School Move

Planning Committee Hearing 13 October 2009

Transcript of a speech made at the planning committee hearing by parent governor Dean James-Robbins, Chair of Ashmount's Finance and Personnel Committee:

'The Head and I have thought about what we wanted to say to the planning committee this evening and the word ‘opportunity’ is one that kept occurring to us.

And that is because it is extremely rare that so many opportunities to do real good for so many people should present themselves at the same time. And this made us think that this evening could either open up or deny opportunities to so many people in our local community.

First of all, we are looking at an opportunity to create a new building for the people at Ashmount school – yes, of course, we won’t deny that we would really love a new building that was fit for educational purpose, which was not too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. And a building where the rain did not cascade into our corridors and the phones didn’t stop working when it got too wet! But it would also be a building which was not the most expensive to heat of its kind in the whole of London. It would be a zero carbon building, helping us to protect the environment for the children who represent the future.

We are looking as well at an opportunity to enrich and improve the educational experience for generations to come. We are looking at a really exciting opportunity for children between the ages of 1 and 18 to share in a truly imaginative set of extended services, delivered through working in partnership between Ashmount, the Cape Youth Project and the Bowlers Nursery and others. The cooperative ethos we could all deliver - which we are committed to deliver - will give greater impact for the community than the sum of our individual parts.

And one thing that has become obvious to me as a parent at Ashmount is that the friendships between year groups are stronger than I have ever seen anywhere else. Giving the school children the opportunity to widen their age range of friends by letting them share facilities with a nursery and a youth centre will only make this bond stronger. And I feel that the strengthening of inter-generational friendships like this will help our future society to be more cohesive and a better place to be.

We are looking, as well, at an opportunity to redevelop an out of use and out of fashion piece of land which needs to be brought back into the public domain. We are all glad that we have a green space so close to our front doors; let's make it available to our children, our friends and our neighbours.

You, the panel, have a very serious responsibility this evening. And that is the exciting opportunity to secure the future of our wonderful school. OFSTED have said we are a very special place. Our children and parents agree. We know that. But our success is based on our ethos, our leadership, our children, and not our buildings. And we fear that this is an opportunity which we cannot let slip by any longer.

The Council’s surveys show that we can’t refurbish our current building. The problems are too many and too big. So, we have to move.

And there is only one place we can move to. The site surveys (plural) that have been done show this. And that is the Crouch Hill option before you tonight.

Please don’t listen to objectors who claim to care about the school’s future. If the school doesn’t move, I can’t see its future. Listen to the parents, the staff, the governors of the school who have made sensible and rational decisions about this all along. And they overwhelmingly support the plans for the school move.

Remember we were talking about opportunities. Those who oppose the plans tonight want to deny the social, educational and developmental opportunities to so many people in our wonderfully diverse school community who don’t naturally have a political voice. And to everyone else.

I really hope we can count on a bold and unanimous decision in support of the plans tonight. This is too big an opportunity to miss. Too much is at stake.

The young people who stand to benefit from your decisiveness tonight represent the future. Please show us that you care about the future!'

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