Charlotte Leslie outside Elmlea Jr School

Families in much of Westbury-on-Trym will be given almost zero chance of a place at the new Redland Green School if the Labour Council gets its way.

Instead of being in the catchment area for Redland Green School the Labour Council intends to make children “second priority”. It is instead proposing to make children west of Coombe Lane/Parrys Lane first priority for Portway Community School and those east of Coombe Lane first priority for Henbury School. This would effectively give children from Elmlea Infants and Juniors zero chance of a place at Redland Green.

Prospective local Conservative MP, Charlotte Leslie, comments:

“These proposals are absolutely outrageous and must be stopped. I am totally opposed to children in this area being classed as “second priority”.

The problem with Redland Green School is that it doesn’t serve enough of Westbury-on-Trym and Stoke Bishop, not that it serves too much. It has become increasingly apparent that Redland Green does not have the spaces to serve this area because it is so oversubscribed. So the Council has two choices it can either make this formal by designating our local children as “second priority” or it can produce an alternative solution. Children living in Redland are already well served by Cotham Grammar School and so I believe that if the catchment area has to be reduced it should be reduced in the Redland/Cotham area, not Westbury and Stoke Bishop.”

Charlotte adds

“I strongly believe this is not just a local issue for parents but a wider issue about the performance of Bristol schools generally. One of the major factors which prevents Bristol’s educational performance from improving is the huge number of families who choose to send their children to non-Council schools. This loss of students to other schools is particularly acute in North West Bristol. So it is ridiculous for the Council to encourage this drain of Bristol students by restricting their choice of school.”

If you have primary school aged children or are a local person who believes children in your community shouldn’t be classed as “second priority” by the Council please support Charlotte’s campaign and sign her petition:

We, the undersigned, oppose the proposals to reduce parts of Westbury-on-Trym and Stoke Bishop to “second priority” status for admissions to Redland Green School and urge the Council to revise the admission arrangements to give parents in this area a greater likelihood of a place at the new school, not less.