I frequently see pupils from this school loitering in and around Millhouses Park, the shops and the school gates during lesson time - usually smoking and asking people for cigarettes • I am not sure how Abbeydale Grange could improve as I feel the rot has already set in. Perhaps the employment of a super head with zero tolerance? Sadly, as with all other schools there is an obsession with targets and league tables, these do not portray a good image of the school and maybe relaxing these for a number of years and focusing on education would benefit the pupils and staff • A school in Nottingham (with similar problems) was closed and started again with just Y7, the next year Y7 & Y8 etc. Making a new start with strong leadership, zero tolerance regarding behaviour and attitude, quality teaching and no interfering politically correct busy bodies is the only way I can see this once highly successful turning itself around and attracting pupils from the catchment area • I am concerned that should Abbeydale Grange close, the pupils will be dispersed to 'successful' schools (who have already made it clear they do not want to 'work' with them) and lower their standards of attainment and behaviour • As a local resident I would prefer to leave Sheffield than send my children to Abbeydale Grange in its current state

iv

Good luck with your challenge.

Thank-you for this opportunity to air my concerns about Abbeydale Grange.

As well as living in Nether Edge and having children using local schools I taught at the school. It was an exciting and challenging school to work in. The school was successful and one of the first in the city to be recognised as 'value added'. Many low achieving students from very difficult circumstances made incredible progress against all odds. The ethos of the school was one where individuality was celebrated. The school worked in partnership with all the students and families. It was a very democratic school where students were involved in the workings of the school at all levels. When any appointments were made to the school students were always involved. This included the appointment of headteachers. In 2004 after Chris Mallaband left the school was increasing in numbers and the exam results were also increasing at a good rate given the entry levels of students when arriving at Abbeydale Grange. Oftsted reports were always positive. When the headship appointment was made to replace Chris Mallaband there were staff and student panels and every one of those panels did not choose Cate Bull. Despite this the governors appointed her to the school. She was from Bath and openly declared herself a southener who didn't understand the north. She never moved to Sheffield permanently and consequently never understood the community she was serving. The ethos of the school was not one she agreed with. She made it clear that you were either for or against her and introduced a them and us culture. I watched a flourishing dynamic school become demoralised and unmanged very quickly. After a year of attempting to work with her I and a quarter of the then teaching staff left. Since then the school had deteriorated and the Oftsted report putting the school into special measures merely vindicates what I and many others knew that there was no effective leadership. The students whose parents could understand the system have removed their children. I know no-one in the area where I live who would consider sending their child there. The exam results are poor. The size of the school is such that it cannot attract the calibre of staff needed for such a demanding school and also as it is so small it cannot offer the breadth of curriculum needed. My middle daughter attends High Storrs. High Storrs if Abbeydale Grange 15 years ago. It is a flourishing environment with a diversity of catchment where all aspects of the curriculum are celebrated and individuality is key. The few children who go to Abbeyadle Grange are usually those whose parents are least able to deal with the education system either due to lack of education themselves or challenging circumstances. It is not fair that those children are getting less choice and opportunities. There is also a rather unpleasant argument in favour of keeping Abbeydale Grange open that you can see on the Sharrow Community Forum that I suggest you look at. There it is proposed that Abbeydale needs to be kept open to keep those students (they are referrred to as scum) out of the more affluent schools like King Ecgberts, High Storrs and Silverdale. That is exactly why Abbeydale should shut so that all students in this community regardless of their class or race have equal access to those schools. Please shut Abbeydale Grange as soon as possible. Do not let it have a slow and lingering death. The students and the staff deserve better than that. It was a fantastic school that did an amazing job for so many students but sadly a succession of bad decisions have left it in the situation it now finds itself in through no fault of its own. I think the proposed feeder schools for the various primary schools in the area are appropriate and fair.

I am a parent of a student at Abbeydale Grange School. My daughter is in year 8 and is extremely happy at Abbeydale. She is also doing very well, and reached all the targets set for her at the end of year 7. I am very happy with the standard of education at Abbeydale Grange.

v The atmosphere at the school is friendly. All the staff know all of the students, one of the massive advantages of being a small school. The staff are experienced in effectively managing children from very mixed backgrounds. It is truly a multicultural school, and is a fantastic example to young people of how to get along with all people, whatever their background and origins.

This year has seen a rise in the GCSE passes A to Cs, and it is only the first year of being a National Challenge school. Ofsted are pleased with the progress that the school has made to get itself out of special measures. The staff and pupils are dedicated to improving standards, and feel that they are not being given the chance to prove themselves.

It is very difficult for a school to shed itself of an outdated reputation. This reputation is one of the reasons that parents do not choose Abbeydale Grange. I have to say that I feel another reason is snobbery and a form of racism on the part of catchment parents.

If the council were to rebuild Abbeydale Grange, (using money that has already been allocated for this purpose), I do think that more children would choose Abbeydale, (as was seen at Sharrow Juniors). A new building and a new start is what the school needs to attract parents. This seems obvious to me.

Closure would cause far more difficulties, not least the disruption for the students. We chose Abbeydale Grange because it is our local school, my daughter can walk to school, because it is small and friendly. We did look around the other schools in the area, but Abbeydale was my choice and my daughter's choice. Never once have we regretted our decision. I am not at all happy at the prospect of her having to move to another school, apart from the fact that all of our nearest schools seem to be oversubscribed as it is. Are you proposing raising class sizes? Or are you going to erect mobile classrooms around your beautifully rebuilt schools? (I am referring to Silverdale, King Ecberts and High Storrs).

And what about the refugee children who are so competently helped and educated at Abbeydale Grange? I feel that were they to enter a large comprehensive, with no english, they would be totally abandoned. The staff at Abbeydale are highly skilled in dealing with children who have little or no english. I believe that Sheffield does have City of Refuge status.

The school has improved standards in line with ofsted advice and the GCSE results have improved. New build and, if necessary, soft federation seems to be the way forward.

Rumour has it that the council have already made their decision, and that closure is inevitable. I would ask you to reconsider. Visit the school and see for yourself the learning that is happening and the huge achievements of the students.

Having just received the information about possible new catchment schools we have some serious concerns. Currently our son attends Greystones primary school which feeds to High Storrs. This is where we were hoping he would attend along with his friends. We are one road out of catchment area for both Greystones primary school and High Storrs (from the old catchment boundaries). The information we have just received states that our son will be in the catchment area for King Ecgbert school if Abbeydale Grange closes. Although this is reportedly a good school, we have never considered it due to the long distance and difficulties in travelling to this school from our home. We are surprised that pupils in the catchmant area for Abbeydale infants school would not be granted joint catchment status to High Storrs in the same way as pupils from Sharrow will be offered. Sharrow seems to be no closer to High Storrs than Abbeydale infants. Also, children from Dobcroft and Carterknowle schools (which are closer to King Ecgbert school than Abbeydale infants) would be allocated to schools closer to them but Abbeydale infants pupils would have to travel much further.

vi Many families prefer to send their children to a school where they can walk - this keeps them healthy and reduces the environmental impact. By sending children such as ours a long way to a secondary school (when there is a significantly closer alternative) isolates them from other children who live on adjacent roads and whom they have known at primary school.

Unfortunately for our son, the new allocation of catchment areas would seem to greatly reduce his chance of getting a place at his feeder secondary school (High Storrs) along with his friends. We have previously been told that he would almost definitely get into this school, but the fact that High Storrs will now have to accept pupils from additional primary schools will presumably reduce its capacity to accept pupils from out of catchment (albeit attending a feeder primary school).

Please can you offer us and our son any reassurances on this matter as it is a very worrying time.

As a parent, living in the catchment area I chose not to send my two sons (aged 15 and 12) to Abbeydale Grange School. The main reason being that I wanted to secure the best education possible for them and I did not feel confident about taking a chance on our catchment school because of its failure to meet government benchmarks for academic attainment. They both now attend King Edward VII school and I am delighted with their progress.

I have worked with Abbeydale Grange school in the past and have struggled to gain buy in to activities proposed to help raise aspirations, especially for BME pupils who attend the school. It concerns me that the opportunities I have offered have not been grasped and that the school may be so preoccupied with solving basic issues of minimum attainment at GCSE for the majority of its pupils, that it overlooks opportunities that would truly benefit those who doing ok already and have academic potential.

As a professional, working in the field of widening participation I feel strongly that every child should be given the very best chance of reaching their full potential, whatever their background. I have concerns that it will take a very long time for Abbeydale Grange to deliver on this aim and many in the catchment area will not be prepared to take a risk with their child's future until considerable and sustained improvements can be demonstrated, especially if better options exist. Children at Abbeydale Grange are entitled to a good education and should not be expected to wait until any process of improvement through federation occurs. I therefore believe that the pragmatic solution of closure is the only option to give all students in the catchment area a reasonable chance of acquiring a robust education now, not in a few years when the dust settles.

Thank you for inviting parents comments about the possible closure of Abbeydale Grange. However I have to say that we have no intention of sending our son there. We are lucky enough to be in a position to choose to send our son to a private school and that decision was influenced by the reputation and poor results of our local school.

I think the fact that no other school wishes to form a partnership with this school says it all. My son does have some mild learning difficulties and I would happily choose a local school if I felt it could offer him better or even the equivalent support he receives at his present private school.

I think that closing Abbeydale Grange is the best decision to make; with funding used to provide extra places for the students in schools which are not failing. This would provide them with a far better education with many more opportunities to succeed.

I have been sent a letter, asking for my views,as part of the Abbeydale Grange consultation. I would not consider sending my children to that school. I don't know of anyone in this area who would to be honest. So it would not impact on my family at all if it closed.

vii

In response to your letter I would inform you we fully support the proposal to close abbeydale grange school, it would not feature as one of choices when it comes to applying for my two daughters. I again support the proposed linked secondary school, although would support a joint link with silverdale

I think it is very sad that Abbeydale Grange School is facing closure. I feel that those who live in the Abbeydale area deserve a good local school and if the school closes then local children will not have this and they will have to travel further afield. The school has suffered from appalling local government management over the last twenty years and now would be a time for local government to be brave and to invest money and time in the school in order to make it a more popular school for local parents for decades to come. It is an easy decision for the city council to close a school deemed failing by Ofsted, it gets it off the council's roster and is one less negative statistic. I am also convinced that there will be many outstanding teachers at the school who will be lost to the city whereas weaker teachers in more academic schools will continue to ply their sub standard trade. The council should not allow this to happen and should support the school.

As a local resident I have been invited to share my views on the proposed closure of the school.

I live right across from the school and have done for over ten years, so I have gained a real insight in the way that the school is/has been run and of the pupils attending it.

I have to say that I would wholeheartedly support the closure of this school . Its pupils are unruly and the school or parents appears to have little control over them.

Over the last few years I have witnessed the pupils:

• shouting abuse at innocent passers by; • abusing bus drivers and scaring elderly people using the bus stop; • smoking and drawing grafitti in the lanes near the school; • beating each other up; • causing damage to bus shelters and other property; • throwing stones and other items at each other and at passing cars.

Over the last few months I have had a stone thrown through my window and when I complained to the police I was told that all of the CCTV cameras were pointing onto the staff carpark as some teachers had had their cars scratched. A few days after this, both my own car, and that of a neighbour had full length scratches put down both sides of our cars.

This is not an isolated incident, this has been going on over a number of years. I have tried phoning the school who have been no help whatsoever and have stated that once the pupils are outside of their gates, they have no responsibility for their actions.

I understand that there has been significant effort in trying to improve the standards of behaviour at the school, but this has all been to no avail.

I realise that other schools have their fair share of 'problem' students but feel that at AGS it's the majority rather than the minority of them. Therefore, I feel that there is little that can be done to improve it. I do understand that the closure of AGS could result in some of these children joining

viii other schools (including the one that my own child attends), however, I feel that this would be a far better option than allowing the school to continue as it is at the moment.

Although we now live in the Carterknowle catchment, we have moved in the last few years from the Greystones area. Because of this my choice of secondary school for my youngest daughter will be High Storrs - she currently goes to Greystones Primary which is a feeder for High Storrs and my two older daughters currently go to High Storrs. However, I would be very reluctant to send her to Abbeydale Grange if she did not get a place at High Storrs unless the quality of education improved. Personally, I would have no issues with Abbeydale Grange being closed and would rather any public funding was spent on providing extra places at other schools in the area that are already taking many children from the Abbeydale Grange catchment.

As a parent of 2 primary age children in the catchment area I would welcome the closure of Abbeydale Grange. Of all the local schools it would be the last one I would want my children to go to. By closing it down it would remove the worry that they would lose out in the scramble to go to a school of our choice and end up at a substandard failing school. Those parents campaiging to keep it open could always send their chidren to a different failing school as unfortunately there are several others choose from.

In response to your request to parents about the future of Abbeydale Grange School:

1) I am in favour of the closure of the school

2) I have a very real concern regarding your proposals for the reallocation of catchment areas. You suggest that the reallocation takes into account the schools that parents prefer and ease of travel to school. This is a statement that simply does NOT reflect the area in which I live. I am a resident within the Nether Edge Village area - that is a tract of housing between Brincliffe Edge / Union Road and down towards Nether Edge market. We live in the Abbeydale Primary school catchment area. If you look at your statistics you will find that children attending that school come from an area closely bordering the Abbeydale Road, and not from the area further away. For whatever social reasons the majority of white middleclass families in our area have specifically not chosen this school, favouring instead other local schools - Hunters Bar/ Greystones/ Ecclesall Primary/ Caterknowle. These other local schools, into which our kids are now well integrated, feed High Storrs/ Silverdale / King Edwards. Yet because we are in the Abbeydale Primary catchment our children will be forced to leave their friendship groups to attend King Ecberts , with a 4 mile bus journey each way , instead of 1 1/2 mile walk up to High Storrs or Silverdale. I would urge you please to be sensitive to our local needs when you draw up plans for reallocation of catchments. If you are a parent too you will recognise the concerns about how our children will lose their friendship group, at a vulnerable age when self esteem is all important, simply because of the administrative lines drawn up by council . Before you fix these catchment areas I would ask you to consider the area of Nether Edge running up towards Brincliffe Edge and Union Road as part of the catchment for Holt House / Carterknowle which feeds into High Storrs School. High Storrs is within walking distance from our homes; it will be educating our childrens friends, and we want to ensure that continuity of friendships .

Although we live within the catchment area (S7) my elder child is a pupil at St Wilfrid's Primary and my younger child will hopefully be starting there in September 2010. My intention is for them to continue ther Catholic education into secondary school and so Abbeydale Grange would not

ix have been on my list of preferred schools.

However, were this not the case, I still wouldn't consider sending my children there. As a secondary school teacher myself, I feel for the staff and pupils at Abbeydale, but no-one wants to send their children to a school with such low academic standards. Raising achievement will take time and a lot of investment, something that Abbeydale doesn't have with the roll falling every year. Funding a school with such a low intake is surely not value for money - the capita spend could be shared amongst the other schools in the area and would save the LA money in the long run. In my humble opinion Abbeydale should close, sending the local children to other more successful schools, where hopefully they will be challenged, stretched and make better progress.

What will happen to the site is my only real concern when Abbeydale is eventually closed. The council will no doubt be aware of the public access routes across the school grounds and we would like to make sure that these remain accessible for all. Traffic along that stretch of Abbeydale Road is already busy with 2 major supermarkets in the vicinity and so any future developments would have to take that into account. As our house backs onto the grounds and woods, which are full of wildliife, including owls, I would also be concerned about their habitat being disturbed.

I am emailing because the proposed closure of Abbeydale Grange gives me great concern.

I am a parent of 3 children in the area, one of whom has just left Abbeydale Grange for college after gaining 10 GCSE A - C grades.

While it is true that I have had major concerns because of leadership issues at the school, I think it would be a great loss to the community if it was to close, and it would mean less choice for children wishing to attend a school within easy travelling distance of their home.

The school needs to stay open, but I believe it should be given more help with the leadership issues (I feel that leadership has been very weak since Chris Mallaband resigned as Headteacher several years ago).

The school also clearly needs and deserves extra resources. It is a small, friendly school which appears to be the school were lots of kids go who may need additional help - e.g. with language, and behavioural issues. These kids should be welcomed, however staff need the resources to support them effectively. Unfortunately, due to lack of resources, staff seem to struggle sometimes. With a strong leader, and access to appropriate resources, the school could become a resounding success - and a place where I would be happy to send my youngest child when she is old enough.

Also, teachers such as Mr Zia and Mrs Owen and others certainly made sure that my son wouldn't settle for low grades and these teachers should be valued and supported in their valuable work.

I am a student at Abbeydale Grange school. I have been there for a year and am currently in Year 8.

I was very upset when I heard there was discussion of closure. I really enjoy my time at Abbeydale, and feel I am in a friendly, safe environment. I have lots of good friends, and the teachers give me lots of support. The small classes mean that teachers can get to know each student as an individual. I think that it is good that everyone can easily get to know eachother. I have learnt so much since the start of Year 7.

x I think that a lot of peoples views about the school is based on it's past reputation. People generally just focus on the bad points and the scandal, because that is what sells newspapers. I think it is unfair that people judge the school like this, and I hope they don't judge me in the same way because of the school I go to. The reason parents are not choosing Abbeydale for their child to attend is because they focus on the negative reputation. This is unfair.

Another issue is placement if the school were to close. If that happened, I would want to go to Silverdale, but that is already overbooked- as are many other schools across Sheffield.

I am working hard at Abbeydale and I have learnt a lot. I hope to get A's and B's, maybe a few A*'s in my GCSE's, and I feel that I could only achieve the best I can do if I were to stay at Abbeydale.

I really, really want to stay at Abbeydale. Please don't close my school.

We recieved you letter re the proposed shut down of the school. Maybe this is not such a bad idea, the school has been run down for quite a time and has not been doing so well, plus you tend to bus peple over from the far side of sheffield who don't even live in the catchment?

The proposed changes of catchment i think is a good idea, but kids should go to their catchment area schools, no-one should be bussed accross the city out of catchment, if their parents choose to live in a certain area then they should go to whatever school it falls into.

Maybe abbeydale could turn into a college of sorts, like to do evening classes because there is only norton college & stannington, so something in this area might go down well?

Good luck with it all, but I think its best to go with the proposal.

I am the parent of 2 children who are of nursery / pre-school age, currently in the catchment for Abbeydale Grange, and I would strongly resist the option of sending them there in it's current incarnation.

I believe that sadly there is no viable alternative to closing the school down as it's reputation among parents (rightly or wrongly) is very poor, and it's problems viewed as endemic. This has created a vicious circle, whereby the school has only been able to attract "difficult" pupils, and teachers who cannot get more prestigious positions, and consequently suffered from a downward spiral, poor results, low morale etc. All the alternative secondary schools would be viewed as a great improvement on the AGS option.

From a resource point of view if the authority were to build something new on the site, it would be best to wait several years, rename the school and start from with a team of highly motivated professionls who will prevent the school from sliding into it's current irredeemable state.

I am in favour of Abbeydale Grange closing and in favour of the proposed reallocation of catchment areas, as long as appropriate funding is made available to support the increase in the capacity of the existing schools.

I have a primary age child, and although it is a great shame that any school should have to close, I admit that the avoidance of Abbeydale Grange played a huge part in my selection of primary school preferences.

xi We are in receipt of your letter advising that you will be outside the school gates at Dobcroft asking for parent's opinions. Here are ours!

I know a lot a people share this view with me but all the literature, press reporting etc seems to be scared to spell it out in case they get accused of being racist. We are not being racist, its just that English born children are in the minority at Abbeydale so why would we want to send our children there, where English is a second language for many of these children and therefore they are bound to struggle to obtain the higher standards required of a school to deem it to not be failing.

I am sure that the teachers do an excellent job and that Abbeydale has fantastic resources but they are fighting a loosing battle if they are being compared with other schools. Our children may suffer if the teacher's time is having to be spent on communicating as well as teaching.

