Chalkhill Park delayed but on its way, with other play facilities possible

I think my readers deserve some (fairly) good news in the midst of the recession gloom and the closure of half our libraries.

I attended a meeting last week in my role as a school governor regarding the proposed new Chalkhill Park. The Chalkhill Residents' Association have been concerned about the park and a proposed Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) in St David's Close on the estate. The Chalkhill Pupil School Council had written to ward councillors to expression concern about the lack of progress on the park and had been told work would commence this month. In fact nothing seemed to have happened and the weeds were getting taller and taller.

We were told that work was behind schedule by 4-6 weeks and may fall further behind if soft planting is delayed by poor weather. However we were assured  that the park should open in May 2012. Bids are still awaited from contractors who will construct the park.

The residents' concerns about the budget for the project were not fully answered. It appears to have reduced from £1.3m to something over £0.8m and there was some confusion over whether the money was from planning gain following the building of Wembley ASDA on a section of the estate, and whether the money had originally been held by Metropolitan Housing Association, the managers of the estate, and late handed over to the Council.  If the latter is the case there may be an issue over the reduction in the amount.

Putting that aside, we were assured that the promised children's playgrounds (one for older children and one for younger) and an exercise area for adults would be built. There would also be a 'kick-about' area rather than a formal football pitch and a wildlife nature garden.

Plan of the new park (this may have been revised)

Residents asked questions about the 'water feature' that had incorporated into the plans. They had never asked for one and it appeared to be an expensive item. They said that if anything had to go because of budget constraints the water feature should be abandoned. It appears to have been added as a landscape features that would extend the vista from Brent Town Hall steps, down the avenue of trees, and into the park. It was unclear whether it was purely ornamental or something the children might play in: echoes of the fiasco over Lady Di's Memorial Water Feature! 

As by 2013 the Town Hall will have been replaced by the new Civic Centre, and may have been converted into a hotel, it does appear to be redundant. It would also use electricity to generate the pumps which would involve an ongoing cost. We were told that solar panel electricity generation for the pump wouldn't be suitable. Not very green...

When the MUGA came under discussion we were told that existing installations at Poplar Close Youth Centre and Chalkhill School's play area which was shared with the community, made a new one unnecessary. However Gerry Kiefer, the new head of parks and sports services, said that she would like to 'start a conversation' about St David's Close open space. Previously that had not been developed because it was not overlooked by housing and therefore deemed unsafe for unsupervised play. However, the newly built flats in the close were now occupied and this objection no longer stood.

Ms Kiefer offered to look at the possibility of:

1. Erecting goal posts for a football pitch (size to be decided after a survey), levelling the surface and marking out the pitch. Future mowing and marking out would have to be borne by the users who were expected to be the Chalkhill Wanderers football team.
2. Restoring the overgrown BMX cycling course with help from local youth.
3. Looking at the possibility of building a skateboarding facility in St David's Close.
4. She also undertook to look at the Poplar Close MUGA, in particular the state of the pitches and whether the floodlights were working.

The meeting was facilitated by Councillor Shafique Choudhary (Barnhill ward councillor) at the request of Kathleen Jackson, Chair of Chalkhill Residents' Association.

Chalkhill is on the way up

Anyone involved with schools knows that it takes years to build up a good reputation in a community but that this can be destroyed by a single event. Unhappily a bad reputation can hang around for years becoming an unquestioned assumption locally despite any evidence to the contrary. Unfortunately a single event cannot change this overnight. Things are worse if the community around the school has a historically determined 'bad' reputation even though that community may have been transformed.  Restoring a school's reputation is a long hard slog that requires dedication from staff and governors and a group of parents who believe in the school - and a local authority that will back it.

That enormous effort  is paying off at Chalkhill Primary where I am one of the governors. Ofsted visited at the end of the summer term and deemed it a good and improving school with some outstanding features. A few years ago it had been a  'failing school'  and in special measures.

