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Richmond upon Thames Liberal Democrats:Covering the constituencies of Twickenham and Richmond Park |
Thirty children will not be able to start at Orleans Infant School, in St Margaret’s, until January [RTT]
October 7, 2011 12:15 PM
• [Sep 30] Paul Teed writes for the RTT: THE council has been forced to issue a correction after wrongly claiming it had provided enough reception places at schools in time for children to start the new term. Richmond Council announced three days before the beginning of the academic year it had created enough spaces for every youngster, despite huge demand. But 30 children who were due to start at Orleans Infant School, in Hartington Road, St Margaret's, will miss four months of lessons while it finishes building a new classroom.
The council's correction said it had allocated a place for every youngster by September 5, but conceded one class at Orleans Infant School would not begin until January. Cllr Stephen Knight, leader of Richmond's Liberal Democrat group, said: "Knowing full well they hadn't got places for 30 children to start in September, to put out a press release saying 'everyone is in school, isn't it marvellous' is appalling. I'm please they've admitted their mistake and put out a correction but it's a bit late." . . Cllr Knight said one unhappy family had contacted the Local Government Ombudsman.
. . The council faces increasing pressure to expand its primary schools due to the borough's steadily rising birth rate, which increased from 2,384 in 2000 to 2,992 in 2010. It had to create an additional 11 classes, 4 temporary and 7 permanent, to cope with the huge demand this year.
• 30 children will not be able to start at Orleans Infant School . . until January [RTT Sep 30]
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