Dec 7 2011
Gillas Lane Primary School – Two Years On
Gillas Lane Primary School is now nearly two years on from defeating a proposal to close the school by Sunderland CC. It is probably right to review its progress to show other schools in similar positions what can happen after the elation of saving your school.
It is fair to say that after the joy of winning came the reality of sustaining the school and making it stronger so it would not be in the same position again. All parents knew that the surplus places issues had to be resolved which meant changes to the school that were necessary. The PAN was reduced to reflect the smaller school size and the budget was also reduced. This lead to a reduction of teaching staff and a change in the school structure. Some Year Groups were amalgamated which did not initially go down well with parents. The Head Teacher and teaching staff had to make painful changes at the time and some staff left on retirement. The first year of the new arrangements was difficult all round. The easiest part was to reduce the teaching space in the school, something we were told was difficult and expensive to achieve by the council during the consultation exercise! One classroom closed, job done.
However, since then the school has blossomed. The year group amalgamations have been well managed by the Head and teachers. More pupils are coming into school as we had predicted during the fight which is increasing the budget available for the school. Parents and pupils are happy with the situation and it is continuing to serve its local community well. It has even set up a new website – www.gillaslaneprimary.org – to reflect its new start.
It has not been easy but if you fight and support your school good things will happen.