What will happen to the children if Abbeydale is closed. They will be sent to the other local schools (and what a shame that these will therefore become overcrowded and overstretched and have to put in more mobile classrooms) and these children may struggle to keep up even more.

What about the many thousands of emigrants that we are reportedly going to be forced to take in the future? Where will they go? We do seem to get more than our fair share of asylum seekers in Sheffield.

We don't want our children to go to Abbeydale, where they would be in the minority as their social life may not be good,since apparently many of the pupils have to go off to worship after school and therefore do not have much chance to mix after school with their classmates.

Apparently Abbeydale is an International School. Why can't you keep it open as a specialist school in helping these children for whom English is a second language so you can teach them at their pace and so that they do not feel that they are not keeping up.

Finally, we bought our house 15 years ago, specifically to be in the Silverdale catchment area, before we even had our family as it was the school we had chosen.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it to the meeting, partly because I feel I might not be able to voice my opinion by the campaigning parents who want to keep the school open. However, I wanted to let you know that I am in support of the closure of the school. I have a child in year 7. I feel that a decision to close the school should have been made before the end of the last school year so that all year 7 children could have settled into a school of their choice with a secure future. As yet my child does not feel settled and is acutely aware that the school may close in the near future, I think this decision should still be made as soon as possible.

I understand that many parents don’t feel this way, however, all the parents who have been able to move their children to better schools before the end of last term (from Carterknowle Junior, the initial 40 children placed at AGS dropped to around 7 at the end of the last term at junior school) feel that this has been the best solution for their child. All of my child’s friends were offered places at either High Storrs or King Ecgbert in the week of SATS – this was a particular traumatic period and my child still feels victimised and isolated because of the way by which this happened.

If the LEA truly believed in a future for AGS, they would not have allowed so many children to be moved to other schools. I can’t believe that many parents of Y6 children would now put AGS as their preferred school.

xii Our family lives in Nether Edge. My children attend Ecclesall Church of England Junior School, and are in Y5 and Y6. Our catchment area primary school is Abbeydale Primary, although we are within in touching distance of the Hunters Bar school boundary We have received literature about the potential closure of Abbeydale Grange.

I am greatly concerned how this will affect my children through the re-allocation of secondary schools. At present, my children are able, and do, to walk to and from their school. I am amazed to have received the information that should Abbeydale Grange close, our newly allocated catchment area secondary school would be King Ecgberts. This school is a half mile walk and a 20/25 minute bus ride away, and it is over FOUR MILES away from our home. High Storrs is, by far, the nearest and most accessible secondary school, at a distance of 1.5 miles. The distance to High Storrs is walkable, convenient and travelling to this school does not incur expense. It is the same distance away from our home as Abbeydale Grange school is. We have never even considered King Ecgberts as a contender for a Secondary School, as it is so far away. My children will not know anyone there; they will struggle to make friends who they can visit (as it will involve a journey by car or bus), whilst at least at High Storrs their peers are within walking distance. 'School' is not only about education, but forging friendships and emotional well-being.

Please consider giving the children in the Abbeydale Primary catchment a JOINT catchment status, as you are intending to do with Sharrow Primary. It does seem unfair that one primary school can 'pick and choose' which secondary school they can attend, whilst others cannot. Is this an opportunity to re-assess the school catchment areas in the Sheffield 7 area? I would be glad to hear your comments on this.

My brother attended Abbeydale Grange in the 1980's. It was chosen for him because of the sporting opportunities there. He recalls that the decline started towards the end of his time there, when it felt like pupils were being 'shipped in' from other areas of the city; children expelled from other schools were sent there and slowly the pride in the school diminished. This started a vicious circle of decline. Whether or not this is accurate, I am not sure, but this rumour is still prevalent today and deters many parents to look objuectively at the school.

If Abbeydale Grange does close - and I sincerely hope is does NOT, as it serves a section of the community in Sharrow and beyond - the impact it will have on the surrounding schools will be immense in many ways, but it is the realocation of the catchment area schools that is my main concern.

I am a parent in the catchment area. I support the proposal to close the Abbeydale Grange School as the best option under the circumstances. I would like to pay tribute to the hard work and commitment of the current and past staff and governors of the school.

In particular I think the parents and children of Sharrow School will be best served by the proposal that Sharrow becomes a feeder school/is in the ctachment area for the 3 schools named, i.e. King Egberts, King Edward VII, and High Storrs.

We are concerned parents of 2 boys who go to abbeydale grange...i went to the meeting last night at abbeydale and wasnt impressed with what i heard.. i had the understanding that y10 - y11 would be finishing there time at abbeydale but was understood that it would only be y11 to stay...i have 2 sons there one y7 and one y9...my son in y9 has alot of anger issues and we as parents and his teachers work closely together to make his days possible at school he had a terrible start to y7 and has learnt and still learning to trust people/teachers.. With the help from there and support my son is getting better with his attitude/temper and is more happier than he was...

xiii You take him away from his comfort zone and all that will start again in the most important 2 yrs he will have left at school,he will not cope on buses and with not having a car that would be the only way of getting to another school,nobody will know him at another school and his life would be hell and ours...you are listening to peoples views who have not ever been to this school or had children in this school they are commenting on rumours which is a load of rubbish, Abbeydale grange is a great school and we as parents would not of chosen abbeydale if we didnt think so and i say that on behalf of all parents.. You have not concidered the children or even the staff on what they want...its a great school everyone knows everybody, they have alot of support for children like my son and meet all individual needs.. If and when abbeydale closes im afraid my son will NOT be going to another school he wouldnt cope with it and i will tell you something he will not be the only one, i went to the meeting last night at abbeydale and i was in tears and i wasnt the only one, you have not taken peoples feeling or lives into this matter,you will distrupt alot of peoples lives,you are pushing forward for the closure through greed to get the land,well i think and so does every one else think children should come first before a plot of land..

Today we received the result of an appeal heard 21st september regarding our son who was given a place this year at Abbeydale grange. The appeal was declined which was not unexpected as we understand the need to maintain class sizes. However they are under the impression that we would have the right to choose our preferred school again and the right to appeal again if we don't get in. Yet they also think we are not in any more exceptional circumstances than the others currently in year 7. Why would any oversubscribed school take our child in 2010 if they won't take any of us now? Having a choice of only schools with places is not a fair choice as it means we have missed out on our catchment school and they are usually further away. Of course we disagree as to our exceptional circumstances, we think we are exceptional. we have to sort out our next childs transisiotn to another special needs facility school at the same time we have going through our son being moved. Maybe the statementing process should be easy but we are always told to expect to have to fight for what you want as resources are scarce. More work we could have done without. The appeal panel also expects us to appeal again if we are unhappy with the new school that our son is allocated but that was a lot of hard work too and was soul destroying and got us absolutely nowhere. This is likely to fall at the same time of year. Yes its our fault we didn't just put Meadowhead instead of Abbeydale grange but then if we had of been late sending in the application then we would have replced abbeydale with Meadowhead as we knew the review was starting only in November. Maybe the we would not be in this pickle.

We suspect we are the only one who has missed out on their catchment school. would you like to be in this position ?

Why can't you admit that you have made a pig's ear of this review, consultation and the plans to actually facilitate closure are unrealistic. You could agree to keep it open for as long as the current intake have been through the system and give the surrounding schools at least 5 years to work out where the extra pupils will, cost too much i suppose. The school has shown that it can improve and as long as you don't undermine the remaining teaching structure and resources it could still be a better school for those remaining (although maybe a bit quiet. )

Of course you could also decide to rebuild and rebrand it what about a new bannerdale centre attached to a school ? But please not an academy.

xiv

Thank you for your recent information concerning options being considered for the future of Abbeydale Grange School. I live with my family, which includes two children of primary school age, in Nether Edge, in the catchment of Abbeydale Primary.

I have always been extremely keen to be rooted in the local area, by making full use of local facilities. We live, work and spend much of our leisure time in the local area. The one major thing that has not been possible so far, is to find an acceptable school. Although we have looked around Abbeydale Primary, our children are at state primary schools outside Nether Edge, and we have been monitoring the position at Abbeydale Grange for some years, knowing that we will have to make choices about secondary education in the next couple of years. I can say quite clearly that there is no way that we would consider applying for a place for either of our children at the school, as it currently stands. Although the school may have some positive aspects, the seemingly intractable level of poor attainment by the majority of pupils is of critical concern. Many promises of improvement have been made, and we have really hoped for the dawning of a new era, but it has all come to nothing - so I think that closure is the best option now.

Under the proposals outlined, our children would fall into the catchment for King Ecberts if Abbeydale grange were to close. This would be fine, although it is quite a long way away. Many children from this area attend High Storrs,as it is within walking distance. Our ideal situation would be to have joint catchment status for these two schools.

I hope these thoughts are of some help,

As parents with two children we have a great interest in the future of abbeydale grange. Our eldest daughter was lucky enough to gain a place at High Storrs school despite the fact we live narrowly out of catchment (6 Needham Way).

Her younger sister will be starting primary school next year, hopefully at Holt House Infants. We would prefer her to attend High Storrs school as well. This would be made easier if it were the catchment school for her.

Clearly we would support the drastic step of the closure of Abbeydale Grange; it is a huge step, but one that would be supported by the majority of the local community. This has already be shown by the falling school roll and the mass of applications to Silverdale and High Storrs. If Abbeydale Grange was a successful school with a good reputation, it would not be threatened with closure. Once a school loses the confidence of it's catchment, it cannot remain open indefinitely.

I hope this helps; to reiterate, from our pint of view, we would support the closure of Abbeydale Grange.

My husband and I have been very interested in the proposed future of Abbeydale Grange School, being within the catchment area of the school with 2 young children's future to consider, This is currently prompting us to look at moving from the Carter Knowle area in order to improve the choice of schooling available to us. The current performance would result in us doing all possible to ensure our children do not attend abbeydale grange in the future.

We would therefore fully support the proposal to close Abbeydale Grange school with high storrs being the feeder school for our area.

xv Whilst we have limited understanding of the issues impacting on the performance of Abbeydale grange school, we understand that some of the issues may be due to the high number of pupils attending for whom English is not a first language and a high number of pupils excluded from other schools. The closure of Abbeydale grange will potentially leave a gap in service provision for these students. It is a shame that the the English educational systems means of assessment potentially does not allow such specialist schools to exist.

My wife and I received two of the consultation letters in respect of Abbeydale Grange as we have two children who currently attend Dobcroft Infants and Junior School.

My primary concern is what effect will the proposed closure of the school have on neighbouring secondary schools?

Silverdale has recently completed a new build under the BSF scheme, presumably based on the planned catchments and projected number of pupils. Similarly High Storrs is currently subject to major building works and refurbishments which again will have been based on pupil number projections. The same is true of King Ecbgerts. You do not mention the numbers of displaced pupils that will need to be accommodated in these schools and their ability or otherwise to cope with the increased numbers. Is there a plan to expand these facilities to cope with increased numbers? if not how will this be achieved.

What effects will this have on current space/ classroom availability, and ultimately will this increase the class sizes for the pupils in these schools? I suspect that it will. What are the planned increases in the Abbeydale Grange pupil numbers based on your projections? Will this increase the numbers displaced still further?

I feel for the children at Abbeydale as the LEA’s solution appears to be to abandon them in very short order rather than looking at a more wide ranging perspective which is designed to improve standards for all. This approach does appear to be knee jerk and without quality at the heart of delivering education in the city.

Finally can you advise what the numbers of staff reductions will follow as a consequence? And what costs savings will be achieved as a consequence of these changes? I look forward to your response

I am writing to object to the closure of Abbeydale Grange School. If the school is failing then a plan should be put together with the community that it serves to improve the situation. The problem should be solved not transferred to other schools.

The web site says that that the specilised provision at Abbeydale Grange has failed. The other schools that you are proposing to transfer the pupils to are not specialist and so it will add additional pressure onto those headteachers to accomodate those children.

With regards to opportunity for all, the children of High Storrs, King Egberts, Silverdale, King Edward VII all deserve opportunities too. The opportunity to a good education with adequate resources. How many children it is proposed to relocate and to where, is not clear. enough for me at this time. How will this impact on the existing schools? Can they cope with the additional numbers and the specialist care and education that these children need? How will that impact on the teaching of existing children ?

I note that the proposal is for High Storrs and King Egberts to take in children from 3 feeder schools in total ,I should like to understand how that decision has been taken, on what criteria. Sharrow Primary is a long way from King Egberts.

xvi

As I understand it, but am happy to be corrected, a significant amount of pupils who currently attend Dobcroft Infant and Juniors go to Silverdale. I do not understand what change there is here and why Silverdale is not taking children from Abbeydale when it is a lot closer to the catchment area than say King Egberts.

What will the Council do with the site if it closes? Sell the land off for housing? What will happen to the income that is received? What will happen to the teachers and Headteacher of this failing school? Is it the teaching that is the problem or is it the pupils?

I would prefer for the Council to make this school work for the benefit of the community who need a good secondary school near to where they live and not spread the problem out.

I currently have children at Totley All saints School and recently have been informed of the proposed changes of feeder schools for King Ecgberts. I have acouple of questions and wonder if you are able to answer them. 1.Abbeydale Primary is going to be a new feeder school, I live in Millhouses and am out of catchment but my children also go to a feeder school. As I live nearer than Abbeydale primary will my children have priority over those.? 2. Is it intended to increase the size of classes and children numbers at King Ecgberts to accomodate these extra children.

I attended a meeting at Abbeydale Grange on Wednesday the 30th of Sept. I listened with interest the proposals and false promises as to which school my child would be transferred to in the event of closure. The next day I received an appeal decision from the Education appeal panel. A copy of the decision is attached.

High Storrs Year 7 group has 240 legally the minimum children that can be admitted in each year group, it is also considered by the Local Authority and the school to be the maximum figure that the school can cater for without prejudice to efficient education and the use of resources.

The number of pupils on roll is 1643 against a capacity of 1577, measured by a Department for Children, Schools and Families formula. The school is specifically designed for year groups of 226 and that corridors, staircases, classroom sizes and dining hall were all designed to accommodate that number of pupils.

The school is also currently under going extensive building works although the capacity of the school and the school’s dining halls and assembly rooms have been demolished and the designated sixth form space and staff room are being used in there place until this phase of the new build is completed.

The Education appeal panel also took into account the fact that the school does not have sufficient room availability/timetabling flexibility to increase the number of form groups/classes and thus that the only way of accommodating additional children would be to increase class sizes putting increasing pressure on teaching staff. The school cannot currently accommodate its pupils for examination sand many of these are being held off site at the Bannerdale centre. This situation will only get worse later in the year when the indoor PE space is demolished. This will also mean that some PE lessons will have to take place off site.

Once the work has been completed, the capacity of the school will remain at 1577 based on the national formula. The acting Head Ms Paul indicated that whilst she could see some sense in

xvii building schools like High Storrs larger to take into account increases in the school population, as far as she was aware this had not been done.

Ms Paul also confirmed that she and the governors were being consulted just as parents were and that they would respond to the LA in due course. At present, they have no plans in place to cope with additional children in any year group.

This story is similar to many I have heard about the surrounding schools, King Egbert has insufficient room to house all their students for lunch and has pupils on roll exceeding its capacity as do many of the local schools.

What will change if the cabinet decide to close ABG?

I am not prepared to have my child bussed across the city and doubt that I am alone in my concerns.

I am the parent of a pupil in Y7 at King Ecgbert and an 8 year old child currently attending Dore Primary.

We live in the catchment area for King Ecgbert School.

I note from the proposal, that King Ecgbert appear to be accepting the majority of pupils who would ordinarily have attended Abbeydale Grange. While I am not opposed to this in principle, I would be extremely unhappy if this proposal meant that pupils who currently live in the catchment area are less likely to be given a place in the future, or even more so if the catchment area for King Ecgberts was to change, as a result of the closure of Abbeydale Grange.

I feel a much fairer proposal would be for all of the other secondary schools who are also near to Abbeydale Grange (i.e. King Edwards, Silverdale and High Storrs) share the pupils who would ordinarily go to Abbeydale Grange equally, rather than King Ecgberts accepting the majority of these pupils. Then this would mean the brunt of this and the associated impact on places is shared equally. Furthermore, I would be keen to know how many additional places will be made available at King Ecgberts, and will this be directly propotional to the number of pupils proposed to move from Abbeydale Grange?

I would be very unhappy if the closure of Abbeydale Grange would have a negative impact on the pupils who are already attending King Ecgberts, or those who are due to attend there in Y7 from feeder schools and who live in the catchment area. While I acknowldge that everyone has the right to a good and positive educational experience, and that Abbeydale Grange is failing to some extent in this respect, it is not acceptable if this should negatively impact on the educational experience on those already attending alternative secondary schools, as this would just result in the transference of the problem.

Thank you for your letter regarding the Abbeydale Grange Consultation.

I have two primary school age children and live in the Abbeydale Grange Catchment.

I would not consider sending our children to Abbeydale Grange, unless the results were significantly better and there was a sixth form.

I also hear much about the school being an international school, but would actually like to know how many children speak english as a first language. Can you let me know?

xviii As I live in Abbeydale Primary Catchment my children would therefore be in the King Ecgberts catchment, which I would be happy with.

I hope you will ensure there are enough places for all the children in the Abbeydale Primary catchment, as you must know many of us do not send our children to Abbeydale Primary, but to other state schools.

With this in mind, I wonder why the council is saying children will go to the secondary school relating to their primary catchment, rather than just widening the secondary school catchment.

I think it would be of great benefit to Nether Edge to move to King Ecgberts catchment, as families do leave the area because of the primary and secondary schools.

If Abbeydale Primary actually educated more of the children who lived in its catchment, there might have been more of us prepared to go to Abbeydale Grange, rather than the present situation, where only one part of the community send its children there.

I would like to propose a change to the proposed catchment areas. Please can it be considered for Abbeydale Primary School be the feeder school for both High Storrs and King Ecgberts.

Currently our Y6 pupils choose 50/50 between High Storrs and King Ecgberts.

If the closure of the school went ahead are there sufficient places from the feeder schools to be accommodated by the proposed relocation schools? I ask this question because the infant and junior schools as listed on your proposal document, to my knowledge, are full to capacity as regards places. So funding more places is not possible due to the restrictions of the buildings and fire regulations. Keeping Abbeydale Grange open, you need to improve local opinion of the school (so that parents will consider sending their child here) by changing the admissions policy whereby allocating pupils to more widespread schools around Sheffield. This will give the school a chance to improve standards and results.

My son is currently at Carterknowle Junior School but i was unable to make the feedback sessions offered so please count this as mine.

I feel very strongly that Abbedale Grange should close. I would be extremely unhappy if my son had to go there, so much so that i would move into a different cathcment area or consider home educating over allowing him to go there.

I feel that the school has many difficulties, all are listed in the ofsted report and in the research report recently recommending closure as the most viable option. I fail to see how any other option is viable. I think the report outlined the difficulties well and considered the risks linked to any partenership or alternative option.

I am not prepared to allow my child to go to a school with such difficuties and i feel it would be many years before the school could offer satisfactory or good education - therefore its unlikely to happen in my sons time at school. His education and future are far too important to leave to chance, it would be a huge risk that keeping the school open would mean an improved education on offer at abbeydale.

I think the spaces at other catchment schools are much more preferable and am happy with the proposal for reallocation outlined in your leaflet.

xix

I am a resident of Sharrow with two children aged 3 and 5. I am extremely concerned over the councils plans to close Abbeydale Grange School. My biggest worry is getting a school place for my children in the local area. How are already oversubscribed schools in the area going to cope with the increase in demand that closure will bring and what will it mean for class sizes? What are the options you are willing to consider to try to keep it open and what will happen to the 14 million allocated from building schools for the future if closure goes ahead? I do hope you reconsider the decision to close Abbeydale and instead see it as an opportunity to rebuild a unique and amazing school for Sheffield.

