Surbiton Parents Launch “Local Schools for Local Children” petition

A group of local parents have launched a petition to pressurise the Royal
Borough of Kingston into providing sufficient primary school places in
Surbiton.

Please sign the “Local Schools for Local Children” petition at the following link: http://www.epetitions.kingston.gov.uk

(and please email the petition link to your friends and neighbours as well).

We want the council to:-

1. Add places in local primary schools to ensure no Surbiton child starting school in 2009 has to travel for more than 30 minutes (on foot or by public transport) to get to school.
2. Adjust admissions policies for 2010 onwards to make schools take into account how far a child will have to travel if they don’t get offered a place at their nearest schools.
3. Add capacity in the local area for the long term to make sure that this problem doesn’t keep happening every year.

This year there are 300 more applicants than places originally available in the borough. Last year there was a shortfall of over 200.

Surbiton is the worst affected area. The problem is plainly getting worse. We need a permanent solution, not a series of last minute temporary “bulge classes”.

The Cranes Park / Cheyne Hill / North Berrylands area is no longer covered by the catchment area of any of the four local Surbiton schools.   Uuntil very recently it seemed as if RBK were hellbent on forcing children in this area to schools as far away as Knollmead, New Malden and Malden Manor.

Political pressure has hopefully persuaded RBK to provide more bulge classes in three out of the four Surbiton primary schools for this year’s intake.

But what will they do for the next four or five years when the Surbiton schools run out of space to accommodate bulge classes, and any new buildings have yet to be completed? If you have any children aged under two, there is a very real possibility that you will be forced to travel well outside Surbiton to find a school place.