The extract from the Ofsted Report below indicates the substantial gains that have been made:

Chalkhill Primary is a good and improving school. Pupils achieve well and thoroughly enjoy learning. It is very popular with pupils, parents and carers. There is a strong commitment from all staff to provide each pupil with the best possible education. Parents, carers and pupils appreciate the excellent quality care provided by the school and good quality learning opportunities. One parental comment summed up the views of the majority saying, ‘Chalkhill has improved a lot in recent years. The school is welcoming and children are supported in their learning very effectively. There is good after-school provision. Teachers are very committed and my child really enjoys his learning.’ Pupils confirmed an equally positive view: ‘We like the way the school takes care of us and makes learning fun.’

The headteacher, governors and senior management team provide strong leadership and clear educational direction which is ensuring good outcomes.

These are the key strengths of the school.
Pupils achieve well and make good progress throughout the school in all aspects of their learning because teaching and learning are good.
Care, guidance and support are outstanding; pupils and their families feel extremely well supported by the school.
Relationships are strong and the school ethos is warm and welcoming and consequently pupils make good gains in their personal development.
Pupils gain excellent knowledge and awareness of how to stay fit and healthy and lead an active lifestyle. ‘Wake up-shake up’ is enjoyed by pupils, staff, parents and carers.
Children get off to a confident start in the Early Years Foundation Stage because provision is good.
The quality of singing is good throughout the school. The school has gained the Gold Sing Up award.
Good links with parents, carers and the local community contribute effectively to the provision.
Community cohesion is good at school, local, national and international levels.
Good partnership links with other external agencies enrich the provision and enable pupils to benefit from additional academic and cultural activities.

The Report illustrates the fact that a school is much more than its SAT results and shows that Chalkhill is providing a well-rounded education for its children. Furthermore it is becoming a positive focus for the local community and helping to raise its aspirations. Chalkhill is on the way up!

Congratulations to staff, pupils and parents.

Work on Chalkhill Park to start in October

School Councillors at Chalkhill Primary have received a response from the ward councillors to their letter asking when work on the new park on the site of the old  Chalkhill Health Centre will start and be completed:

Thank you for taking the trouble to write to us about the proposed park in Chalkhill. It was a pleasure to meet you on our walkabout and it is clear to us that you feel very strongly about this issue.

We share your concern that it seems to have taken a very long time to get things started. However, the good news is that we now expect work to start on the site in October. If everything goes to schedule, this should mean that the park will be completed by April next year to open in May 2012. This will mean that, by this time next year you should be able to look forward to your summer holidays with a lovely park to play in and enjoy.

We will let you know if there are any changes to these plans. Do get in touch again if there is anything else you would like us to look into for you.

Something moving on Chalkhill Park?

A little over a week since Chalkhill Primary Pupil Council lobbied their ward councillors over the failure of work to start on the much needed new local park,  a bull-dozer has moved on to the site and has been levelling the mountains of top soil dumped there six weeks ago.

Is this a sign that work has finally begun? Local people are still cynical and rumours that it will be used for housing persist on the estate. We need a definitive statement from the Council about start and finish dates to allay suspicion.

Pupils press for work to start on new park

Plan for the new park (March 2011) Click on image to enlarge

Chalkhill Primary's Pupil School Council lobbied ward councillors recently when they held a walk-about on the estate.

The children presented councillors with a letter that asked when work would start on the park and when it would be finished. They stressed that local children needed a park and how awful the site looks at present. They finished by asking if the Council really did want to build the park.

Cllr Shafique Choudhary, on behalf of the three Labour councillors, promised to keep writing to the Council until something was done.

The new park will be built on the site of the old Chalkhill Health Centre between the ASDA car park and the Metropolitan railway line. Work was expected to start last Autumn but was delayed, according to the parks department, because of severe weather. A Spring start didn't take place, this time because of 'staff shortage'. Top soil was recently brought to the site, raising the hopes of local residents, but no further work has taken place.

A chance to talk to councillors about Chalkhill improvements

We must find ways for this project to continue

The temporary pool

Seb Coe's visit to the temporary swimming pool at Chalkhill Primary School was a great success with the pupils who excitedly showed him the pool and talked about how much they enjoyed having it at the school. Many have begun swimming as a result of the 10 lesson programme and the pool has also been used by the local community and neighbouring schools.

