PADDOX PRIMARY SCHOOL, Rugby

PADDOX PRIMARY SCHOOL
Newsletter – 31 January 2012

SPORT
Congratulations – to our girls football team, who are now county champions. This is the first time that one of our football teams has won a county championship. They now play in the regional final on March 17th.

Sportshall – Well done to our sportshall team, who won their heat and now compete in the eastern area final on March 13th.

Swimming Gala Trials – have taken place this week. One issue that came up was that rules have been tightened up with regard to using correct strokes. Children can only take part if their stroke is correct or according to the swimming teacher they will be disqualified.

Olympic Values – The Sports Parnership have organised an event at The Alan Higgs Centre in Coventry, for children to take part in various activities. Year 4 went last week and Year 5 are going this week. The emphasis is on taking part, determination, courage etc.

Building Work – We now have further building work on site until Easter. The Local Authority have decided that they want to replace all the windows on the rear of the building this financial year!

Year 3 are visiting Ryton Pools today, as part of their science work.

Suggestion Box – Thank you to the parents who have used the box. It will be opened at half term and again at Easter. Any issues will be grouped together and we will respond during the course of the next half term, on the back of newsletters. The first issue however, is dealt with on the back of this newsletter.

Vehicles – Please can I remind parents that you must not drive onto the site. This includes taxi drivers.

Cluster Workshops – Some children from Year 6 and Year 2 are taking part in the Hillmorton Cluster workshops, over the next two weeks. This is part of our Gifted and Talented provision.

B E Oakes (Miss)
Headteacher

Issue – Footpath

Puddles – We know that there is a problem with the footpath. The bad weather last winter has caused it to drop in places. We have accepted a quote to have it resurfaced, which will hopefully get rid of the puddles. The work should be done at half term (weather permitting).

The facts about the path and drive are:-

The drive has to have a passing place as it would be really dangerous for vehicles to turn in and then reverse out onto Fareham Avenue.
All of the major drains for the site are under the flowerbeds on the far side of the drive.
One of the trees at the side of the drive is a protected species.
There is a major electrical cable leading to the electricity substation on the site, which is on the far side of the drive.
Paths have to be a certain width. Because of the houses at the bottom of the drive we cannot get the extra width we need.
Paddox is the largest primary School in the eastern area. We have 435 pupils and a pre-school on site. Therefore it is a busy site at peak times.

As you can see from these points it is not possible to put in a second footpath. Other ideas that have been mentioned are a second access point to the site. Firstly this would compromise site safety and secondly it would be strongly opposed by local residents. It would also create different safety issues as any other access would be on public road. All the changes to our site have the full backing of the Local Authority safety officers. You need to remember that before we had these changes, we had a number of near misses involving the drive, the footpath and gates.