Schools to get extra classrooms

[admin]

From thisisderbyshire:

"A TWO-ROOM temporary building is to be sited at a rapidly growing Derbyshire school."

http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/hilton/Schools-extra-classrooms/article-920117-detail/article.html

[Ali B]

Hello I'm new to the forum and think it's a great idea.

I've lived in Hilton for over thirteen years and my teenage children both attended Hilton Primary School. The news that Hilton Primary will need temporary classroooms as it now has 800 pupils comes as no surprise. Derbyshire County Council was warned years ago that a second primary school was needed and yet chose to keep on expanding the existing school so that it is now one of the biggest primary schools in England. I feel really sorry for the residents of Peacroft Lane and Back Lane.

[Macca]

I have lived in the village for 3 years and both my children have attended the school. 1 still does. I, in my time, have worked at the school aswell. I feel it has over expanded and the quality of facilities has declined. This school year 2009/2010 there were FIVE classes in reception. This year group also had the smallest playground not a pleasant year for this group of chldren. The school has expanded but the playgrounds have not! This village is still expanding and I fear they will still be cramming them in like sardines!

Children are not allowed to play football on most of the playgrounds because of the amount of children the balls could hit. Imagine your days at primary school and the joys of kicking a ball about. This generation of children are suffering and are not getting the facitlites they deserve.

[sandyfoxy]

And we were all so pleased when they finally got rid of the Terrapins down at the old school!!

Nothing changes for staying the same.

[Helena]

I disagree. The library is due to be extended, starting next week, there are 2 computer rooms, a swimming pool and the 'Acorn Block' yes is seperate from the school but is brick built. My 2 started at the school a year ago and the facilities are much better than their previous schools. The school may be large but this isn't aparent to the children. Other mums I know feel the same. I doubt there will be another school here anytime soon with all the Goverment cuts. If there was, wouldn't this split the village?

[sandyfoxy]

What's really needed is a secondary school on the Hatton side. There was one but it closed. John Port is way too big now.

[Macca]

Well my dear the schools your children were at previously must have been in a proper state. My children had better faciilities in the North than they have ever had here. Before you say anything, yes I would move back there if it were possible.

It is a ridiculous that two schools would split the village, my children came from a village that expanded and more schools were added as it did. They all came together for community events my children had friends from different schools. You cannot keep expanding this school in the hope that one day the numbers will reduce. Surely this is detrimental to the childrens education. In larger schools your children are at risk of becoming anonymous in the crowd and some children there are quite lonley. It does not produce a healthy community feel.

In larger schools discipline suffers. I felt that I could not get to know the children well at all and I worked there for two and a half years. You only get to know the 'characters' or difficult children well. The buddy system is not implemented very well, many children came to me who had nobody to play with. Running in the corridor is not supposed to be allowed and yet I have seen teachers doing just this! There are many inconsistancies. The blue caps from year 6 are just being used as 'cheap labour' and cover duties at lunchtime that the midday supervisors are supposed to do but they either have not enough staff on that day or are not allowed to recruit anymore. Two blue caps are posted on the year 1&2 toilet and have to stay there all lunchtime monitoring the toilet even if year 1&2 have gone to the field. This isn't much of a lunchtime for those children.

The swimming pool is not that much of an assest if Reception and year 6 cannot use it. The school has got so big that swimming is only for 1 term for years 4 & 5. I am not quite sure about the arrangements for other years. It is really too shallow for the older children in years 5 & 6. The amount of parent helpers has diminished so how long do you think they can go on teaching the children to swim if parents either don't want to help or can't help?

Thank goodness they are expanding the libaray, how Mrs Cox has coped in such a pokey place I do not know and the poor Nurse gets the old library which is a vast improvement from the cupboard she was working in.

A school should be able to fit all the children into one hall you are not creating a unified school if school assemblies are split into shifts!

I am happy for you if you find all this acceptable I just wish I could. If my son was in the lower years I would definitley have moved him by now. The chances are we might be moving out of the area soon, circumstances beyond my control, I just hope the next school authority we move to has a better vision.

Don't get me wrong, apart from the few problems at the Primary school I have enjoyed my time here and will remember it fondly.

[Jess]

Quite agree Macca

A new primary school should have been built in the late 90s on land the other side of The Mease and not on the paltry area off Back Lane.

Derbyshire County Council never seriously intended to build a new school, asking parents whether they wanted a new one was a cop out because of course they were never going to say yes, HPS has a good reputation and of course parents want the best for their children.

My sister and I went to HPS and what was nice was that Mrs Gotch (Head) knew all the kids names.

Jess

[peter1910uk]

What's really needed is a secondary school on the Hatton side. There was one but it closed. John Port is way too big now.

Yes i remember the school at Hatton closing and it wasn't that long before the start of the development at Hilton. I think it was 1987 but i would stand to be corrected.

Without stating the obvious though the decision was financial, they were offered money by Hassall to build on the site - they could at that point accomodate the extra puplis at JPS. I think thats when the first of the temp buildings were put in (temp - and they are still there!!).

I hadn't appreciated how big the school had got though. Apparently its the third biggest school in the country (according to last years roll)!! The latest ofsted report makes good reading though, for all its growth the education given hasn't suffered seemingly. Surely thats the important thing??

Will they build another secondary school near Hilton though? Not on your nelly!

Will they build another primary school near Hilton even? Not on your nelly!

The only thing thats reassuring is its no better anywhere else, it really isn't.