In the recent letter to parents the last sentence in 3rd paragraph reads-"there will be more than double the number of places needed for the number of pupils in each year group" Does this mean that in fact there would be plenty of available places for pupils to transfer to . If so why force all secondary schools to commit to taking extra pupils even if they are full. This will mean that not only puils who are being moved are put at a disadvantage,but the pupils at schools they join will all suffer from overcrowding. Most of the secondary schools in Sheffield have been recently re-built with little or no extra capacity. What happens when the recent increase in birth rate is reflected in increasing demand for secondary school places?

As a parent of a pupil currently attending King Ecgbert school and also of a pupil attending one of the current feeder schools to King Ecgbert I am becoming increasingly concerned along with several others regarding the changes to be taking place if indeed Abbeydale Grange closes in 2010.

If we could be answered this question: How are King Ecgbert going to accomodate all the extra pupils from potentially 2 more feeder schools when we are constantly being told that the new school is barely big enough now and how will this affect class sizes?

Our pupils education is extremely important to us, is there going to be a meeting for parents to air their concerns? After all it is our children that these changes will affect.

We write in response to your letter of information dated 6th October, concerning the closure of Abbeydale Grange School and the re-allocation of its children to other local schools, and we wish to state our opposition to this proposal. We are parents of two teenagers currently in their GCSE years at King Egbert's School, a critical stage in the their education. They have worked extremely hard to reach the standard that they have, in an excellent school. King Egbert's is an excellent school because of the hard work of its staff, the attitude of the pupils and the support and cooperation of the parents. We can only fear that an influx of students from a failing school with a poor ethos will be detrimental to the education of our children at this critical stage and to the ethos of a good school. Whilst this might be the easiest option to raise the apparent averages, this should not be at the expense of successful institutions. No information has been provided as to what additional resources would be put in to ameliorate potential negative consequences, and furthermore, King Egberts itself is at a critically vulnerable time given the current suspension of its Headmaster. Would a more appropriate response not be for effective management at Abbeydale Grange to work with its pupils and parents in the catchment it serves to improves standards rather than cause disruption to other schools? Our children have worked hard with a good attitude, and we wish to state our opposition to a plan that is likely to disadvantage them in the national competition that they face for their futures.

xx

Firstly my first and only memory of being at Abbeydale Grange was during a fashion show a couple of years ago (parents of prospective new intake of Y7s were invited). I was so impressed with how much enthusiasm and work had gone into the show from the pupils, and that many teachers took part in the catwalk modelling. I remember commenting to my partner that you would never get the teachers from my daughters current school being that committed and enthusiastic to work with the pupils as a team and be willing to make a fool of themselves for the good of the cause!

The pupils were well mannered and helpful - showing us where we could get refreshments and use the toilets etc.

We decided against Abbeydale in the end, not because we were unimpressed with it - because we were very impressed - but because we already knew about the threats of closure. And here lies the problem - it will take prospective parents who are really committed to saving Abbeydale Grange (at the possible later expense of having their child uprooted) to put the school down as a first choice, and it will take a lot of work to build that trust back up. However, this is not impossible, but this is probably the reason why intake numbers are dropping NOT because parents simply don't want to send their children there.

I would be very interested in hearing the voice of the children on the issue of their schools closure, so far I am not sure they have had much of a voice?

I am a bit cynical about Sheffield City Councils motives and what will become of the land should Abbeydale Grange close. Only time would tell on that one - but it would not suprise me to see the land being sold to developers for luxury flats and/or being used as an extension of Bannerdale Centre.

In answer to some of the questions on your flyer:

Q. What do you think about the closure of Abbeydale Grange? A. I think closure is an awful idea from the heads of council members who have their eye on what could be done with the land to create the most cash from it at the expense of the children and families associated with the school.

Q. Are there any specific changes to make AGS a more attrative option?

• Take the threat of closure away • Whilst trust is being built back again (that the school DEFINATELY won't close) consider any staff changes necessary and implement them. • Put the money set aside for redevelopment of AGS into making it a better looking and safer school • Get a good team of governers and PTA - i.e. more adults engaged in the school, get the parents, teachers and pupils working together as a team. • Consider how league tables are used, how these can appear to be detrimental to AGS results and what can be done to give a truer picture (eg: a pupil who has only been in Britain for 1 year and who has english as an additional language may get a low GCSE grade, but this would not necessarily reflect how much they had achieved)

My main reason for contacting yourselves is to lodge my total objection to the proposed closure of Abbeydale Grange. I agree that everyone has a right to a proper education but closing this school and to simply cram the overspill of pupils into other schools is just utter nonsense. There are many reasons that school is failing and to close it and send these pupils into other schools will not

xxi create a better education for all concerned. The proposed schools will start to fail with the unnecessary increase in pressure put on both teaching staff and pupils. All you are doing is diluting the problem not solving it. Leave the other schools to carry on providing an excellent level of education and simply help/assist Abbeydale Grange to do the same. I am bemused that closure has ever been seen as an educated answer to this problem! Please do not simply overfill the other schools. It's as if you cant solve the problem logically at Abbeydale Grange and believe by closing it that the problem will simply go away!!

I am writing to express my deepest concerns about the proposed closure of Abbeydale Grange School and subsequent implications. Whilst I understand that closure may be the only remaining option for purley finacial reasons, I feel that the impact of such a closure should be shared equally by all local schools for the reasons outlined below.

As a resident of Dore, with a son who will attend King Ecgbert School in future years I have looked at the proposals with interest.

I have noted that the proposals indicate that Silverdale School is unaffected by the proposals, but King Ecgbert, King Edward and High Storrs schools are all affected. If this is the case then the proposals have clearly not been based on geographical positioning or bus routes, therefore I cannot see any reason why Silverdale School is not also involved in intake of pupils as well.

As I understand it, if additional pupils do attend King Ecgbert School as a result of the closure, then there will be two possible outcomes:

1. An increase in the intake of pupils attending King Ecgbert, thus increasing class sizes and/or

2. Existing pupils living within a closer geographical vicinity to King Ecgbert, may not be able to attend King Ecgbert School and would have to travel greater distances to other secondary schools and would have to utilise public transport to get to school. This is nonsensical.

I would be very interested indeed to hear justification as to why Silverdale School has been exempt from being affected in any way, but King Ecgbert School and the other schools would be affected by the two issues I outline above.

I would hope that an environmental impact study has been undertaken for all roads and schools that have the potential to be affected, as clearly any reorganisation would have traffic implications for both road use, private car use and public transport.

In the event of any closure I strongly feel that all local schools should absorb increases in intake so no one school is put under undue increased pressures. This would be the only logical, balanced and fair way to proceed. With Abbeydale Grange oporating as a 600 pupil establishment, the only fair way to proceed would be to split this four ways, thus dividing the increased intake between all four local secondary schools.

I would also like reassurance that additional funding will be available to all affected schools to ensure a continuing good level of provision for all pupils, both exisiting pupils and those children transferring.

Any decision of closure would condradict the recent headline promises published in the latest Liberal Democrats focus newsletter, to "Cut Class Sizes", where Nick Click is pictured. I strongly beleive that the same message should be consistantly communicated on all fronts. Any closure would certainly put increased pressure on already overcrowded schools, but if this decision is ireversable, then as a minium the displaced pupils should be split evenly between all surrouning schools, none should be excluded from being affected.

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I am writing to state my objection to the proposed changes to catchment areas following potential closure of Abbeydale Grange. As with everything in life, it looks like we have potential for clear winners and losers. Dobcroft will all (rather than some) go to Silverdale, Holt House/Carterknowle to High Storrs. This leaves King Ecberts to receive all pupils from Abbeydale Grange. The clear loser here is King Egberts.

I understand from living locally that Abbeydale School has an excellent reputation but faces real challenges as the majority of their school population is considered to be an ethnic minority - in terms of newly arrived families and English as a second language. This position is not the same in Holt House/Carterknowle and Dobcroft. King Egberts will receive the children with greater support requirements and I am sure insufficient resource to do this adequately. My child attends Totley All Saints School and I did wish for her to attend King Egberts in the future. If she goes to King Egberts, I wonder if her education will be compromised as teachers attempt to integrate pupils with specific learning requirements centred around their ethnic background. What support will be available, how will this be managed?

I undertstand from living locally that King Egberts has turned itself around in recent years and that local people (i.e. from Dore and Totley that had tended to send their children into private education) have started to resend their children to King Egberts. Your proposals will result in a reversal of this practice, school standards will slip once again and all recent endevour will be wasted. Those that care about the education of their children will surely opt out again. I know it is something I would consider. Will King Egberts become the next failing school by default?

From an environmental perspective I would wish my child to be educated locally. It has always seemed strange school policy goes against the need to reduce carbon emissions. Why close a school down that pupils will have to be driven past or bused past to get to King Egberts? What about the additional CO2 emissions, congestion and costs associated with such unnecessary travel. Over the last 15 years, living in both Dore and Totley, I am already familiar with the pre and post school rush, the numbers of children being bused into town and back (and the bad behaviour of the monirity that spoil it for others).

Further, King Egberts, Silverdale and High Storrs have been/are about to be re-built. We have created wonderful resources for our children. Have the new schools the ability to physically soak up the additional provision from a large feeder school such as Abbeydale? Is this a step backwards? Again, I do not want my childs educational opportunity compromised from poor long term planning, over crowding and what would be a positive learning environment compromised. I would urge you to consider my concerns and rethink the school cathchments associated with the option to close Abbeydale Grange.

I am writing to express my concern regarding the closure of Abbeydale Grange and the reallocation of the feeder schools.

As a parent of two children at Dore Primary I am aware that King Ecgberts was oversubscribed last year and several children in Y6 at Dore did not receive a place as they were not in the catchment area. If the school can not physically cope with the current demand, how will it be able to meet the increase in demand from 2 additional feeder schools. Are there plans to increase the actual size of King Ecgberts to meet the additional number of places which will be required?

My other concern is the rise in children who will be attending King Ecgberts (if the proposed reallocation of feeder schools is accepted) with English as a second language and the effect this

xxiii will have on both staff and pupils. What resources will be put in place to avoid King Ecgberts quality of teaching and results attained by pupils being diluted in the future as a result. How will pupils from Abbeydale Grange be successfully integrated?

It is well known that Abbeydale Primary is attended by an exceedingly high percentage of ethnic minority/migrant children as is the case with Sharrow Primary, albeit not as high. Why has King Ecgberts been chosen as secondary school for both these feeder schools when there is a closer secondary school ie. Silverdale which could no doubt also admit some of these pupils. Isn't Dobcroft already a feeder school to Silverdale, if so it would appear that Silverdale is not having to meet any additional demands on its places although it is considerably closer geographically than King Ecgberts.

My final concern is to establish what will happen to the Abbeydale Grange site if the school should close. My fear is the land will be sold off by the council to developers who will then (eventually) be granted planning permission to build large numbers of houses. Where will children from these families go to school????

I am fully aware of the Government's initiative to build new properties wherever possible but it appears that no thought whatsoever is being given to the existing services in these areas which are already full/oversubscribed/inadequate. I am referring not only to schools but also Doctors, Dentists, nurseries, sewerage systems etc.

My foremost concern is obviously the effect the possible closure of Abbeydale Grange will have on my own children's education but I do fear that the impact will be huge on the existing pupils at Abbeydale Grange and their families. Friendship groups will be split, a community is losing a school and no doubt children will feel isolated and unwanted.

I know my concerns are echoed by many other parents and I hope they will be given due consideration before a final decision is made.

Our son is due to go to secondary school in 2011 and we live in the Abbeydale catchment area. We feel strongly that we do not want him to go to Abbeydale because we don't feel the school would meet his needs. The specific concerns we have are the history of failure at the school, the lack of stretch for higher ability children and our perception of behaviour at the school. If the school were to remain open we do not feel that it would improve and certainly not in the small timescale to 2011. It has had several new starts under a number of heads and we have no reason to think that any future new start would be any different. Our preferred option would be for Abbeydale to close and the places be distributed between a number of local schools.

i have expressed my views at several groups but was prompted again yesterday to write again expressing my grave concerns about your proposals to close abbeydale grange. My main concerns are: - lack of local provision for pupils, high storrs and silverdale are already running with class sizes averaging over 30, i fail to see how this could ensure abbeydale pupils will have a more positive educational experience or gain better grades when teachers will be struggling with classroom management issues such as where children will sit, and therefore be unable to focus on the strengths and weaknesses of each child, this will also lead to disgruntled teachers, pupils and parents and on a level that may hit a chord, as most issues don't seem to, may mean less votes at the next local election. - abbeydale pupils are amongst the most vulnerable in the city and many chose the school because it is small and able to support them at a high level, i am concerned that the most

xxiv vulnerable will feel isolated and frightened in bigger schools where thay will easily be lost in the system. - bearing in mind that my local alternatives are already oversubscribed it seems my choice is to send my child to a school where she'll be crammed into a class of up to 34, if not more, or she'll have to travel across the city, catching at least 2 buses, she was a dobcroft pupil and we deliberately didn't choose silverdale it now seems that choice is irrelevant as your proposal is that silverdale will be her catchment school.Again i fail to see how this can offer a more positive educational experience and guarantee her better grades. - your timing of the consultation and closure dates mean a decision may not be made until the spring/summer term next year this means school staff have minimal time to complie information about each child to share with future schools which means transition will be rushed which can only have a detrimental effect on children and teachers alike. - at all meetings you have denied your decisions have been influenced by the value of the land on which the school sits, even if this is the case eventually the land will be sold and most likely to a property developer, obviously if more housing is built more school places will be needed in our area, so your current proposal is a short term ? solution and you have identified that even without this potential for more housing more places will be needed in this area by 2014. if you need the land for money how about building a new small secondary school on the old sharrow junior school site or the area around mount pleasant, this would clearly define the sharrow community. I am extremely concerned about the impact on my local community on your proposal to send sharrow pupils to several schools, this can only lead to a disintegration of my community where young people will find it difficult to connect and integrate with each other never mind the community they live in.your plans for the land in my community appear to lead towards offloading as much as possible rather than a clear vision of what is best for us now and in the long term future. finally i have concerns about the consultation process the views of the focus groups have not been listened to and more concerning i met a parent , new to our area, who has been told the only available place for her child is parkwood academy , she was told there were no places at abbeydale grange, could you please confirm if it is now council policy to deny new entrants the choice of abbeydale grange. i believe abbeydale grange should stay open money should be invested in rebuilding and a sixth form should be developed to widen the opportunities for all through the provision of both educational and vocational choices.

I am a parent of a 3 and 5 year old in Sharrow and I am very angry that you are wasting money on a consultation on which you have already decided the outcome. A consultation should be just that and any supporting information should be neutral, this is not the case. You talk in glowing terms in your literature about the money available for the schools taking on Abbeydale students but do not mention the 14 million pounds already promised to refurbish the existing site. Clearly this selective sharing of information is meant to persuade rather than inform. I could go on at length, but as we all know it would be a complete waste of time.

I do not believe Abbeydale should be closed.

I write with regard to the closure of Abbeydale Grange School and the possible impact that this will have on Y7 places at King Ecgbert School. My son is currently in Y6 at Totley All Saints School (TASS), so this issue is obviously of great importance to us as a family.

Since joining the Reception Class at TASS he, along with the rest of the class, has believed that King Ecgberts is the secondary school which he will attend and the school has “primed” the children as such. Now to be told in Y6 that potentially this is not going to happen has caused him a great deal of distress. Currently the Y6 class (along with all other Y6 schools) is starting several well organized “getting to know you” events with King Ecgberts. My son is extremely

xxv passionate about going to King Ecgberts and is enthusiastic about the teachers who visit TASS and vice versa.

TASS is not a catchment school for King Ecgberts as we live in Bradway. Meadowhead is our catchment school. However, we live nearer King Ecgberts and it is much easier to get too. I feel that with the closure of Abbeydale Grange his chances of attending King Ecgberts will be dramatically reduced.

He currently has certain special needs which we are addressing with the Educational Psychologist and TASS. The Educational Psychologist has reported that my son should transfer to King Ecgberts with his peer group and this will help ensure a smooth transition around his learning support that he requires.

Whilst I recognize that the Council has an important and extremely difficult decision to make, I believe that placing migrants elsewhere within the education system will not help the problem. I welcome all ethnic minorities and feel that more should be done to help with integration and their individual educational needs.

I hope you will regard my comments as positive as I look forward to receiving any feedback you may have.

I want to add my voice to the many who are eager for the right thing to be done for our children at Abbeydale Grange School. My son is in his final year there doing GCSEs. He has thrived. Young people at AGS from so great a variety of backgrounds have flourished. It is not a fair and accurate summary to say AGS has had its day and has not reached the mark. It serves our community, indeed Sheffield so very well. I urge you to do all you can to keep our local school open and resourced so it can serve the next generation of young people.

I have two children currently at King Ecgberts (KES) one in year 9, one in year 7 and one in year 5 at Totley Primary. We have been aware for some time that Abbeydale Grange could potentially close. From reading the information on the Sheffgov web page it states that there will be some changes to who will be included in the catchment area for schools such as King Ecgberts but that the schools have sufficient spaces for all in catchment. I know from my daughters year (just gone up to year 7) that one in her classmates could not get into KES. My concerns I guess are that over time class sizes will creep up and that with the amalgamation classes from year 8 will be bigger when they are probably already at full capacity. Additionally I am interested to know if there will be any extra support given to the likes of KES. If academic standards are so low at Abbeydale Grange that it it is likely to close the new schools who will be absorbing these children can not just boost their academic abilities with no extra support. Would it mean that these children demand more input from the teachers? I understand that it is an anxious time for those at Abbeydale Grange but I am sure that you will understand that we have to protect our childrens interest and seek assurances that all neccessary support will be put in place and my children are not going to find themselves in increasingly larger classess and that the standard of teaching will not decrease or that the amount of time the teachers can spend with our children will decrease.

Another point i wanted to raise is the issue of curriculum, lots of the children take spanish at abbeydale and i know not all schools in the city offer it as a language choice, will provision be made for those who want to continue with it or will they be forced to change to another language instead, also there is no mention in your letter about the catholic secondary schools and as all saints is our next closest school i would like to know what the process for application there would be and if abbeydale children would get preferential treatment as they are being made to move?

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We are writing to raise our concerns over plans to redistribute pupils from Abbeydale Grange School to King Ecgbert School Dore.

First of all, it is always lamentable to hear of any school closing down. We believe local schools are important for the benefit of local children’s education and for the local community. Local children benefit from local schools, it means parents can be closely involved with their education, it means children can walk to school rather than needing transportation. Apart from the educational and community benefits, it is also good for the health of the children and for the environment, as transportation needs are reduced.

However, assuming that there are good social reasons, rather than commercial ones, behind the decision to close Abbeydale Grange School we accept that these pupils need to be redistributed elsewhere. So, we turn to the question of “where?”.

The current proposal appears to unequally allocate pupils from AGS to King Ecgbert. This gives us concern because:

• There are a number of other schools, closer to AGS, that appear to have not been considered as options. E.g. Meadowhead, Springs and Newfield to name but three. • Pupils currently attending the King Ecgbert feeder schools of Dore, Totley and Totley All Saints schools, who may live just outside the King Ecgbert catchment area, will be deprived of a place in favour of pupils living further afield. • We note that Silverdale school are only being asked to take Dobcroft pupils – it doesn’t seem reasonable that they are not expected to take their share

Re the last point: It is a fact that some of the pupils attending AGS come from a catchment area which includes areas of social deprivation and lower prior attainment. It would be much fairer to distribute these pupils in such a way as to not advantage, or disadvantage, any one school as a result.

We are concerned not only for the impact on our own children and local community, but also for the impact on the pupils from AGS and their community and educational needs too.

We hope that you may re-consider these plans to the benefit of all.

I am writing to you regarding the possible closure of Abbeydale Grange School. I have been a learning support assistant at Abbeydale Grange School, since the start of term. In this short period of time, I have noticed the need for Abbeydale Grange to stay open.