It was a shame then that the next day we read in the Evening Standard  that Chalkhill may be the last school to have the temporary pool - at least for the time being. The two pools in the six borough scheme are to be moth-balled because London Swimming needs to find £250,000 to receive match funding from City Hall's £15.5million Olympic Sports Fund. The former is a small amount amount shared between six boroughs so I hope Brent Council will be able to find a way to help the project continue.

Brent Council forced to widen Preston Manor consultation

Following complaints from residents at last week's consultation meeting that they had not been written to about the proposal to expand Preston Manor High School into the primary sector, Brent Council this week circulated 4,000 letters to local people. At that meeting they had claimed they followed procedure and could not send out lots of letters.

There was a further consultation at Wembley Area Consultative Forum on Wednesday which succeeded in producing more confusion rather than clarification. Half a dozen men from Brent Council, Preston Manor High School and Watts the project managers stood at the front of the hall next to the screen as a power point presentation was made. ("How many men does it take to do a presentation?" came the whispered comment behind me.)

The presentation included the claim that there were 72 reception aged children out of school 'in the area of Preston Manor'. This was slightly different wording than the 'immediate area of Preston Manor' claimed at the previous meeting, but I pointed out that we had already been told that this meant the whole of HA9 and HAO, which clearly includes children a long way from Preston Manor. One of the presenters said that there had been confusion about whether it was an 'all-through' school or not (without mentioning that this was a confusion stemming from different descriptions in their own two consultation documents) and claimed it was not an 'all through' because the primary building was some distance from the secondary school and separated by playing fields. In fact 'all through' is a matter of whether the primary and secondary departments have one overall management structure and one governing body - not their proximity.

A question asking what the catchment area of the new new primary school would be ('catchment'  is a geographical concept which allocates particular streets to particular schools - you can find your street on Brent's website and see which school is allocated to your children) was answered by reference to the over-subscription criteria and the priority in which places would be given - not on whether the new department./school would have its own catchment area. All Brent community primary schools, with the exception of Sudbury, have their own catchment areas. If Preston Manor were to have its own catchment then those of neighbouring primary schools would have to be redrawn. However if the new primary school has Foundation status then community school catchments would not apply and the school may devise its own admisisons criteria.

In fact we were told that Preston Manor was conducting the consultation because it was a Foundation School and therefore managed its own affairs, although it was made clear that Brent Council strongly backed the proposal. Confusion was increased when Watts seemed to be addressing educational rather than building issues and speaking for the council.

Only three questions were allowed by the chair of the meeting because of the crowded agenda so 'consultation' was more about residents being 'told' rather than asked. However residents did manage to speak about their concerns about increased  traffic and in a soapbox earlier, Rose Ashton, head of nearby Chalkhill Primary School, was able to express her concerns about the impact of the expansion on her own school which has vacancies in both its nursery and reception places. This phase of the consultation ends on Monday so there is still time to get a response in. Consultation document HERE

If Preston Manor governors decide to go ahead there will be a further six week statutory consultation ending in December.

Preston Manor Primary Consultation Riles Residents

The consultation on the expansion of Preston Manor High School to incorporate primary provision got off to a controversial start at the residents consultation meeting on Wednesday.  Residents complained that householders on nearby streets had not received consultation letters and had only heard about the meeting by word of mouth. It was apparent that they did not have full information when it emerged that many thought the proposal was only for a temporary 2 classroom building on the school site, rather than a two form entry permanent building for 420 children (more if a nursery is incorporated into the plans). A Brent officer said that there was a limit to how many individual letters to householders could be sent out. Residents retorted that householders on streets adjacent to the development had not been informed.  A quick search on the Brent planning website reveals that for a minor development, such as the temporary swimming pool at Chalkhill Primary  School, which will be in place for only 15 weeks, 104 individual letters had been sent out. LINK

Residents also complained that the timing of the meeting, from 5pm-6pm, meant that the majority of residents in employment, were unable to attend so had been denied their democratic rights.

