Save St George's Primary School from closure!

bristol | protests | news report Friday June 13, 2008 18:26 by Cllr Mark Wright - St George's Primary School mark.wright at bristol dot gov dot uk

The Labour Council has decided it wants to close St George's Primary School because "it is too small". Please help us prevent this from happening by signing our petition and spreading the word.

St George's Primary School was built in 1847. Our school is proud to be one of Bristol’s smallest, oldest, high achieving primary schools, set in the heart of the city – on Brandon Hill. We believe in taking full advantage of the rich heritage of the area and the cultural diversity of the school and local community.

However, the City Council would like to close all schools with less than one-form entry as they state that small schools do not provide value for money or a good range of opportunity, and St George's is on their closure hit-list. In contrast, St George’s most recent Ofsted report states that the school provides satisfactory value for money and overall effectiveness, good leadership and above-average progress in reading and mathematics.

There is a shortage of provision in the city centre, which is likely to worsen following full occupation of the Harbourside developments. The current plans involve expanding St Michael on the Mount to accommodate pupils from St George, leading to no increase in places. The City Council would like to expand Hotwells Primary School but has no suitable site.

The school takes full advantage of the rich heritage of its unique city-centre location and makes extensive use of the facilities available in the area, including the adjoining Brandon Hill, nearby Harbourside and local facilities such as the Museum of Bristol, Colston Hall and the Central Library.

All these things will be lost if St George's is closed. Please support us in our battle for survival.
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There is an online petition here:

http://epetitions.bristol.gov.uk/view/stgeorge

Please go and sign it to oppose the closure!
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There is also a Facebook group here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=15395789763
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Remember: "If you tolerate this then YOUR children will be next!"

Please help us...

Cllr Mark Wright (Lib Dem, Cabot) - a School Governor at St Georges