There are many reasons to justify this case, starting with the most vulnerable students in the school the integrated resource students and BME students. These students, as you well know, need stability and the chance to succeed. Abbeydale Grange is the perfect place for them to do this. From experience I know moving schools is difficult. It takes a while to settle in, even more so for the students on the autistic spectrum. It is a school of inclusion. My concern is for students who are now in year 9, who at a crucial year next year (i.e. year 10) are going to be put at a disadvantage. I would like to know why a plan even though maybe preliminary has not been put in place regarding how we are going to support these students. This is a question I asked at the staff consultation, but I felt I did not get a satisfactory and full enough answer.

My next concern is that Sonia Sharp told students you could not guarantee friendship groups could stay together, again putting students at a disadvantage. However of more concern are the family groups, who again could not be guaranteed that they could stay together. We have

xxvii students who have come from war torn countries, families who have gone through terrible times, families who need stability. Can you still close a school who offer this? Can you close that refuge for those families and put them at risk of been split up?

I am pleased to hear that Sonia Sharp said at a meeting with students that every pupil will get a personal plan. Both an educational plan and a pastoral plan. I believe though that this should be confirmed and a plan put in place before the decision to close the school. As you have said the students welfare comes first. I cannot believe that you could put a decision for closure before a plan for student welfare has been put in place. Can you assure me, that this will not happen?

You can accept that some of our students may need counselling prior, during and after the move. Not just at the transition phase, but long term. I am sure you agree? I would like to know, again why no plan, even if it is preliminary, has been published to reassure staff, pupils and parents how students will be supported long term. We have students who have bounced around from school to school, and found their home at Abbeydale Grange, can you make these students move on again?

It appears to me, that the cabinet cannot make a decision to close the school. It is not just about saving money, there are people lives involved. I urge you to vote no to closure. The plans aren't in place, students need Abbeydale Grange, parents need Abbeydale Grange and more importantly the city needs Abbeydale Grange.

I am absolutely appalled at the suggestion that Abbeydale Grange is to close.

Firstly why on earth is the school closing? Surely it is upto Sheffield City Council and more importantly the Children and Young People's Directorate to support the children and the staff at AGS. The school may have problems, but it certainly isn't the first and it won't be the last. If every school that failed an Ofsted Inspection were to close, there would be hundreds of schools all over the country closing and what good would that do anybody. My local primary school failed its Ofsted Inspection, but with the help of a very enthusiastic and passionate (fairly newly appointed) Head, a strong team of teaching staff, the support of parents and hard work from the children within a 12 month period the school had turned itself round and is now second in the league tables for results!

Getting rid of the school is not going to get rid of the problems, they need addressing and dealing with. I don't think this has anything to do with a failing school and everything to do with S.C.C. making money by selling the land the school sits on to developers! It's an outrage and the council should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves for even contemplating it.

The comments on the Forum are shocking and quite honestly frightening. If a lot of the comments about the attitude and behaviour of the children who attend AGS are true how on earth is splitting them up and sending them to other schools in the area going to help. Surely this will only have catrostrophic consequences on the other schools and create problems at those schools, which could eventually result in them failing Ofsted Inspections and the vicious circle continues!

There are big issues that need addressing here and I think it is upto S.C.C., the Head Teacher, the teaching staff and more importantly the children of AGS (who lets face it after all the bad publicity, must have very low self-esteem) to support each other and work through the problems. Nobody solved anything by running away from a problem, but facing it head on.

I already have two children at King Ecgberts School and a third that will eventually attend there and I am very concerned for their future education and what affect all this is going to have on them.

xxviii

I wish to object to the current proposals for the closure of Abbeydale Grange, together with the shocking and disgraceful way in which the 'consultation' is being managed.

While I understand the need to resolve a number of issues at AGS, in the event of closure, why is the Local Authority proposing to allocate most of the pupils to King Ecgbert's, a school which is already full and nearly twice the distance away compared to other schools? The impact on King Ecbert's would be enormous and wholly disproportionate.

Under these circumstances it is frankly shocking that the Local Authority initially chose not to consult with the parents of King Ecgbert's. We are now being given only a few days notice to comment on some significant proposals, with only limited information. I understand that parents at other local secondary schools have been given no information at all!

I would also like to understand why some other schools, particularly Silverdale, remain largely unaffected by these proposals, despite the fact that they are much closer to AGS and have spare places available within their existing catchment areas. Why is the Local Authority so intent on protecting them from change, but loading an inequitable proposal on other parts of the community?

I urge the Council to reject these proposals and ask their officers to go back and do a more professional job. Our children deserve better.

I would like to raise the following points regarding this matter:

1. Why has Silverdale not been inlcuded in the shared catchment status of Sharrow Primary? 2. Why have all other secondary schools in Sheffield not been included in this carve up - has any research been done into the home addresses of children presently at Abbeydale Grange? Other secondary schools in other parts of the city may be more local. 3. Has any consideration been given to the chaos that already exists at the top of King Ecgbert School drive at 3.15pm? 4. Why have the parents at ALL the schools involved not been consulted i.e. Dore Primary, Totley County, Totley All Saints, King Edward VII, Silverdale, High Storrs, Lowfield? 5. This idea was not only ill-conceived, but the subsequent handling of the so-called consultation has been farcical. The children at Abbeydale Grange and all the other schools that will be affected by this outrageuos proposal deserve better service from their council.

The parents of children at Abbeydale Grange have quite rightly been consulted about proposals to close the school. Having been alerted to this, I am writing to seek further clarity as a parent of children who will potentially attend King Ecgbert School (KES). The current proposals are causing me some anxiety, and I am hopeful that you will be able to provide me with some facts to help alleviate this.

Given that the council operates catchment and not grammar entry policies, careful thought needs to be given to the potential impact any changes might have on the choices made by parents. Securing places at good schools was our primary concern when we assessed where we wanted to live in the city, and we have invested much in choosing to educate our children in this area. We chose Dore Primary because it is a high achieving school and a feeder school for King Ecgberts. As a large school with a mix of children from varied socio-economic backgrounds, KES currently achieves solid results.

xxix The last published results demonstrating the average total point score at KS4 per pupil showed Silverdale at 467.7% with Abbeydale Grange at 242%. My perception is that all of the secondary schools named in the consultation document work with a mixed economy of children from different backgrounds and with varied abilities, but it would be interesting to understand this in more detail. Why does Silverdale do so well by comparison with Abbeydale Grange?

The KS2 Level 4 results for current KES feeder schools are as follows: KES FEEDER SCHOOLS L4 ENG L4 MATHS Dore Primary 96% 88% Totley Primary 83% 67% Totley Al l Saints 93% 96% Lowfields 38% 54%

The current Level 4 results for the other Primary Schools in the consultation are as follows: PRIMARY L4 ENG L4 MATHS PROPOSED FEEDER LINKS: Dobcroft 94% 90% Silverdale Holt House Not known but excellent OFSTED High Storrs Carterknowle 89% 77% High Storrs Sharrow Primary 44% 49% HS/KEcg/KEdVII Abbeydale PS 55% 70% King Ecgberts

I accept that the above data by no means tells the whole story about the achievements of a school, but this surface information is how schools are now widely judged, and how parents make choices about where to live to secure their children’s future education.

The results in English for the proposed feeder schools for KES are low. Will KES be expected to take children from both Lowfields and Abbeydale Grange? On the surface it appears that King Ecgberts is being asked to take more pupils from schools which currently achieve lower levels of attainment than any other school. Silverdale appears to be being made even more secure in its’ position at the top of the results board, and High Storrs too perhaps has less reason to be concerned by having Holt House and Carterknowle formally designated as feeder schools, though pupils from Sharrow Primary are being shared, but again KES is implicated.

In order for me to be better informed about the fairness of this, I would like to see a comparison of results for all feeder schools to the secondary schools in the consultation, including pupil numbers and % intakes. I understand this will only be indicative, but it will help me assess the potential impact the proposals might have to a much greater extent than is possible from the information currently available.

Do the above proposals mean that some schools will have to do more than others in terms of addressing some specific educational issues? I would also like to understand the catchment geography better as some of the feeder school links to secondary schools don’t seem to reflect actual closest distances. . There is no question that, much as I want all children in Sheffield to receive a decent education, my main priority is to do the best I can for my own children. It feels like the balance could be tipped too far for KES if the proposals go ahead. I am concerned that this could force even more Dore parents to consider the private sector, and again this would potentially have a negative impact on the longer term academic achievements at KES.

Last but not least, if Abbeydale Grange closes, will the money from the sale of the land be invested in ensuring that comprehensive, correct level, on-going support and facilities are in place to help the children who are currently achieving less than is desired? Have the schools

xxx implicated to take the pupils been asked to scope how they might absorb them? I hope you can re-assure me as I am bitterly disappointed by the proposals.

We are writing to express our serious concerns regarding the above issue which has only very recently been brought to our attention. We are parents of 3 children attending local schools. Our youngest child is at Dore Primary in Y4 and our 2 other daughters attend King Ecgbert School (KES) in Y7 and Y9. We are very happy with KES and feel that it provides our children with a good, rounded education. However the proposals being put forward to deal with the possible closure of AGS will clearly impact on KES in a significant way and we are concerned about the effect on our childrens education. We object in the strongest terms to the re-allocation going ahead in the terms of the proposal (outlined in the letter to parents dated 6th October 09). We object on the grounds that it is totally unfair and in particular we make the following points:

1. The re-allocation of AGS catchment should be a fair and equitable distribution that reflects the wide range of socio-economic areas,and pupils prior attainment,covered by the current catchment of AGS.

2. The re-allocation must be fair in order to promote stability in the long term by not advantaging or disadvantaging any of the schools involved.

3. The values of equity ,fairness,opennessand transparency must be applied to the re-allocation of catchment areas for subsequent years.

4.There should be additional time given for consultation on the details of these proposals involving all the schools in the area. To be consulted 2 weeks before the end of the consultation period is unacceptable.

5. Under the current proposal,pupils drawn from areas of greater socio-economic deprivatoin are unequally allocated with the larger proportion being allocated to KES. Why is that? This needs to be addressed.

6. Under these proposals, pupils attending local schools, ie Dore, Totley and Totley All Saints who dont live in catchment (but live close by) will be deprived of a place by pupils from Sharrow and Abbedale primary (AP) who actually live further away. This needs to be addressed.

7. Under the proposals KES would lose Carterknowle (CK) pupils. This is KES 5th biggest feeder school. Instead we would get AP and Sharrow which schools have lower prior attainment pupils and this would skew the intake for KES. Again this is unfair. We believe that a fairer solution would be for KES to keep CK as a feeder school.

8. It is clearly unfair for KES to have both AP and Sharrow. A fairer re-allocation would be for Sharrow to go to High Storrs and King Edwards. AP should be spilt with some going to Silverdale ( on the basis of fairness) and also to other schools in the area.

9. The situation is already unfair, as compared to Silverdale and High Storrs KES already has a lower proportion of more able pupils. This re-allocation proposal compounds an already unfair situation.

10. We believe that Silverdale should take a share of the 'more challenging catchments' . It seems at the present time that Silverdale has for some reason been given some sort of special status. This will inevitably lead to further success for them at the expense of our other schools. Again this is unfair.

11. Silverdale should be included in a wider re-allocation of feeder school catchments. They are

xxxi only being asked to take Dobcroft pupils! Why is that? How can that be fair? Why are they getting special treatment? By allocating Dobcroft and no other school to Silverdale the inequalities of the education system in Sheffield will be perpetuated.

12. Again on the basis of fairness: Why are only 2 South West schools bearing the brunt of this re-allocation? It cannot be because they are the closest schools as this is plainly not true.There are several schools not included that are actually closer in some cases, eg Meadowhead,Springs,Newfield.Why are these schools not included in the re-allocation?

13. In addition we do not understand why schools such as All Saints and Notre Dame are not requiredto take a share of more challenging pupils but instead are allowed to pick and choose theur pupils leading again to further success for them. This is unfair.

14. The current AGS catchment clearly has areas of wealth and aspiration aswell as areas of social deprivation and lower prior attainment. It is extremely important, at this crucial time, that these areas be distributed fairly between all schools in the area ensuring not to advantage or disadvantage one school.

Finally we should like to express our concern about the fact that we were only consulted so very late in the process and in such a low key manner as if it wasn't that important. Why were these issues not brought up properly so that parents at KES were aware of what was being proposed?These changes impact greatly on our childrens education and we have the right to be consulted properly in a fair and open manner.

We request that you take into account our views and concerns when finalising the arrangements for AGS. At the very least a fairer proposal needs to be put forward, it cannot go ahead in its present inequitable form.

We write to express our concern at the proposed closure of Abbeydale Grange School and the impact this would have on other schools in the South West area of Sheffield, particularly King Ecgbert School. We currently have 2 children at King Ecgberts and a third who we hope to join in two years time. It is our fundamental belief that all children should have the opportunity to attend a school within a relatively short distance of where they live. To do this will develop local community spirit and through this facilitate improved academic performance.

We believe that local children deserve the resources to be committed to Abbeydale Grange to provide them with an option of attending a good quality local school.

Should the decision be taken to close Abbeydale Grange, very careful consideration needs to be given as to how the children from the Abbeydale Grange feeder schools are allocated places at other schools. This process should be fair and equitable to all of the schools listed to accept these pupils.

The current proposals , we believe, do not meet these requirements, with pupils drawn from areas of greater socio-economic deprivation being unequally allocated. The larger proportion of these pupils are currently being allocated to King Ecgberts. The lower prior attainment of these pupils would have a detrimental impact on the academic standards currently being achieved at King Ecgberts.

My son started in Year 7 at Abbeydale Grange secondary school this September. I am writing to request in the strongest possible terms that you do not propose to close the school.

xxxii My son had to apply to secondary school last October and we had about a month to choose a school to apply to. We looked at Abbeydale Grange, High Storrs and King Ecgbert and we thought long and hard about the decision. As soon as my son arrived at Abbeydale Grange, he immediately felt that it was the right school for him. He liked the fact that it is a small school where each child is valued and given individual support. Every teacher we met on the three visits we made to the school was extremely enthusiastic, dedicated and interested in the learning needs of every child. They invited my son to spend a day in a year 7 class which he did and it made him even more keen to go to the school. The school is a mile away from our home and so my son can walk there easily rather than having to get buses to schools miles away. My son has settled in straight away and has made lots of new friends. He is devastated at the thought of it closing as he loves his school and is very happy there. He has told me that if it closes, he will have to start the process of choosing schools all over again, a task which he thought he had completed for good last October.

Abbeydale Grange should not close for the following reasons:-

• It is a truly inclusive multi cultural school which fosters great relationships between pupils from different backgrounds and cultures and welcomes individuality. • It is a small school and this is crucial for many children. My son would hate to go to a big school with more than a thousand children. My area of the city has too many large secondary schools and this does not meet the needs of all children. A lot of children such as my son need a smaller community school and would feel lost in an environment such as High Storrs which has around 1700 students. There needs to be a choice of schools in the city and people should have the option of choosing a smaller school if that's what meets the needs of their child. • I know a number of parents who moved their children to Abbeydale Grange from other schools during or after year 7 due to bullying problems at other schools. Rather than finding bullying and behaviour problems at Abbeydale they have found the opposite, made friends easily and have found the school to be protective and nurturing and they have excelled and been very much happier. • Abbeydale Grange has developed fantastic skills in supporting, nurturing and educating children who are newly arrived in the country. What will happen to these children if it closes? Other schools do not have the skills to support children's language difficulties and also their emotional needs which often impact on them from traumas such as war and political turmoil in their country of origin. There are a large number of Karen children who are newly arrived from Burma and they have found the school to be invaluable to their children's needs and to their community as a whole. What will happen to this community if the school, closes? Who will support their children with their language and emotional needs? Abbeydale do a fantastic job and have the skills to provide this support. • Most of the difficulties which cause Abbeydale to have unfilled places arise from the school's unfounded reputation and urban myths such as racist assumptions that the school is mostly populated by non-white children and a result parents from the area choose to send their children to other schools. Rather than reinforcing these racist views and closing the school down, I feel that the council should be tackling these attitudes, developing a communication strategy and doing something to tackle the unfounded reputation. • Other schools in the area are creating surplus places and causing the size of their schools to be unmanageable. Parents in Abbeydale's catchment area are happy for their children to go to Abbeydale but because the other schools create more places, they take the children away from Abbeydale as they have sixth forms and new buildings. If Abbeydale formed firm links with a sixth form college or developed it's own sixth form then more parents would sent their children there. If the other schools such as High Storrs stayed a manageable size and then there would not be unfilled places at Abbeydale. • I know a number of parents at Carterknowle wanted their son or daughter to go to Abbeydale but the children chose other schools because they were impressed by the new buildings. Rebuilding Abbeydale Grange would address this problem.

xxxiii • Moving the children to other schools will cause major disruption and increase the use of car journeys across the city. While many children currently travel to attend Abbeydale Grange, nearly all do so by foot, cycle or public transport. If children in the south west area are sent to alternative schools, many more affluent parents whose children currently attend Abbeydale Grange will choose to drive their children to schools rather than sending them on one or two buses to get there. Abbeydale Grange is easily walkable for most children in the catchment area and many children from the Newfield and Meadowhead catchment areas also attend Abbeydale Grange due to it's multi-cultural attributes and they also walk to school.

Abbeydale Grange is a truly inclusive multi-cultural international school, something which the council should be proud of. Please don't close it and shatter my son's dreams. Rather than doing better at another school I know that Abbeydale Grange is the only school in the area that will help him to achieve his potential and support him to excel. It is not a failing school, it is an inspirational school and a school the city should be proud to have. My son needs it and my community needs it.

Closure will be deeply unpopular as there is so much support for the school in our community and city wide.

The council should reconsider the advice of the Advisory group following the review of the school earlier this year:-

i. The school be rebuilt or refurbished and continue with the measures that have been put in place as part of the National Challenge Programme; ii. A soft Federation with another school or partner be explored; iii. Further investigation takes place into the merits of establishing a Cooperative Trust; iv. Post 16 provision be developed at the school in partnership with a range of partners; v. A communication strategy be developed to promote these recommendations and to build confidence in the future of the school.

A new build or refurbishment and development of sixth form provision or link with a sixth form will address the problem of catchment parents choosing other schools. Sheffield needs Abbeydale Grange.

I object to the entire transfer of the children from Abbeydale Grange Primary feeder to King Ecgbert School.

The reputation that Abbeydale Grange (Secondary) has had over the years is for highly unruly behaviour, vandalism and anti social behaviour. If this is transferred with the children to KES it will result in lowered performance in what is currently a moderately well performing school. In order to prevent the worsening of prospects for the school’s existing children this move should be avoided and a balance struck across this side of the city.

This may also be a move which tips the ethnicity balance too far at KES which already has a large catchment from the inner city. Currently the ethnic mix is good and provides a balanced environment for children to learn. It makes greater sense to achieve a better ethnic balance across the range of secondary schools in the south west of Sheffield which is necessary to ensure a balanced tolerant society.

If the transfer does happen despite opposition, not only should appropriate levels of additional staffing be made but also staff should be taken on specifically to ensure that anti social behaviour is crushed thus preventing the worsening of the prospects of children already within the school.

xxxiv I am writing this e-mail to you in connection about the consultation process concerning Abbeydale Grange school.