Another issue was a statement from the Authority that 'In the immediate local area of Preston Manor High School 72 Reception aged children' remain without a school place. When I sought clarity on what 'immediate area' meant I was told this was the whole of HA9 and HAO, a huge area compared with the common-sense assumption that 'immediate area' suggests the streets immediately around the school. It became clear that pupils attending the school would be coming some considerable distance, raising concerns  that traffic levels would increase at the same time as the ARK academy's gradual growth will produce additional congestion in the vicinity.  This is a copy of the Authority's map showing where reception pupils are unplaced. It is clear that there is a cluster in the Wembley Central area as well as several south of the North Circular:

Apart from this issue of whether a new school was actually needed on the Preston Manor site, rather than elsewhere, questions were raised about why Brent Council had not anticipated the increased demand for primary provision given that these children were born 4 years ago (although obviously some were children of recently arrived families);  whether in the face of the recession some were only temporary residents who would return to their countries of origin; and the impact of the cap on housing benefits which Martin Cheesman, Brent's senior housing officer, had said would make local rents unaffordable for many families.

When I asked what plans had been made for a primary school on the Quintain development site around  Wembley Stadium, where the next phase includes the building of 1,300 new homes, I was told that Section 106 money which could be used for a new school, would only be drawn down after the housing was built. Surely this will create a further school places crisis until the new school is completed? Overall Brent's approach seems to be 'flying by the seat of our pants' when what we need is a strategic school places 'master plan'.

At the conclusion of the meeting the Chair of Preston Manor Governors said that the governors had not yet made up their minds on the expansion proposal and welcomed representations to aid their deliberations.

There was no time to discuss educational issues but hopefully there will be time to explore these at the Wembley Area Consultative Forum on Wednesday 20th October at the Patidar Centre, 22 London Road, Wembley.  The meeting starts at 7pm and the Expansion of Preston Manor Consultation is timed for 7.35. However only 30 minutes is scheduled for this item  and discussion on parking charges and Wembley Link.

Among the educational questions that need to be answered are:

1. Is the proposal for an 'all through school' as stated in the consultation document (i.e. one school, under one leadership, perhaps with separate heads of the primary and secondary departments) or a 'feeder primary school' as stated in the glossy consultation leaflet given out at Wednesday's meeting?  A feeder would be a separate school with its own headteacher.
2. What system of governance is envisaged? Separate governing bodies for the primary and secondary schools or one governing body?
2. If it is to be an 'all through' school what are the educational arguments for such a structures?
3. As the ARK Academy is already an all-through school and Capital City is applying for primary provision, is this emerging as  the de facto favoured development option of the Authority? If so an open debate is needed on the policy.
4. What repercussions would there for local primary schools of such a policy?
5. What would be the catchment area of the new school and how would this affect the catchments of neighbouring primary schools such as Preston Park and Chalkhill?
6. Would the primary school pupils receive preferential treatment for entry to the secondary school? If so this would reduce the places available to pupils from other primary schools by a quarter.
7.  As the secondary school is popular and over-subscribed, canny parents would enrol their children into the primary school in order to secure a secondary school place. What would be the knock-on impact on other local primary schools both in terms of their rolls and social make up?

Consultation document is HERE. Closing date October 25th. If the governors of Preston Manor decide to go ahead on the basis of this consultation, there will be a further 6 week statutory consultation period.

Good News from Chalkhill

The temporary swimming pool at Chalkhill Primary School is nearing completion ready for opening on September 13th.  The pool will be used for school swimming groups during the day and for the community after school.  It will be in place until December.

Meanwhile the plans for a community swimming pool on the site of Dexion House, Empire Way, Wembley have been approved but it is unclear when the redevelopment will take place.








Work is expected to start in the Autumn on the new community park on the Chalkhill Estate.  It is being built on land vacated by the old Chalkhill Health Centre opposite the ASDA car park and will include two children's play areas, adult exercise circuit, a water feature and kickabout area.