My 11 year old daughter is a pupil in Year 7. As soon as she started at the school she immediately felt at ease. She wasn't at all overwhelmed or nervous on her first day but excited,she couldn't wait to start. Previously she had been a pupil at Sharrow Primary school and it had took her at least 4 years to settle in, it wasn't until she reached year 6 that she truly did so. She was a quiet, shy girl who didn't make friends easily. Her teacher commented that she'd started to settle in and was proud of her for taking more part in school projects. he stated that she would start to do well at Abbeydale and he wasn't wrong. Since she has been there, it is her 7th week there now, she has made alot of new friends, talks about school all the time, her friends, her teachers etc..she does her homework with no making her do it, she goes to school with not an ounce of a prblem, even on her first day she did so. She realy loves Abbeydale cause it's small, not overwhelmingly big like most other secondaries in Sheffield are. Her teachers, she says, are the best. they all help each individual child with their work encouraging them to do their best. she has had loads of help in her maths class and has moved up to the top group, in the first 5 weeks!! Abbeydale as we all know is in a very lovely area of the city with prime land. we aren't stupid, we all know the council has been after the land for years. but it beggars belief that a school would close to make way for new housing. surely our children's education is more important, they DO get the best at Abbeydale if the children themselves are willing to try their hardest. Where we live it takes her 5-10 minutes on the bus to travel there, she could easily walk it in 30 minutes actually. going to another school like High Storrs for instance would probably take her nearly an hour to get to. my mom knows a lady whose son was stranded at High Storrs once when it snowed as the buses weren't frequent. it took him nearly 3 hours to get home!! Sending the Abbeydale pupils to other schools would be disruptive all round. the pupils whom have settled in made lots of friends are used to the teaching the school etc would have to start all over again, they'd be the new kid on the block all the currant pupils at their new schools would already have friendships made and would probably leave the new ones out. it would be damaging to alot wh don't have much confidence already i know my daughter would not be happy at all if it happened. she's even expressed that she would not want to go to another school whatsoever if Abbeydale closes. she's become very teary at the thought and worries about it all the time. another thing, the school has lots of different culteral backgrounds which is a wonderful thing. they encourage all pupils to get along no matter of their ethnc backgrounds and they do. my daughter's friends with a chinese girl, a half indian girl, a mongolian boy among others. she does not care what race or colour the kids are. whereas i know a girl the same age who went to a school with very little minorities there and as a result wouldn't even have a coloured doll for her bithday, she threw it away!! where are these schools that would be willing to take on the extra children then? we haven't even been sent a list. is it because there aren't any that are willing to take them on? in the south west we have King Ecgberts, High Storrs and Silverdale. My daughter was put on the waiting list for King Ecgberts, number 25 to be precise. if that's the case then where is the places there? there aren't any obviously. High Storrs on the other hand is already oversubscribed, with over 1,000 pupikls in year 7 alone i have been told. that is just ridiculous the amount of pupils in one year. how on earth can teachers possibly interact as well with them like they do at Abbeydale. there tey get to know the kids as individuals not just a face in the crowd. We was told that money would be given to these schools to help if these kids were sent to them, why not give that money to Abbeydale so they can do the school up for a start. Please, i beg you, do not close Abbeydale Grange down, keep it open for the children's sake. they love it there, feel at home there. Consider tham first, not the pound signs.

Thank you for the extensive consultation on the future of AGS. I am writing as Chair of the Carter Knowle and Millhouses Community Group, as a former Chair of Governors at the school and as a parent of four children who were educated there.

I should like to make the following points for the Community Group:

xxxv • The Community values having a successful educational establishment at its heart. It brings vitality to the area and is good for local businesses and employment. • We know there are many superb and dedicated staff at the school. The problems it now has come mainly from a complex social and political history of affairs which could not have been changed by the staff or governors of the school. • We know that there are many children who have come from terrible circumstances who have had their lives changed through the support and help they have received at AGS. • Parental choice is deeply influenced by children who want to be with their social groups, so, getting a local community to send its children to a school not generally used in the neighbourhood is a difficult and painfully slow process. • Whether it is at worst racism, or at best simply a desire to have children educated in a representative school community, the 70%+ minority ethnic make up of the present school community is a significant blockage to local parental choice. Even if the school began to have tremendously improved results, we regret that it seems unlikely that parental choice would quickly change. • There may be a place in the educational service of the city for a school specialising in international pupils. There are strong arguments both for and against this. If AGS were to be allowed to continue in this way, it would need to have different forms of performance indicators to general comprehensive schools. • We seek a commitment that, should the school close, there would be joined-up thinking across the relevant departments to ensure that the entire estate of the school has a future in line with the Green and Open Spaces Strategy. • We note that the projected demographics for 2016 show that there may be a need for an additional school in the area. The case for moth-balling the site should be fully considered.

My daughter started ABG in September of this year. She has settled in well and is enjoying school life, she is enthusiastic about her lessons and is already developing good relationships with her teachers and fellow students. I write to request that you do not close this school. In Oct 2008 we had a month in which to choose a school for our daughter’s secondary education. This is an anxious time for all families, we decided to look at the three main schools, which included ABG, we were hesitant about ABG because of his reputation, we visited the school three times and our daughter for a full day, before we with our daughter decided that ABG was the right school for her. The staff is extremely enthusiastic and dedicated, they are above all interested in each individual child’s welfare. When the new term began I met with the Head Teacher Mr Black to discuss the future of the school, as my daughter had been very anxious during the holidays as to the future of her new school. Mr Black spoke very highly of his staff, as an interim head, who had many years of experience of working with schools in special measures, he had never worked in a school were the teachers had such passion and enthusiasm for turning the school around. He said that normally he would have expected to find staff unmotivated and demoralised. The staff has clearly worked hard and improvements have been shown in such a short time compared with many schools in Sheffield also facing special measures. He also felt that little was needed to make continued improvement; it would not take an immense amount of money to make necessary improvements and to make the school more appealing to new parents and children. The staff wanted and needed leadership under which they are now thriving.

High Storrs, Silverdale, King Egbert as the alternative schools for my daughter’s catchments are all over subscribed, to extend their pupil roll would be to the detriment of all pupils educations and put unnecessary stress on staff. The buildings are designed for a smaller number of pupils than they already contain.

Closure will be deeply unpopular as there is so much support for the school in our community and city wide.

xxxvi The council should reconsider the advice of the Advisory group following the review of the school earlier this year:-

i. The school be rebuilt or refurbished and continue with the measures that have been put in place as part of the National Challenge Programme; ii. A soft Federation with another school or partner be explored; iii. Further investigation takes place into the merits of establishing a Cooperative Trust; iv. Post 16 provision be developed at the school in partnership with a range of partners; v. A communication strategy be developed to promote these recommendations and to build confidence in the future of the school.

A new build or refurbishment and development of sixth form provision or link with a sixth form will address the problem of catchment parents choosing other schools. Sheffield needs Abbeydale Grange.

I write further to the consultation period for Abbeydale Grange School during the period 14 September – 23 October 2009. My daughter attends King Ecgbert School in year 7.

Whilst I recognise the difficulties you face with the future of Abbeydale Grange, I also have concerns about your proposals for its closure and the impact on the provision for other schools in the locality.

Having considered the explanation of the council’s position contained in a 14 page consultation document (which was available on the council website), I have the following comments to make:-

Pupil Progress and Attainment? Pupil progress, attainment and a failure to meet the government’s new “floor target” are quoted as reasons for consideration of closure. Pupil progress and attainment is as much to do with the quality of provision than aptitude of the pupils. To paraphrase your own literature; there must be “a robust and sustainable plan for Abbeydale Grange to improve its attainment”. This is not achieved by closing the school and hiding from an issue.

The recent OFSTED report for Abbeydale Grange refers to excellent commitment from the teachers at the school despite the difficulties and challenges they face. The report cites a lack of structure and monitoring at the school as a major failing. They do not have the necessary tools in place to review student progress and be able to point out where successes have been achieved. Such commitments from the staff should be recognised and a vigorous support system put in place to support the staff to achieve the school targets.

If there are leadership and management issues at the school affecting its performance, this is a human resources issue and as such should be dealt with as a matter of urgency by the LEA. Your consultation document refers to there being a “considerable way to go before Abbeydale Grange can demonstrate that concerns about the quality of teaching and learning have been addressed”. These will never be addressed, and will simply be buried, if the proposal for closure goes ahead.

What alternatives have been considered? Any improvement in perception of the school will take time and is unlikely to be encouraged by the uncertainty that this consultation brings with it. The 14m investment risk referred to in the consultation document appears to me to be a scaremongering comment. If sufficient commitment is shown to the future of the school, with accompanying resources and proper investment to staff and facilities, the more motivational and aspirational environment you refer to would be possible.

The soft or hard federation you refer to, in conjunction with local schools has not been possible thus far. Whilst I recognise that there was not any initial interest from local schools in assisting with this, has a more informal collaboration or partnership , not bound by any statutory

xxxvii collaboration or federation regulations, been considered? This would be more like a temporary helping hand from a successful local school rather than a whole scale commitment for the future. This may seem a more attractive proposition to a successful local school rather than the impact the closure of Abbeydale Grange will have.

Has an Educational Improvement Partnership been considered? I realise hard governance is the preferred option (under the governments policy framework for under achieving schools) but if a soft governance approach or EIP could be considered, surely this would facilitate improvement at Abbeydale Grange and could even be incorporated to address single or very specific issues meaning the commitment of the collaborating school (or schools) is kept to a minimum and does not impact on their successful provision.

To continue the above thread, I can clearly see why a successful local school would not by choice agree to enter into a soft or hard federation with a struggling school. This must be a problem encountered throughout the country. Do the LEA not have any powers to encourage such links by way of budgetary benefits or other means of persuasion?

Future Admissions With regard to your proposals for future admissions, I assume, admittedly without any admissions data to support my assumption, that Dobcroft children predominantly go to Silverdale and Holt House/Carterknowle children to High Storrs anyway. I would be interested to know how many Dobcroft/ Holt House/Carterknowle children have chosen Abbeydale Grange in the last five years.

High Storrs already have an obligation to Holt House/Carterknowle and King Edward VII is geographically challenging for pupils in the Abbeydale/Sharrow area, whereas King Ecgbert School is directly on the bus link. That then leaves mainly King Ecgbert School for what I would assume would be the majority of the intake for what would have been Abbeydale Grange, should the closure go ahead.

To summarise, it appears that the ethos of the consultation is to prefer the option of school closure as opposed to investing the time, effort and resources required to nurture the school from special measures to an effectively operating school.

The local schools are already full and have waiting lists and by your own words, intakes across the city will start to rise again in 2014. I assume it would require far more investment to provide a new school in 2014 than it would cost not to invest in the infrastructure of Abbeydale Grange at this stage.

It is clear to me that a longer term perspective on this matter is required with proper consideration for the future secondary provision in the area, rather than a short term, statistics pleasing decision which would take a failing school “off the record”.

Should the decision ultimately be to close Abbeydale Grange, I would expect the same flexibility in catchment decisions to be applied to my preferred school. I made my application to King Ecgbert School for my daughter, based on the information available at that time which will be significantly affected by your proposals. My preferred option would be Silverdale if the proposal for closure of Abbeydale Grange is carried forward.

I have grave concerns regarding the procedure of the Consultation for closure at Abbeydale Grange School as well as the lack of substance of information given to the consultees (Parents, pupils, teachers, feeder school parents and the communities). I do not feel that meaningful consultation can be considered to have taken place or even started without the proper and relevant information being made available to all concerned.

xxxviii Regarding the procedure, I do not feel that proper time and effort has been given to a full consultation process. At the beginning of the year only consultation groups were set up with a small number of people invited to attend and give their views on Abbeydale Grange School. This was not a full consultation open to everyone (although even then the views of all the groups were ignored - none of them wanted the school to close, but discussed ways of improving the situation instead) and indeed a greater number of people affected by the proposals knew nothing about it.

On attending a couple of the meetings during this consultation period there was no real information being given by the LA, except to say why they were closing it and then what feeder schools were available to the schools/community. It was as if the proposal to close was a given and only up for discussion was the question of which of the schools should be the feeder school. Yet Andrew Sangar, in several statements, made it very clear that ‘during the consultation period we will remain open minded about the way to secure the best option for the school’. This should surely mean that you consult the whole body of those affected as to their views on your proposal?

The regulations concerning consultation (Education and Inspections Act 2006 (EIA 2006) and the School Organisation (Establishment and Discontinuance of School)(England)Regualtions 2007), there is a duty to consult and this consultation must have regard to the Secretary of States guidance, which states, amongst other things that:

‘They provide sufficient information for those being consulted to form a considered view on the matters on which they are consulted’

Among the consultees are:

‘Families of pupils, teachers and other staff at the school’

‘Families of any pupils at any other school who may be affected by the proposals including where appropriate families of pupils at feeder primary schools’

It should be clear to the LA that whether parents of those already attending Abbeydale Grange, or those from the feeder schools, as well as those parents of the schools being proposed as the new feeder schools, that one of the main concerns is where all these pupils will go for their education if the school were to close and how will this be deemed to improve their education (which is a reason Andrew Sangar has put forward on a number of occasions)? The minutes of all the meetings should reflect this as from attending a number of them (at Sharrow School and the local Mosque)as well as speaking to others that attended separate meetings, this would be reflected as a strong concern. The minutes should also show that, despite many requests from all the consultees attedning, the Council still has not provided this information, and is unlikely to do so now before the consultation period is over.

It is therefore not possible for all consultees involved to form a considered view on the information being given and the subject they are being consulted without this crucial information.

Therefore, I feel that the consultation is in breach of the Secretary of State’s Guidance and therefore the Education and Inspections Act 2006 and call for the decision on which the comments from the consultation will be being based to be postponed until more robust information and proper consultation with all those affected is held.

I am writing to express my concerns at the proposed closure of Abbeydale Grange School. My daughter currently attends King Ecgberts and is in Year 7. My concerns are as follows

Abbeydale Grange is a failing school with significant under achievement and serious behaviour management issues. These need to be addressed and not passed to another school in the hope that a change of venue will form a resolution.

xxxix

King Ecgberts will be forced to accept the majority of pupils. Realistically, how many children from Dobcroft and Carterknowle actually attend Abbeydale Grange? It is also worth noting that of the four primaries that are affected, King Ecgberts is the proposed school for the two under achieving Primary Schools, whilst Silverdale and High Storrs continue to take the two for whom attainment is not an issue. This is divisive in the extreme. It allows Silverdale and High Storrs to continue their journey to excellence but does not afford King Ecgberts the opportunity to do the same. The proposal can only ever have a serious and detrimental impact on the education of pupils at King Ecgberts, including my daughter.

In light of this I fully anticipate that changes in catchment regulations will be fairly applied to all pupils involved. I applied for a place at King Ecgberts for my daughter based on all the facts and information at that time. Should that change, I will fully expect to secure a place for her at Silverdale School and would be prepared to engage legal support to secure that end.

We are a parents of children in Y5 and Y3 and I am writing to object to the to closure of Abbeydale Grange School. Sheffield has a policy that every child matters yet this proposal can only be at the detriment of all our children. For the children on this side of Sheffield the loss of one of its Schools and division of its catchment children among Schools which are not only already at capacity but have just finalized re-builds that set their capacity is a disastrous proposal. How can these Schools suddenly accommodate the extra pupils? What about the health and safety issues of extra numbers in a space built to accommodate less (i.e. fire hazard)?

I have to confess that when we bought our house several years ago we considered School Catchment area's in the interests of our children's future.We wanted to be part of the local community for their school.We wanted them to make friends and move through their school career with them.We wanted to support our school and community.

I attended a school where the standard of education was poor and I was bullied.I did not want the same for my children. As their parent it is my role to be their advocate. When I looked at the council website information on Abbeydale Grange I found reviews stating bullying and failure that encouraged us to select a house where we also have catchment status for Silverdale.

You might think therefore that it is hypocritical for me to object to the closure of Abbeydale Grange ..But.... we need to learn from history ...the failing School I attended is now rated the best in Norfolk why ... because it has received funding and support.Whereas the then top rated 6th form I attended is now a failing school because it rested on an old reputation and became unmanageably big. We need to learn these lessons for Sheffield.

There is funding allocated for a rebuild of Abbeydale Grange and it should be used to build a School which is forward thinking for the community it serves. Children should not be spilt up from their peers in their local community. As teenagers we know they pay more attention to their peers and less to their parents. I want my children to move forward to high school with their sound friendships that the juniors have worked hard to promote so that they don't stand alone against bullying and the risks of bad influence such as drugs which are a worry for all our high schools. The recent investment in Sharrow School shows how work and investment can turn a school around to what is now an oversubscribed school ... which meets the needs of its communities welfare as well as education. These same children should not now be sent the message that they are not worth the investment and be divided up among several high schools.They have the need to move forward with their sound friendships too.

The council are charged with the responsibility of a valuable asset in the Abbeydale Grange site this resource should be used in the interests of all our children. Abbeydale Grange has not been given a fair chance to stay open. It received a knee jerk

xl response from the other Schools in the request for a hard federation partnership.They cannot possibly have consulted all their governors in the correct way as their responses were too swift (I have heard reports that governors were not consulted).I do not believe that they considered the effects of the school closing.Over the last 6 months Abbeydale Grange School has made improvements which do not seem to have been taken into account.

It is time the council stopped labeling Abbeydale Grange as a failure and concentrated on giving it the investment and morale boost it needs to improve.Reducing the overall capacity of our High Schools by closing one will be a detriment to all especially when more and more housing is being built on this side of Sheffield. I hope the council is not considering the selling of this site for yet more housing which will further affect the demand for School places.!!!! I know a child who is already settled at Abbeydale Grange and whose parents are happy with her welfare and education at the School ...She is devastated at the plans to close the School.

It is time that that the Council started carrying out the Every Child Matters slogan for real. Many of the children within the School catchment come from the most needy backgrounds often with parents who don't or can't speak up for them.They need their School investing in for the good of their welfare. This is the foundation of the whole communities welfare... Do we want these young people to come home from school not knowing their peers in the neighborhood (so they can't go round each others houses) and remain bored and vulnerable to getting into mischief? No we want to build a community where we and they know our neighbors and respect them.Do we want these children to be lost in Schools so big that the Teachers cannot identify their welfare needs? I have been proud to see the progress of my children at Dobcroft School. I am happy that they are getting a better standard of education than I did. I want this to continue into their High School years. My Son has already said that he wants to move on with his friends to Silverdale and I support this as the right choice for him and his needs.But this does not mean that I don't care about Abbeydale Grange.This School should be given what it needs to improve for the good of all our children.

Please do all you can to invest in the future of our children in Sheffield by helping Abbeydale Grange stay open and improve to meet the needs of the Children of Sheffield in a forward thinking way. Since I moved to Sheffield in the 1990's I have seen the City of Sheffield improve vastly due to forward thinking and investment and this can be done for Abbeydale Grange too.

I would like to urge you to not close the school until the staff have been given a chance to prove what they can achieve in terms of raising the standards of student achievement, behaviour and attendance.

Although I do not know in great detail the history of school I would like to relay to you what I have discovered since I started working at the school on 17th August 2009. My comments are based upon my own comparisons with working at Sheffield Park and Springs Academy and Sheffield College.

I have found a group of staff who are committed to the success of the students and the school, who often put in extra hours at school in the evenings and on Saturdays giving extra tuition and support to students. I have observed teaching of a high quality and good working relationships between classroom staff and students.

I have seen a living example of racial integration, with staff and students from many and varied ethic backgrounds getting on well together in the classrooms and the yard. I have not seen even a hint of racial tension, something I sadly cant say for my experience at other schools, and I believe that this is something to celebrate and replicate if possible.

The staff who have been there for a while clearly feel aggrieved at the way the school has been lead over the last few years under the previous head teacher, which some of them perceive as

xli one of the key factors in parental choice and decline in performance. Despite this there is a renewed optimism and a very positive response to the positive but robust leadership style of the Interim Head Teacher. That positive response is starting to evidence itself in improved student behaviour, attendance and attainment. In fact the recent LEA inspection found a school which was making good progress in a range of areas. Last years A*-C GCSE results gave a 8% improvement from 16% to 24% and its my belief that the governments floor target of 30% will be exceeded next summer.

There is a wealth of experience in the school in supporting students with complex needs, especially EAL.

Although there are still areas where improvements need to be made, this doesn't feel like a failing school but one with the potential and determination to do better for its students and wider community.

We need to be given chance and time for the positive trends seen now to bear fruit. I do not share Dr Sharp's negative views about parental choice, that it is inevitable that patents in the catchment area will not choose the school. Once the current improvements at the school become more widely known I am confident that the parents will start to come back. Also if the Council has the courage to encourage the efforts of the staff to improve things by investing the £14m from BSF into the school this will also send a positive sign to parents. I saw this happen in the first year of Sheffield Park Academy when in their first year they had waiting list for Year7, which had not happened for many a year.

I also feel that the council doesn't have any real and viable alternative for the students at Abbeydale should closure go ahead, especially not in the timescale outlined in the document.

You quote demographic figures in your report which suggest that the demand for school places is likely to fall in the next 10 years. I would like to ask how accurate has your forecasting been in the past? Is this based upon the births in Sheffield for the relevant years? What about visitors to the city? I have just heard on the news that the UK population is growing at a fast rate which is mostly driven by immigration. Has this been factored into your planning. School places cannot be turned on and off at will. I could see any closure at secondary level in Sheffield being regretted a few years after.

I would ask that the council responds positively to the good signs of progress at Abbeydale and gives these chance to come to fruit, for the sake of the children who are at the school now and will attend in the future.

I am writing to let you know of my objections to the Councils proposed closure of Abbeydale Grange School, my concern at the impact of this for my children’s future education and my concern about the basis upon which the decision is being made.

I am aware that The Council is proposing to close Abbeydale Grange School mainly on the basis that it has become uneconomic to continue to run this school due to the comparatively small numbers of pupils who attend. What the reports assessing the school and its proposed closure fail to mention however is why the school has been allowed to decline over the years and what the anticipated impact will be on the management, learning and attainment levels on schools targeted to take pupils who would ordinarily have gone to Abbeydale Grange and whether or not this is fair or justifiable.

In just looking at the numbers of pupils who happen to attend Abbeydale Grange the bigger question of why a large school, in pleasant grounds in a relatively affluent area of the city is not well attended appears to have been overlooked. Ordinarily these factors would appear to be at least the starting point for a school to succeed. The falling numbers of children attending

xlii Abbeydale Grange School are due to parents exercising some ability to choose where their children attend school but the question needs to be asked as to why this is happening before this resource is lost and before the implications are irreversible.

Abbeydale School appears to have begun a circle of decline some years ago which must be either based on the mismanagement of the school and its teaching or by the inability of the schools pupils for some reason to attain certain levels of academic performance. The decline can be for no other reason.

To decide to close the school without a sufficient examination into why it is failing and being clear about these reasons is at best sweeping the problems under the carpet, or more accurately diluting the problems throughout the south west of the city in the hope that the problems will not be noticed. You are either displacing incompetent teachers to other placements so that they can continue to be incompetent elsewhere, or you are displacing pupils who require specialist support or close management into surrounding schools, thereby overloading these schools and disadvantaging the pupils who already attend. Much more seriously by failing to examine the reasons why the school is failing you are misrepresenting the situation and allowing the Politicians who represent us to make a decision which is not based on the full facts and allowing them to sweep the issues under the carpet.

The City Council is promoting itself as striving towards a Cleaner, Greener City, where the focus is on safer neighbourhoods. The Asset that is Abbeydale Grange School should be regarded as an underused resource rather than surplus -and it’s being brought into more effective use would have obvious benefits.

If school children have to get up earlier to have to travel longer distances will they will not be encouraged to attend school at all let alone play an active part in school life when they are there. Equally if they have to commute half way across the city are they will arrive home later, in the dark, and have less time to carry out homework. This would be the direct result of closing Abbeydale Grange school and would run counter to the Councils stated aim of being a safer city where communities matter.

In my experience a school can act as the centre of a community with parents and children alike being engaged in school life and activities centred round the school. This engagement with the community is very much less likely if the parents and pupils are remote from the school.

To deprive parents and teachers an opportunity to attend a local school with all those advantages would run counter to the Councils stated aims of putting communities first and be an obvious quick fix based on monetary considerations alone with little regard for the welfare of pupils who deserve a local school and those who would be disadvantaged by an influx of new pupils.

The Council promotes itself of being Cleaner and greener. How can it possibly be the case that the closure of Abbeydale School. You will be adding to the number of children who are already mini commuters and adding to the number of parents who have to make additional car journeys to drop pupils off or pick them up. The catchment area would appear to be proposed to extend far into the city centre thereby generating the perverse situation where a child who lives far closer to King Ecgberts could be excluded from that school in place of a pupil who lives in the city centre. If this happens not only would this be grossly unfair but also the impact on travel would be made worse as that child would have to commute to another part of the city in order to attend school. The Councils so called green agenda will be revealed to be a complete sham in these cases.

The Abbeydale Grange catchment will have areas of wealth and aspiration as well as areas of deprivation and lower prior attainment. Please explain how the decision to allocate Abbeydale Grange current feeder schools -Carterknowle to Silverdale and the feeder schools Abbeydale and Sharrow with high levels of prior lower attainment to King Ecgberts is in any way fair? Abbeydale

xliii and Sharrow have higher levels of low achievement and attainment and to allocate the feeder schools in the way suggested will skew the intake at King Ecgberts unfairly.

Why is Silverdale only being required to take pupils from Dobcroft and how can this be fair when this school has a better level of attainment. This will exacerbate the burden on King Ecgberts still further.

We oppose the closure of Abbeydale Grange secondary school in the southwest area of Sheffield, this putting all of our children in larger classes to their detriment of their future .

Some of the issues causing concern relate to being parents of children whom we believe will be directly affected by the proposed changes at King Ecgbert school, and some relate to the welfare of all the children involved.

From some of the information circulated by the “FLAGS” team we believe that Abbeydale Grange was first put into “special measures” in March 2009. Therefore under the National Challenge scheme it would normally be entitled to a 2-year period in which to show significant improvement (such as other schools in a similar position have been able to). Under the interim head we believe there has been some improvement of GSCE grades this summer, and a recent Ofstead report concluded that the school is making satisfactory progress during the six months it was given to do so. Under the circumstances, it would seem appropriate to assess the school over the 2-year time frame, and invest in both the building structure and staffing. We believe Abbeydale Grange was also asked to join in federation with another Sheffield school and was given only 4 weeks to do so. Speaking to parental governors from some of other local schools involved we believe the usual processes were not followed. Other schools had given their replies within 24 hors without a proper Governor’s meeting to discuss the proposal. Why were the agreed process not followed in the case of Abbeydale Grange?

How have the ”new” catchment areas been determined? Looking at the proposed changes (from a letter recently received from Dore Primary) for the feeder primary schools into the senior schools, it is noticeable that there appear to be no changes to those of Silverdale but there is an increase to those of King Ecgbert, High Storrs and King Edwards VII. We hope that siblings will automatically allocated a place in the same senior school at parental request. The increase in class sizes will be to the detriment of the teaching available to all our children involved. Of the 14 million funding allocated to Abbeydale Grange will this be distributed to funding the affected schools increasing the staff budget pro rata to accommodate new pupils/classes? Will it make a significant difference to the actual teaching of the children or will it be swallowed up in the budgets of recent new developments at High Storrs, King Ecgbert and Silverdale?

The senior schools completing their new builds recently are already subscribed to the level of pupils they were designed to accommodate. Adding additional number of students will have an impact not only on teaching facilities but the catering, sports and language facilities, and locker space available for safe storage of student’s personal belongings. The extra furniture in the classrooms to seat the increased number of pupils in each class also raises health and safety issues of movement around the class both for the teachers and pupils on both a daily basis, and in the event of emergency. Supervision in break /lunch times, and pastoral supervision will be under strain with the larger number of students to deal with.

Many of the schools that will be affected already have applications in the planning department at present for further residential building, one of which is actually on the old King Ecgbert site, with other areas in Totley, Dore, High Storrs and Ringinglow Road etc. How will the council and LEA

xliv accommodate further new families with school age children in the already well over-subscribed local schools, especially if they go ahead with the Abbeydale Grange closure?

At present King Ecgbert also has a good reputation for accommodating children with special needs in line with local/national policies. With the proposed increase in student numbers, if the staffing levels and facilities do not proportionally increase this will put these children’s specific educational and specialised needs, and supervision/safety greatly at risk. This in turn will put their possible success in mainstream schools under threat and have a significant effect on the ability of the over subscribed specialist schools in the area.

We would like to think since we live within the catchment area of King Ecgbert School, our children will be entitled to a place there. We hope they will be able to attend a school that continues to have a good reputation and does not start to fail any children because the class sizes have increased to a number that diminishes the ability of the teachers to be able to teach effectively and safely.

We appreciate that you have taken the time to read our opposition and concerns regarding the proposed closure. We sincerely hope that those involved in the decision regarding the future of Abbeydale Grange School will look to the long-term investment of our children’s futures, and not just short-term financial savings of a school closure and selling-off the site.

I wish to put forward my strong objection to these proposals. 'Up to ten places' could mean no places in affect which is completely unacceptable. Are you going to argue that if a school has provided 2 places per year, then that is within the terms of the proposals put forward in the consultation? Or if schools don't offer 10 places, will you then do another consultation? I would like to know the answer to this question.

Please can you give me the figures for how many children in each year group live in which catchment area and whether their new proposed catchment school can accommodate them all?

It is completely unacceptable that the information about available places has not been provided as you say you have already asked schools to provide places and they must have replied to you request by now and told you how many, if any places they can provide per year group.

If you propose to close the school, then I feel very strongly that you should be able to provide a place for every child in every year group in their new catchment school in the South West area. It is not acceptable to be sending children to a school out of the South West area and it is certainly not acceptable to send them to another school which might have available places but is in special measures such as Newfield. You also have to consider parents who chose to send their children to Abbeydale Grange who chose not to send their children to schools like Newfield and would still not want to send their children there. Will you make places available in South West schools for them as well?

If many places aren't made available in South West schools both for those in the new proposed catchment area and also those who chose Abbeydale Grange over their catchment school then I can tell you now that it won't be accepted.

The current year 7 parents applied for places last October and chose the school for our children when many of us could have got places at other South West schools. You must have known then that you wanted to close the school as you announced the review in December and yet you allowed us to still apply and get places at the school. Our children have now started and settled and love the school and they do not want to move. I do not know of any child that does not love Abbeydale Grange and the same cannot be said of many other schools in Sheffield. Moving

xlv children and separating them from their friends and scattering them around the city is completely unacceptable and you will be causing major disruption and misery for hundreds of children.

Please reconsider your proposals. The school should be rebuilt or refurbished and developed into a high quality school with good facilities for our local community and for generations to come. We as parents and the school will do everything we can to encourage other local parents to visit and apply for places there and I am convinced we can overturn it's reputation and people' prejudices, which is the main reason why a lot of parents don't even consider it (should the council be colluding with this prejudice by closing the school?). There are many other options for the school which will attain the same results and aims that the council wants.

Please can you let me know whether another consultation will take place if 10 places per school per year cannot be secured or whether if none is provided, you will class this as 'up to ten'?

The implications of closing Abbeydale Grange School are immense, not only for those children already there but also for the children in it's catchment area and other catchment areas. My son has just started in year 7, is very happy there and would be devastated if it closed. He is very worried about the future as he is settled, made new friends and does not want to move schools after a year. We live locally, within walking distance to the school and it was his first choice. We would now be faced with having to go through the same preferencing system we went through a year ago, to choose another school of which there is no guarantee of a place.

If the council do decide to close the school, you would redraw it's catchment area. You propose to feed Carterknowle Junior School into High Storrs. This would put further pressure on places and mean that parents who have children at current feeder schools for High Storrs or siblings at the school who don't live in the catchment area, would be unlikely to get places.

You, the council propose to feed Abbeydale Primary into King Ecgbert School. Again, this would put pressure on places at an already over subscribed school. The Abbeydale Primary pupils would automatically have higher priority over places than the Lowfield Primary children who have been a feeder school for King Ecgbert for around 30 years as the children in the Abbeydale Primary catchment area live nearer to the school. It is highly likely that if this closure goes ahead, that children in the Lowfield area would not get a place at their catchment secondary school. Is this another attempt to close Lowfield School by the back door?

You, the council propose that Sharrow Primary children feed into three separate secondary schools, King Ecgbert, High Storrs and King Edward, thereby separating all of the children. The Sharrow children live further away from those three schools than any other feeder school, apart from Lowfield and would be the first to miss out on places in the case of over-subscription. Again, those children who attend current feeder schools or have siblings at those schools who don't live in the catchment area would be unlikely to get a place.

Not only is the council going to cause major disruption, trauma and upset for the children currently at Abbeydale Grange, but you will also cause major disruption in many other secondary schools and primary schools in years to come.

Stop this talk of closure, rebuild the school with the money that is available and create a high quality, community school for children for years to come. This is exactly what was recommended by the Advisory Group following the review of the school earlier this year.

I am writing in response to the proposed re-distribution of pupils from Abbeydale Grange School to King Ecgberts in Dore.

xlvi

I understand that a new housing estate is proposed for the land below the Dore Junior School, as part of the redevelopment scheme recently undertaken for King Ecgberts School. Although this development may have stalled due to the present economic climate, it will eventually be built bringing with it new families and children with a genuine right to be educated at the local school. We also have pupils in Totley who filter through Totley All Saints School who are struggling to obtain places at King Ecgberts as they are not in the catchment area, which is almost farcical.

With the relocation of pupils from Abbeydale Grange, a large influx of new residents around the school, and therefore more pupils looking for places at both King Ecgberts and Dore Primary how much more pressure can both the schools and residents of Dore be expected to take?

There is no doubt that there are schools that are closer and more able to accept the Abbeydale Grange pupils. King Ecgberts already has a lower proportion of more able (L5 pupils) and this disparity is also shown in the fact that exam results are presently better at Silverdale because of the number of lower prior attainment students being filtered to King Ecgberts from around the city.

In essence the catchment areas need to be reassessed to enable King Ecgberts to have a fair allocation of mixed ability pupils filtering from its locality. The fact that we presently take the majority of Abbeydale and Sharrow pupils is both unfair and disproportionate and needs urgent redress.

Two schools cannot be expected to take the total pupil redistribution from Abbeydale Grange. If King Ecgberts is expected to take pupils from the school this should be offset by the reallocation of the Abbeydale and Sharrow pupil population to King Edwards and High Storrs, and the integration of pupils from Totley into the King Ecgberts catchment area.

This proposal is ill thought out, and will have grave consequences for the educational standards and attainment of pupils at King Ecgberts School. Surely the point of this exercise is to prevent the low standards and attainment at Abbeydale Grange impacting on another city educational institution. This move will almost guarantee that King Ecgberts will struggle to maintain its present standards over coming years, and will almost certainly see these standards slip. This will not be a reflection of its teaching or service staff, but on a council who did nothing to prevent the situation from occurring in the first place.

Think before you make decisions that will impact the next generation of our children. The decision you make will effect the lives of many people in this community.

I am writing to you regarding the proposed closure of Abbeydale School and to urge you to support the schools future, not to allow it to close. I have had four boys who have all been at the school and an association over 11 years that has proved to me time and again what a special and remarkable school it is.

I believe as do many others that Abbeydale Grange far from being a school that should be facing closure is one that should be used as an example of good practice. The staff know and value pupils as individuals and provide a safe and supportive environment for students particularly those who have already been rejected by the education system or who have suffered traumatic and difficult experiences before and since arriving in this country.

I know and have long experience of the dedication and commitment of the staff and their willingness to go the extra mile for students. I know that my own son who has struggled at school over the years would not have achieved the GCSE's he recently did without that support and because he was in a small school where he was known and cared for through some very difficult times.

xlvii The school is an International community that helps young people to learn from and support each other, celebrates the diversity and builds on the opportunities that this cultural mix gives for a broad and holistic education.

I do not believe that the school has been given a fair chance to build on the improvements that it is making which have been acknowledged by OFSTED and are clear to see or has had the recognition it deserves for the progression that students at the school achieve.

The school has not been given time to explore options that could give it a sustainable future such as a co-operative trust, a soft federation with another school or college and the possibility of developing post 16 education on site or forging links with an established school or college that does provide this. We have had two options thrown at us - one to find a hard federation partner (almost guaranteed to fail) and the other, closure. At no time have we been given options that could take the school forward and in particular have been denied the allocated building schools for the future funding which could have made a significant impact on the future of the school and parental preference for Abbeydale Grange.

The promises to parents of knowing where their children will be going to school in the event of closure and of parental preference in where they go it appears cannot be kept. There is no clarity on this matter, schools in the south west of the city who are being directed to take on extra pupils do not have the capacity and it seems do not want to expand further. Our children’s education cannot be improved by sending them to much larger classes or their well being maintained by separating them from their friends, removing them from where they are happy and settled to be bussed to wherever they end up going unable to walk or cycle to school as many of them currently do. Lack of parental preference has been cited as one of the factors that have led to consideration for closure. I feel very strongly and know from experience that the council has allowed this to perpetuate over many years. There has been no public support from the council for the school, no attempt to change the attitudes and assumptions about the school, many based on rumour and supposition and often racist in origin and it is shameful that this has been neglected for so long. The school has missed out time and again on opportunities that could have changed the pattern of parental choice and more recently other local schools have been encouraged to cream off potential Abbeydale students by increasing capacity in already overcrowded schools.

I feel that the whole process that began earlier this year when the future of the school was being considered has been designed to meet the desired outcome of closure. The consultation has been anything but a consultation, more an exercise in telling us how the process to closure will take effect and I know that there is a lot of anger and ill feeling about this.

Abbeydale Grange should be given a future and I believe that the impact of closing it would be far reaching. There is much support for the school from the local community and across the city. Closing it would be a backward step at a time when we should be doing all we can to promote community cohesion.

I urge you to look again at ways to work with the school and community to build on its success and strengths and not to be responsible for demolishing a truly valuable asset to education in the city.

At present the mix of pupils from different backgrounds, areas, feeder schools and attainment at King Ecgberts is excellent and in balance. All pupils from all areas and at all levels benefit, learn from each other and enjoy their education.

Two major points I would like to mention are a) why we (the parents & carers) have been given so little time to consider and comment on this proposal and b) why the balance of catchment areas/feeder schools is so unbalanced towards King Ecgberts.

xlviii

How can this distribution of AGS pupils possibly be fair?

Am I correct in thinking that a child that lives in Totley and goes to a Totley primary school (but has no sibling at KES) has an equal chance of getting a place At KES as a child from Abbeydale/Sharrow and therefore may not actually get a place if it is over-subscribed (as it always is) even though they live ½ mile from the school?

Why can’t KES keep Carterknowle as a feeder school? Why can’t Silverdale equally share the intake from Abbeydale? If KES under the proposal take Abbeydale then surely another school should take Sharrow? Under the current proposal KES will take the majority of Abbeydale Grange pupils.

Where is the plan for Silverdale to take any child from one of the areas of socio-economic deprivation?

A couple of decades ago Abbeydale Grange was a fairly good school and now it is going to be shut down. With the current proposals in mind I fear that in years to come people within the local area will choose not to send their children to King Ecgbert School and therefore we get to the same point we are at with Abbeydale Grange School – CLOSURE.

The thoughts of my letter are shared by everyone I know and if we had been given more time to respond you would be snowed under with letters with roughly the same content (perhaps that is what you are trying to avoid?)

I would appreciate a response to this letter and for it to be given fair consideration.

I write with much concern about the proposed re-disribution of the catchment area of Abbeydale Grange School following the proposed closure of the school.

I am amazed that the proposals suggest that all the children from Sharrow/Abbeydale should all go to King Ecgberts School in Dore. The social and ethnic mix at the school at present is excellent and the results reflect this. However I feel this proposal would have detrimental effects on all pupils concerned.

Why are Silverdale and High Stores School not considered suitable to take some of the children from Sharrow/Abbeydale thus promoting a more inclusive diverse ethnic policy in those schools, as is the case currently at kingEcgberts.

Also, I am concerned about King Ecgberts School being oversubscribed in the future with these proposals. My daughter is due to go to KES in September 2011 and as the eldest does not have a sibling at the school. We only live 1 mile from the school in Totley but would only have an equal chance of getting a place as a child from Sharrow/Abbeydale – ludicrous.

My final point is why have the parents been given so little time to comment on this proposal? This does not seem a fair procedure at all and insufficient time has been given for the parents to respond. All the parents I speak to are of the same opinion and I would hope that you would reconsider the proposals.

I am very concerned regarding the proposed closure of Abbeydale Grange and would like to make the following points:

xlix The disruption to the children currently studying at Abbeydale Grange will be huge and very stressful for them. I have read several letters and heard many discussions from parents and pupils who love their school and are proud to be there.

The dispersion of the children to other local oversubscribed schools is a terrible idea. My 2 children are currently at Silverdale in Y7 and Y9. The Y7 class already has 33 in it do you intend to increase this further?

Why is Notre Dame school not being included - surely that would be a nice 'Christian' thing for them to do.

Having children travel further afield is not a very 'green' policy as it will involve more buses or parents on the school run.

Sheffield Education is not exactly anywhere near the top of any league table, by overcrowding successful schools you run the risk of bringing them down and plunging Sheffield even further down the achievement scale. There is only so far you can dilute a good school before it becomes a failing school.

We have experience of the private school sector and they achieve their results not by any better standard of teaching (we have in fact found the teaching at Silverdale to be superior) but purely on the smaller class sizes.

The closure will not benefit anyone except maybe the council bank balance when they sell of the land for expensive housing, sorry to be so cynical but the 'Every Child Matters' mantra is just words.

I would like to make it clear that I am totally opposed to the closure of Abbeydale Grange School and as a parent of two children attending Sharrow School am really concerned that this short sighted decision will have a detrimental affect not only on their education but also on their long standing relationships with their peers now, and their social experience within the community that at present plays a vital role in their upbringing.

There has been no answer to the question many parents have put, as to how closing this school and sending children out to communities beyond their own, to what are already and will be in the future, schools hugely overcapacity - how this is going to improve our childrens education?

• Misinformation regarding where our children will be attending if AGS closes and places available?

A parent appealing for her child to attend High Storrs in September, received a letter dismissing her appeal on the grounds that ‘compliance with your preference would prejudice the provision of efficient education or the efficient use of resources.’

Having regard to the statement of the Authority and the supporting information from the school , they took into account that: ’the published admission number for the school for Year 7 is 240 and that while legally this is the minimum number of children that can be admitted in each year it is also considered by the Local Authority and the school to be the maximum figure that the school can cater for without prejudice to efficient education and use of resources.’

They also go on to state that for the whole of the school, High Storrs has a capacity of 1577, with the total number of pupils on roll being 1643 (already over capacity), measured by the Department for Children, Schools and Families formula. The school is specifically designed for year groups of 226, and the corridors, staircases, classroom sizes and dining hall were all designed to accommodate that number of pupils.

l

Then they add ‘ the panel took into account the fact that the school does not have sufficient room availability/timetabling flexibility to increase the number of form groups/classes and thus that the only way of accommodating additional children would be to increase class sizes putting increasing pressure on teaching staff. The school cannot currently accommodate its pupils for examinations and many of these are being held off site at the Bannerdale Centre. This situation will only get worse later in the year when the indoor PE space is demolished.’

There is building work going on at High Storrs at present but it is clear from the panels decision and discussions with the head of High Storrs that once the work has been completed the capacity of the school will remain at 1577 based on the national formula. The building work is to accommodate the over capacity that they have now. It is not for facilitating the proposed closure of AGS.

Again the appeal panel state that ‘to admit additional pupils would significantly prejudice efficient education and the efficient use of resources. They were particularly concerned about: • General health and safety in and around the school building, particularly given the ongoing building work. • The increased pressure on staff and students of the limited space, temporary classrooms and off-site provision.

On phoning the other South West schools you are saying will have places for our children if Abbeydale Grange closes, they are all saying the same as the panel above - there is no more room for more children (King Ecgberts already has a heavy waiting list and is over-capacity itself).

So again I ask how your decision to close AGS is going to improve the education and general social welfare of mine and other children in this area? Sending our children into schools with poor facilities and class sizes of 35-40 is not an improvement.

Taking figures from the Sheffield Health Authority data at September 2008 (which are far more accurate then the figures in the consultation document) it is clear that the decision is very short sighted in that in the next ten years we are going to have a huge shortfall of places for children in the South West. • For the Y6 children due to take up places within the South West next September there will be 6 who cannot attend a school in their catchment • For the Y2’s due to take up places within the South West in 2014 (in 5 years time) there will be 26 who cannot attend a school in their catchment • For those now accessing nursery care this year, and who will be due to take up places within the South West in 2019 (in 10 years time) there will be 99 who cannot attend a school in their catchement area.

This does not take into account numbers moving in to the catchment area, and also does not factor in the fact that, for example, in Dore (in fact right next door to the primary school, it is likely that there will be new homes being built on the spare land there which will mean more numbers of families wanting catchment places to the South West secondary schools.

Once you sell off this land there is no going back and rebuilding of another school in this area on such a green area to accommodate the years ahead and needs of families in this area, so to close Abbeydale Grange is likely to be at the detriment of future generations of children this side of the city, and not just those attending now.

I am appalled that again when parents have asked at the consultation meeting exactly how many places there are and in which schools they can and will accommodate the children coming from AGS, the figures have not been produced and it has even been admitted that they do not know as

li yet. Can a positive decision be made without looking at the true figures and schools where these children are going to end up, or is it that our children will end up being sent all around the city, where spare places can be found?

You also have still not made provision for the Intergrated Resource Unit presently at Abbeydale Grange School so I would also like to question this and whether other equality and social care has been put in place in the schools supposedly providing places for those now attending AGS, as I do not believe this has happened and yet the LEA and Councillors seem confident that this is nonetheless the best decision for the future of our childrens education? It begs the question of you as to whether ‘every child does matter’?

• Why are you closing Abbeydale Grange School?

You keep saying that Abbeydale Grange results are the worst in the city, but on looking at other schools such as Parkwood and Park (both Academy schools interestingly enough) this is just not true. Park has been in special measure for 3 years now but faces no threat of closure from you, and yet Abbeydale Grange has only been in special measures for a few months and is already improving.

In fact AGS has:- • already made improvements from its Ofsted report at the beginning of the year • Improved in two council inspections (one at the beginning of October) • Made better improvements than Park in its GCSE results (one of best improvements in the City), and there are confident predictions that the GCSE results next year will be above the national 'floor targets' .

It seems crazy to me to take away a local secondary school from this area which will scatter our children away from their community and cause more travel and congestion around the city. You are asking my children to travel 4-5 miles every morning and 4-5miles every afternoon (inevitably this will now either be by car or bus) back and forth to school, where they could be walking to AGS with friends that live in their community.

Sharrow Catchment Decision?

I do not agree with my children having to travel to High Storrs or King Edwards if you close Abbeydale Grange school (you are talking about there being three catchment schools for Sharrow). I would want one catchment school and for that to be King Ecgberts (even though this is still too far away and not in their community), given that there is one bus that can take them up there and back. At present most children from this area that attend High Storrs or King Ecgbert do so by car, which is a problem environmentally and health wise. We also work and so this would add on extra time to our journeys to work (currently I walk to work but in this situation would have to use the car) .

The implications for the Sharrow children of this proposed closure is likely to be worse than for the other feeder schools. What you are suggesting is that the other feeder schools will feed into one secondary school each, but Sharrow will feed into three secondaries, meaning that the children will all be split up from one another , unlike the other feeder schools. Sharrow School children will be the first to miss out on a place as a first choice as they live further away from King Ecgberts, High Storrs and King Edwards than any children from the other feeder schools. As pupil numbers rise in the future, or any of the secondaries become faced with further over subscription for whatever reason (i.e. more pupils in the catchment) this has massive implications for our children as this means the choices are taken away form this group and they will be sent to other schools across the city who have places.

I am also guessing that the Lowfield children will be pushed out of King Ecgberts by Abbeydale primary feeding into it as they live nearer and house prices in Nether Edge will rise and more

lii families move to the area so that they will get their children into King Ecgberts, meaning less places for Lowfield School. Is this really an effective way to manage our children’s education?

This decision to clos e has huge implications for the Sharrow community and means that for Sharrow children they are more likely to be separated and scattered between three schools (if they are lucky to get in) and from their friends and neighbours, thus stopping their after school friendships from developing within the community that they live in (this is already happening in this area and effectively is why teenagers are not seen much within the community). Keeping AGS open and working to improve it surely is a chance to reverse this move of our children being scattered around the city.

It also does not help Sharrow School to form meaningful and effective relationships with one secondary school – it is very difficult to do this with three catchment schools.

The children’s ability to attend after school activities within the school is limited, given the amount of travel (and lateness of travel) they will have to do.

I would like you to clearly state and confirm that at no time now or in the future will the children within the catchment area that would have been AGS be sent to Newfield School? It would be unjust of you to put forward the argument to close AGS due to it, as you say, being a failing school and then simply place our children in another failing school but miles away from their friends and the community they live in.

• An alternative to closure of Abbeydale Grange School

As has been said in most, if not all of the consultation meetings, there is a clear objection from many communities with Sharrow and the surrounding area on your proposal to close Abbeydale Grange school. There is no real evidence to show that this is going to be an effective way to improve our childrens education but is more likely to make it worse. It is obvious that by closing AGS:- · the outlining secondary schools will effectively have to increase their class sizes from 30 to 35 and above, · there will be increase d travelling time to our childrens day just to get to and from schools, · there will be an increase pressure on transport and peaktime travel in the South West, adding to an already congested road system, · the community will lose out massively in terms of the scattering of our children into other communities which will have a detrimental effect on an already vulnerable community.

Although it is not just the building that will improve AGS, given that the £14.5 million is actually allocated to it and is for our children’s education, shouldn’t we have a say in how and where that money should be spent? As you say in your consulation document’ good buildings are not the most important factor in raising attainment’, but as Sharrow school has shown it does go a long way in creating a better working environment, giving the teachers a positive space to nurture the children, and gives pupils pride and confidence in belonging and feeling positive about who they are and what they can achieve. This has a massive effect on their educational abilities and should not be dismissed so quickly. Why else has New Build been used so positively across other city schools in your publicity? And also talking about the negative disruption is a bit of a red herring, as new builds seem to have been achieved successfully for other schools in Sheffield. Why not Abbeydale Grange School?

Sharrow School is a good example of how a new build and support from the leadership, governors, LEA members, and the community can all go a long way to achieving a greater educational experience and goals for our children.

liii I would like to see, therefore, the school being kept open, and the £14.5 million actually being kept within our community and going to support our children’s education through a new build, through real and effective support from the LEA and through creating better links with the feeder schools and the broad community within its surroundings.

th I would like to see a 6 form facility being developed (this is a major factor why parents have historically sent their children to other schools).

As Park and Parkwood have shown, looking to Academy status does not automatically improve a school. There is no reason why with the financial and constructive support form the LA, Abbeydale Grange cannot continue to improve as it has already done in such a short time, and the migration of parents to other schools be reversed. What this does mean is the LEA and LA changing its attitude towards the school, stopping spreading such negative messages through the media and start taking a real responsibility towards caring for the children in this community and their education.

There has been overwhelming support to keeping the school open from the start - from the initial consultation groups to this consultation and this has extended to support from the Somali community, from the Bangladeshi community, from the Karen community as well as from the Imam of Wolseley Road Mosque to name a few. Isn’t this something to work with to achieve success for AGS

Surely from your consultation meetings and the responses and concerns from the different communities you cannot continue to confidently go down the road of closure. You may well gain financially from the money from the sale of the land, but is it right to do this at the expense of the children of the South West’s education?

Dear Councillors I have recently spent a distressing afternoon with the mother of a child who has just moved into a secondary school. The school is huge and the child -who is emotionally vulnerable -is not coping. She is unhappy and very stressed. The mother feels that Abbeydale Grange would have been the right school for her because of it's size and becuse of the incredible ethos it has. However she had felt that she dare not take the risk of sending her child to a school that might be closing-it would be too much change and upset. This has been a dilemma for parents.

The fact that there is a bracket of children who do not thrive in the larger more academically driven schools in Sheffield seems to be extremely pertinent.

I have had three children attending Abbeydale.

We moved to Sheffield when the first child was already in year 7. She had no hesitation that Abbeydale was the place for her and settled in effortlessly. Interestingly her friendship group included a half dozen children who had tried other schools but been unhappy and moved to Abbeydale where they felt safe and of worth. At Abbeydale they prospered well and now all these children are at universities. Why did this children not respond to the other schools? Mainly because they were too big and less able to nurture any children who were slightly outside of the box.

My next child attended a primary school that fed into one of the bigger S.W. Sheffield schools but rejected it for Abbeydale where he had no friends. This was not a problem. Again he did very well and went on to be successful in his A'levels. He too will be going to university after a Gap Year. Both children have often said that Abbeydale was less of a school and more of a life experience that they would not have wanted to miss. My third child has special needs. He was originally at a mainstream primary school but had a break down. Subsequently he attended Shirle Hill Hospital School for a year followed by a special

liv residential school followed by the Integrated Resource at King Ecgbert's. None of these placements were successful. At the end of year 8 he started at Abbeydale and has never looked back. Here he has been given the flexibility, understanding and discreet support that he has always needed. The diversity of students has enabled him to feel less exposed and more relaxed. He is positive and happy about school. This is a huge success as for many years he was a tormented school refuser.

I tell you these things in order to reinforce the point that Abbeydale is a school that can meet the needs of certain children in a way that no other school can. My concern is that it will be closed and that in a few years time you will become aware that there is a group of children who are not managing school/are disruptive and aggressive/excluded...... It will be at this point that you will sorely regret not having the expertise and culture of Abbeydale. You may even try to recreate it's uniqueness in other schools or open a new school. But it will not be possible to do so. The essence of Abbeydale is composed of many factors developed over many many years.

My plea is this. Don't throw away this jewel of a school. Once it has gone it has gone and all the countless children who would not have 'fitted in' anywhere else will be left abandoned and at sea. You will be left with with the problem of not having being able to meet their needs because there is no other school like Abbeydale.

We are a lucky family in that our third child is in Year 11 and will not be affected by a school closure. Had he been younger and had to face the transfer to another school I am totally convinced that his mental health would have plummeted and he would be forced into school refusing again. I know that we are not alone with this and that closure will have harsh consequences. I think of it like this. Imagine that there was a hospital where not many people used the eye department. Despite the fact that there was no other eye department in the city it was decided that it was not cost effective and must be closed...... A few years later one of the mangers had a child-with sight problems. He had no choice but to move to another city!!!!!

I am a parent with 2 children at King Ecgbert School. I would strongly oppose the closure of Abbeydale Grange School and the proposal to transfer significant numbers of the children into King Ecgberts. King Ecgberts is currently in a very unstable managerial position with the Head suspended because of allegations regarding his behaviour. I feel to place additional pressure on the school at what is a difficult time for the school would have an adverse impact on the quality of education provided to the existing students. Furthermore if the catchment rules are to change because of the closure of Abbeydale Grange and having discussed the situation with other local parents it seems very likely that large numbers of parents from Dore and Totley would pull their children out of King Ecgberts moving them into private schools and this is certainly something that we would have to consider. This would seriously compromise the viability of a comprehensive school system in the South West of the city and the continuing success of King Ecgberts.

We are writing response to you letter of 6 October 2009 concerning Abbeydale Grange. We are parents of 2 boys at King Ecgberts School in year 11 and final year of sixth form. We are aware from the press that the future of the school is under review. However, we are concerned that this letter was dated 6 October but have only until 23 October in which to make a reply. This is a very short timescale especially when the consultation on AG has been going on much longer.

Your letter was helpful in the sense that it pointed us to the information on the council website but it is extremely difficult to read and interpret this it in a well ordered manner.

lv However, we our setting out our concerns below.

1 We are concerned that all the consultation and focus group work has been centred around AG and no thought has been given to the other schools who may be affected by the closure.

2 Four highly regarded schools have been approached to act as federation partners. They have all rejected this and that must be a strong indication of their concerns.

3 There are numerous focus group reports authored by a Mandy Bryce but there is no indication as to her background in terms of her experience or qualification and whether she is likely to have any personal bias in favour of the school.

4 It is clear that that the school has a very low level of academic achievement at GCSE level and the various documents on the website make it clear that a major contributory factor is the pupil intake being largely ethnic on top of which more than half do not join the school roll in September of the academic year. It is not clear how many also leave during the academic year.

5 The report seems to suggest that the low level of academic achievement will be solved by sending the children to other schools. There is no evidence is given to support this and given the short timescale to achieve the target of 30% A*-C GCSE passes by 2011 that certainly will not happen by relocating the pupils to other schools. All that will happen is that the existing problems at AG will be transferred and more than likely with disruption to the existing school pupils and probable detrimental effect on some of those pupils’ academic achievements.

6 The report on AG makes reference to small class sizes and it is well known that small class sizes are much more conducive to learning. The pupils relocated from AG will end up in much bigger classes. Given the difficulties a lot of the AG pupils face, surely they will suffer as a result.

The report also makes reference to personalised learning and a high level of SEN. Clearly it makes more sense to provide this resource in one school rather than over 3 or 4 schools.

The Ofsted report was quite critical of AG and this conflicts with the schools own belief of its achievements.

The reports also go on at length about other peoples’ perception of the school, particularly those who chose not to send their children to AG. We accept that perception is a problem and is not always the true picture, but it must be stated that these perception usually arise because of some underlying reason and therefore there will be an element of truth to it.

For example, the report states that gang culture within the school is a myth. It is not and nearly every school has this issue although the extent of it will vary. We know for a fact that that there is a strong gang culture amongst a minority of ethnic children at King Ecgberts because we have witnessed this and police have been involved in incidents over the years. King Ecgberts have dealt with these incidents very well but they can only deal with what they know about as a lot of it goes unreported. More ethnic pupils at the school will only worsen the problem as they have a strong culture of ‘looking after their own’.

We accept that doing nothing with AG is not an option. However, given all the problems that it faces with ethnic children, migrants (arriving and leaving), English not being first language and so on, surely it would make more sense to resource the school properly so that these problems can be dealt with in one school rather than over 3 ,4 or 5 schools. This has to be a more efficient use of resources and giving pupils with a difficult background, for whatever reason, the best

lvi opportunity to receive an education, leave school with decent academic qualifications and equip them for the challenges they will face later in life.

We trust these comments will be taken into consideration.

We oppose the closure of Abbeydale Grange secondary school in the southwest area of Sheffield, this putting all of our children in larger classes to their detriment of their future . Some of the issues causing concern relate to being parents of children whom we believe will be directly affected by the proposed changes at King Ecgbert school, and some relate to the welfare of all the children involved. From some of the information circulated by the “FLAGS” team we believe that Abbeydale Grange was first put into “special measures” in March 2009. Therefore under the National Challenge scheme it would normally be entitled to a 2-year period in which to show significant improvement (such as other schools in a similar position have been able to). Under the interim head we believe there has been some improvement of GSCE grades this summer, and a recent Ofstead report concluded that the school is making satisfactory progress during the six months it was given to do so. Under the circumstances, it would seem appropriate to assess the school over the 2-year time frame, and invest in both the building structure and staffing. We believe Abbeydale Grange was also asked to join in federation with another Sheffield school and was given only 4 weeks to do so. Speaking to parental governors from some of other local schools involved we believe the usual processes were not followed. Other schools had given their replies within 24 hors without a proper Governor’s meeting to discuss the proposal. Why were the agreed process not followed in the case of Abbeydale Grange? How have the ”new” catchment areas been determined? Looking at the proposed changes (from a letter recently received from Dore Primary) for the feeder primary schools into the senior schools, it is noticeable that there appear to be no changes to those of Silverdale but there is an increase to those of King Ecgbert, High Storrs and King Edwards VII. We hope that siblings will automatically allocated a place in the same senior school at parental request. The increase in class sizes will be to the detriment of the teaching available to all our children involved. Of the 14 million funding allocated to Abbeydale Grange will this be distributed to funding the affected schools increasing the staff budget pro rata to accommodate new pupils/classes? Will it make a significant difference to the actual teaching of the children or will it be swallowed up in the budgets of recent new developments at High Storrs, King Ecgbert and Silverdale? The senior schools completing their new builds recently are already subscribed to the level of pupils they were designed to accommodate. Adding additional number of students will have an impact not only on teaching facilities but the catering, sports and language facilities, and locker space available for safe storage of student’s personal belongings. The extra furniture in the classrooms to seat the increased number of pupils in each class also raises health and safety issues of movement around the class both for the teachers and pupils on both a daily basis, and in the event of emergency. Supervision in break /lunch times, and pastoral supervision will be under strain with the larger number of students to deal with. Many of the schools that will be affected already have applications in the planning department at present for further residential building, one of which is actually on the old King Ecgbert site, with other areas in Totley, Dore, High Storrs and Ringinglow Road etc. How will the council and LEA accommodate further new families with school age children in the already well over-subscribed local schools, especially if they go ahead with the Abbeydale Grange closure? At present King Ecgbert also has a good reputation for accommodating children with special needs in line with local/national policies. With the proposed increase in student numbers, if the staffing levels and facilities do not proportionally increase this will put these children’s specific educational and specialised needs, and supervision/safety greatly at risk. This in turn will put their possible success in mainstream schools under threat and have a significant effect on the ability of the over subscribed specialist schools in the area. We would like to think since we live within the catchment area of King Ecgbert School, our children will be entitled to a place there. We hope they will be able to attend a school that continues to have a good reputation and does not start to fail any children because the class

lvii sizes have increased to a number that diminishes the ability of the teachers to be able to teach effectively and safely. We appreciate that you have taken the time to read our opposition and concerns regarding the proposed closure. We sincerely hope that those involved in the decision regarding the future of Abbeydale Grange School will look to the long-term investment of our children’s futures, and not just short-term financial savings of a school closure and selling-off the site.

I have a child in Year 7 at Abbeydale Grange School and would like these comments to be considered as part of the consultation.

Just over a year ago, when we were considering our choice of secondary school, I was very sceptical about Abbeydale Grange. I had seen the league tables and heard many of the stories that circulate about the school. To be frank, I expected to choose High Storrs for our child. But the open evening at Abbeydale Grange made me think again. We met students who were confident, sparky and helpful; teachers who were attentive and enthusiastic. Our child liked the school instantly. We arranged for him to spend more time there (nothing was too much trouble) and he loved it. I also spoke to parents who believed passionately in the school and who praised the teachers to the skies. During the same period, we went to open evenings at two other, so-called more successful schools where hardly anyone spoke to us. The contrast couldn't have been more marked.

My child is now in Year 7 at Abbeydale Grange and very happy there. He settled in immediately, he enjoys the work and likes the small class sizes. He says that it's friendly and that, because it's a small school, everyone knows each other. He's able child and his teachers are challenging him to do as well as he can and they communicate with us about how he's doing - already we have had several postcards. Despite all the turmoil they are getting on with the job of teaching. I can't speak too highly of them. What's more my child is mixing with children of all races; he's learning that the world isn't full of white people.

Why close an improving school? The last Ofsted monitoring report was satisfactory. GCSE results are improving, (admittedly from a low base) and the head predicts that this will continue. I understand that the recent council inspection also reported an improvement. There are other schools in Special Measures and in the National Challenge who have taken longer than Abbeydale Grange to show improvement, yet they have not been singled out for closure. Bizarrely, some of them could even end up taking on Abbeydale Grange pupils. Where is the logic in this?

If you close Abbeydale Grange my child will either be sent to a big school which I don't think will suit him nearly as well, or he'll have to travel to a school across the city. He'll be separated from his friends. The proposal to disperse the children to a number of schools (up to 10 per school) is appalling. It puts administrative convenience above the needs and wishes of the children. I thought Sheffield CYPD believed that every child mattered?

If you close Abbeydale Grange then the surrounding schools, which are already large and overcrowded will become more so. I know parents who appealed for places at High Storrs and King Ecgbert and who were specifically told that these schools could not cope with any more pupils. Yet, if Abbeydale Grange did close they would be asked to take on more. What effect would this have on their standards? What do the schools themselves think of this? There are more than enough large schools in Sheffield; we need a variety, large and small, for our children.

If you close Abbeydale Grange, some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the city will lose their local school. How is this remotely defensible?

If you close Abbeydale Grange where will you send newly arrived children? asylum seekers? children who have been expelled from other schools? children in the integrated resource unit?

lviii What will happen to these highly vulnerable children? Abbeydale Grange has, for some years now, welcomed children; who, let's be frank, were unwanted by other schools; they helped out the LEA time and time again. Yes, it has had an effect on standards and on local parental perceptions of the school but, the LEA shares responsibility for this.

At the start of the process, we were told that we would receive 'detailed information about which schools will be offering places' in the event of closure. Yet, despite repeated requests, this information has been withheld. All we have been told is that all schools have been 'requested' to offer up to 10 places; we still do not know whether any schools have done so, or how many. I will send on separately, some other correspondance on this issue but I would like the review team to note that parents have been misled.

Of all the arguments for closing Abbeydale Grange, only one has, in my opinion. any credibility: I don't deny that not enough local parents choose this school for their children. Some of them are simply frightened off by malicious urban myths about the school. Many of these stories (not the parents) are racist (why has CYPD never spoken out about this?) . However my own 'journey' from sceptic to passionate advocate illustrates that opinions can be turned around. If you need other proposals, may I refer you to your own report, published this year, following the 'Have your say on Abbeydale Grange' review? This is a fair, balanced and positive report and it contains a number of constructive suggestions for tackling this very issue. I have yet to see any adequate explanation as to why this report was ignored.

Finally, my son would like to add this: 'I'm happy there and I just fit in really well. The school shouldn't close and it's a good school.'

Please do not close Abbeydale Grange School. I am a parent with children who will feed into King Ecgberts Secondary School and I am also a teacher. I oppose the closure for the following reasons:

1. The community currently served by Abbeydale Grange School deserve to have an excellent local school. The city council needs to invest time and effort in an area where parents pay the same rate of council tax and income tax as elsewhere in Sheffield. It is not acceptable that, in future, any child living within the current catchment area will have to travel out of catchment to school. This will be a particular burden for poorer families.

2, Many other City Councils are able to provide good education in areas facing greater problems than this catchment area. It is a poor reflection on the Local Education Authority if this school cannot be turned around. To do the present pupils justice, action needs to be taken swiftly to improve this school at once. Pupil numbers will then increase.

3. The proposal to reallocate feeder schools to Silverdale, High Storrs and King Ecgbert are not practical. These schools are full. Class sizes have an impact on children's learning and with any increase in numbers, standards at these Secondary schools are likely to drop. This will not help Sheffield's pupils or the performance of Sheffield Local Education Authority.

I write to object to the proposed closure.

The consultation is flawed in that only options to close the school have been adequately explored. Changes to catchment schools that would immediately see an improvement in numbers and performance of the school have not been considered.

No detailed investment plans have been included.

lix The consultation does not recognise that AGS is a school of choice for many families.

The proposed closure reduces choice, will permanently lose a school in walking and cycling distance of the city centre.

AGS is being judged narrowly and its recent poor performance used as a pretext to closure. It is no worse than many other schools in Sheffield none of which face closure.

There is mandate for the council to close this school.

It is short term decision with permanent long term damage to the education provision in our city.

I have just received a letter re: what would happen if Abbeydale was closed. I think that the proposals are well thought out with regards to particular thought to transport links and feeder schools. In my opinion I feel that you have obviously taken everything into account and should the school have to close then these are the best solutions. If the school could stay open to help children that do not have English as their first language or are asylum seekers that would be good. I also feel that this would benefit these children and those of the proposed schools that would then not have to find spaces for them. Whilst I appreciate this may not be seen as a "PC" idea in an ideal world, I would like to point out that we do not live in an ideal world and some of the children at Abbeydale certainly do not live in this ideal PC world. These children would benefit from extra support (as would Sheffield as a whole). Children deserve the best start in life and that it is important to remember that not all children are not University or Academia standard, something the Government fails to see!

with regard to your letter asking for my comments about the possible closure of Abbeydale Grange, I would like to make the following points:

It is difficult to give an informed view, because I haven't been given the relevant information. I would have liked to know how many children are at the school, in each year, class sizes, subjects available, specialist teachers available etc.I would also have liked to have known the numbers of children currently at the school who would be moved to each of the other secondary schools, as this will affect both the Abbeydale pupils and the children at schools they will be joining. I'm also not sure if the problem is one of just falling numbers or if it is financial or both?

The views of children and their parents at the school must be heard and taken proper account of. I believe that many are in favour of keeping the school open, as far as I can tell from a few letters I have seen in the local papers. I believe it is a good place for children with special needs- what will happen if these current arrangements cannot be kept up in a new school? What about subjects which are currently offered there, but which may not be on offer at the alternative school provided? Whatever happened to parent/pupil choice?

As a parent of two children at Silverdale school, I would also be concerned that there would be an influx of pupils into their classes, pushing the class numbers up to an intolerable level. If funding would follow the displaced children, Silverdale may not be at a disadvantage financially, but I doubt there would be enough children for a whole new class, meaning that class sizes would have to increase. If I had some idea of numbers involved, I would be better able to see the implications.

Have the heads of the other secondary schools been approached to ask their opinions if Abbeydale were to close? I would assume so- but what happens if they object- what about their plans/ resources/ timetables/ space issues? Do you go ahead anyway?

lx I think it is a great shame that Abbeydale Grange is threatened with closure. I went to the sixth form there and it was a good school. I know that it has been struggling for a long time and has had a lot of money spent on it- what went wrong? I know the loss of the sixth form must have been a great blow, but what else? Does anyone know? Is there another way forward apart from closure? Is it possible, for example, to use it for adult education during the daytime as well as for children? - I currently attend Hillsborough College and know that adults and children can happily co-exist, learning together on the same site.It would be much more convenient for me if I could have gone to Abbeydale instead. Or what about merging one or two of the feeder schools onto the same site as Abbeydale, which must save on building upkeep/ resources etc? There must be lots of ways to re-invigorate the school by thinking of alternatives to the obvious one of closure. It should also be remembered that school roles will be rising in the future, and the city will need all the school places it can get. I do fervently hope that this is not a cynical attempt by the council to sell off the land for housing to increase the money in its coffers (just thinking of Ringinglow fire station).

I think at the very least, all the affected parties - pupils, parents ,headteachers and teachers - need to be given all the information about this issue- what the closure plans would mean for each school and what has actually been discussed and what alternatives have been thought of, even if they have been rejected. That way, the whole issue would be open to some debate. I would like to see a meeting to which we are all invited to discuss this. I certainly think closure in 2010 is far too early if all the options are considered properly.

I write with grave concern about the proposals in connection with the closure of Abbeydale Grange School and its impact on King Ecgbert School and those primary schools which currently feed into King Ecgbert.

I have two children at King Ecgbert and one child at Dore Primary.

We moved as a family to Sheffield in 2002 from Staffordshire and one of the primary reasons for chosing Dore was the potential for the children to walk easily and safely to school. It was also important that the children would have easy access to friends from school, outside of school hours. Educating our children privately was not an option financially and in fact against our natural instincts.

Since moving to Dore, we believe we have seen a firm improvement in the behaviour of children from King Ecgberts, and from the results achieved that the school is improving in terms of academic achievement as well. We have also noticed the slight decrease in numbers of children leaving Dore Primary at the end of Y6 for private schools and instead going to King Ecgbert.

We are of the firm belief that each and every child in this country , from whatever background, is entitled to the best education available. We are also supportive of the view that as Britain is a multicultural society, schools should be indicative of that fact.

We also understood that all secondary schools within Sheffield held a diverse catchment area to ensure that no school should become "elitist" in terms of socio-economic area or pupils' prior attainment.

We are however, of the understanding that King Ecgbert currently has about 37% of its pupils for whom prior attainment is below the national average,compared for example, to 17% of children at Silverdale. It would seem therefore that under the current proposals, King Ecgbert would carry a far higher percentage of children with a lower prior attainment than the other schools within the area. This would seem to fly in the face of logical thought. Unless a higher level of funding is also proposed to go with that increase in pupils, to fund extra assisting staff and teaching staff, it seems to us that in fact the children at King Ecgberts who have the ability to achieve, who

lxi understand discipline and respect at school will , in fact be denied their basic right of the best education available; and those children who need extra help in order that they might improve their own chance will also be denied that basic right. When even just one child disrupts a class the rest suffer - a teacher who has to spend a large percentage of time with a child who is disruptive through behaviour/learning issues/language issues cannot teach effectively those wishing/willing and able to learn the lesson of that day.

It seems a national call that all state schools should step UP to the bar set by private education but action like that proposed with the closure of Abbeydale Grange doesn't achieve any step up, all are dragged down by the lowest common denominator. ALL Schools within this area should contain an equal percentage of children from all backgrounds and academic achievement, or alternatively entrance criteria for all schools has to change. It would seem that Silverdale not only has a lower percentage of children with lower prior attainment, but also has a much higher percentage of children with a higher prior attainment. It would seem on the face of it that Silverdale is not carrying a fair proportion of the burden of children with a lower prior attainment, why is that? Children who live in the Dore and Totley areas of Dore Primary, Totley Primary and Totley All Saints have NO choice of secondary school but King Ecgberts and certainly none of them will have a chance of getting into Silverdale School. It cannot be right that pupils who currently attend Dore Primary, Totley Primary or Totley All Saints, but who don't quite live in the catchment area for King Ecgbert, will be deprived of a place that this year they would have likely got, and next year may not, because that place will have been given to a child who lives further away.

It also seems highly bizarre at a time when we as a nation are concerned with our carbon footprint, that it seems acceptable to bus children miles across the city to school, when in actual fact there are schools closer by that they could attend.

The proposal places an unequal burden on King Ecgbert in terms of pupils being drawn from areas of greater socio-economic deprivation and pupils with a lower prior attainment allocated places. The school already accepts children from Carterknowle, Abbeydale and Sharrow Primary Schools - the objection I have is not at all to pupils from those schools per se. It is the distribution of Abbeydale Grange catchment area which is of grave concern. Our understanding, in fact, is that Carterknowle is currently the 5th biggest feeder school into King Ecgbert after the catchment schools are taken into account and it seems incomprehensible that it should not feed directly into King Ecgbert as a matter of course.

If Abbeydale and Sharrow feed directly into King Ecgbert the intake at the school will be completely skewed, with a very high proportion of children having lower prior attainment at Primary, this is completely unfair. As I have said, Silverdale already has a higher proportion of higher attainment pupils and I understand that High Storrs is in the same position. Both High Storrs and Silverdale should take a more equal share of these more challenging catchments so that all the schools in the area are of a more equal status. It cannot be right in terms of equity and fairness that they do not; that one school within the locality bears a disproportionate burden compared to other schools. Why does the proposal not include other schools within the South West of the City - Meadowhead, Springs and Newfield. What proportion of the children could be eligible to go to All Saints and Notre Dame?

Our understanding of catchment areas within Sheffield has always been to provide multicultural diversity within each and every school in the City, but this proposal seems to be completely biased against King Ecgbert - which as far as we are led to believe already has a higher percentage of pupils whose prior attainment is lower than the average, than some other schools within the area. Why should Silverdale be allocated Dobcroft and no other? Is Silverdale a special case, and if so why?

As a final point, the fact that the proposal only came to our notice at the beginning of October with the proposed consultation period ending today - therefore less than three weeks in which to make

lxii any informed comments, is a disgrace. Our understanding is that Dobcroft School have had full consultation of the proposal, and there have been meetings with parents and Councillors. Why was that courtesy not extended to Dore, Totley and Totley All Saints? Where is the openness, transparency, fairness and equality in that? The fact that there is no openess or transparency as to the decision being made, and that it would seem King Ecgbert is once more expected to carry a much higher proportion of pupils from areas of greater socio-economic deprivation and lower prior attainment than other schools, particularly Silverdale, is very disturbing.

I would like confirmation that my concerns have been noted and what proposals are intended to address the inequalities that will arise if the allocation as intended goes ahead.

My wife & I object to the proposed closure of Abbeydale Grange School and reallocation of feeder Schools and ask that our objection is considered. Our view is that Abbeydale Grange is a successful school and should remain open. Our son attends King Ecgbert school. We object to the reallocation of pupils to King Ecgbert on the following points:

• King Ecgbert's resources, including teaching staff & building infrastructure, are already maximised and in some areas overstretched. • King Ecgbert school is already oversubscribed in terms of pupil number admissions. • King Ecgbert is a successful school but we feel additional pupil number admissions will severely jeopardise the school's ability to achieve successful results in future. • Additional pupil numbers will put undue and unacceptable strain on the resources & infrastructure of the surrounding locality to King Ecgbert school. • Unacceptable risk and disruption presented to existing residents of King Ecgbert's locality & King Ecgbert pupils from increased traffic volumes. • Increased anti sociable behaviour risk presented by increased pupil numbers to King Ecgbert's. This is already a serious existing concern to local residents & pupils. • On a personal level, the adverse affect on our son's education caused by increased class sizes and strain on teaching resources.

I write as a former parent of 3 children at Holt House/ Carter Knowle, who now all attend King Ecgbert, although I do bring my understanding as a Primary Headteacher.

I recognise the educational issues concerning the closure and broadly understand the rationale for closing Abbeydale Grange. My concerns about such closure is that ultimately it is about recognising defeat in being able to provide a good local secondary school for children who live along the Abbeydale corridor. When we made the decision to send our eldest child to King Ecgbert in 2004, we visited Abbeydale Grange, High Storrs and King Ecgbert. I was disappointed that we felt that our local school, about 5 -10 minutes walk, would not meet his needs as effectively as King Ecgbert has done, but have been very happy over the last 5 years with our decision.

Closing Abbeydale Grange will leave a large area of the city with no secondary school, and with rising rolls coming and due into Primary, will there be sufficient capacity in the Secondary phase in 10 years time?

Probably the most important issue to me is the allocation of Feeder school status for Carter Knowle Junior School. Whilst I understand the rationale for single feeder status in terms of Primary schools (my school has 90% transferring to one secondary school - despite joint feeder status), I believe very strongly that Carter Knowle should be given joint feeder status with High Storrs and King Ecgbert. The consultation document (p8) fudges the issue by indicating where pupils transfer to from Carter Knowle, Abbeydale and Sharrow collectively, rather than individually. My own understanding from my 3 children's year groups is that there has been a

lxiii fairly even split between High Storrs and King Ecgbert from Carter Knowle and that the easy bus route (when there's no bus strike!) along the Abbeydale Road to King Ecgbert makes the choice attractive for parents living in the Carter Knowle area.

Thank you for the letter I received on the 6th October inviting me, as a parent of a pupil at King Ecgbert School (KES), to respond to the consultation on the future of Abbeydale Grange school (AGS).

My main concern is how children from a range of minority communities will receive the support they require in an oversubscribed school like KES, where only a small number of places may be on offer. KES is a great school but the new-build means that it is simply not possible to keep expanding class sizes without detrimental effects on all children. AGS is a small school with plenty of room to take more children to relieve the pressure on other South West schools. It has considerable expertise in some subject areas, like drama and in community cohesion, which other schools in the area could benefit from. I also understand that it is improving in other areas. It just needs support and investment and perhaps re-branding as an 'International school'. I understand, for example, that AGS has been commended for its support of the Burmese Karen children. This is a vulnerable group who have come over from refugee camps on the Thai border where they may have been subject to attacks by para-military forces from Burma. AGS has been able to meet such needs and support these children with low student/teacher ratios, bilingual assistance etc to help them begin the long journey of integration into British society. Allocating a few of these children to KES, via the ordinary secondary admissions process, and then another group to a completely different school is likely to be a traumatising experience for some and at worst could result in a form of re-victimisation. The effect on some other newly arrived minority groups and other vulnerable children, who have benefitted from the family atmosphere of AGS, is likely to be similar.

I urge you to reconsider your plans to close Abbeydale Grange School.

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