Page 133 - link magazine

Colouring Competition

ank you kids for all the entries to the competition—about 40 altogether. It was almost impossible to choose but .....
e overall winner was Diane Wayte aged 11 from Warnford Close, Toothill and she gets tickets to the Panto. at the
vern Theatre (thanks Wyvern for the donation). Colouring books go to Richard Chaney, Moresby Cl., Tania Willis of
undway Down, Tracey Giddings, Godolphin Cl., Louise Ward Birdcombe Rd., Shane Hanlon,Ely Cl. Sarah Dawson Chalgrove Fd.

• IT'S 'GO' FOR GROW .T H

e hatchet is buried and the brakes are off. Bradleys, the builders, and Thamesdown Council have come to an agreement
a dispute that was holding up the continued expansion of Swindon. Now that the differences have been settled and a
nd exchange deal agreed, the Borough Council is all set to open up over 500 acres for jobs, housing and recreation to
e north of Freshbrook and Westlea around the Shaw, Roughmoor, Sparcells Farm area. Thiswill increase the population
another 14,000 over and above the 25,000people expected to be living in Toothill, Freshbrook 8;Westlea by 1986.
nenting on the expansion, Ron Russell, chairman of the Shaw Residents Association, said "in common with most people
residents of Shaw only wish to be treated fairly by being fully consulted and be the first to know about their future
only positive manner in which this can be achieved and at the same time give some measure of protection to future
)ers of the expanded Shaw is through a Local Plan. Surely we do not want to repeat the unnecessary heartache caused
'unplanned development' which has occurred in parts of Westlea and Freshbrook.!'.

THE NEED FOR A SECONDARY SCHOOL
by David Attwood, November 1982
Some of the facts :
There are, at present, over 560 secondary school age children living i-n Toothill,
Freshbrook and Westlea, attending 20 different schools in the area, and yet Wiltshire
County Council has Just postponed work on the new secondary school to serve the Western
Development Area of Swindon for one year.

The earliest the new school will open has therefore been put back by one year. The
likely opening date is now September 1987, assuming no further postponements.
On the lowest possible estimate there will be 1,300 children agred 11-16 in West Swindon
In 1987. So, after allowing for children attending other schools by choice, there will
be more than enough children to fill a school for 900 pupils the day it opens.
Although the lowest estimate for 1987 is around 1,300 children aged from 11 to 16, it is
more likely that there will be between 1,400 and 1,500 in this age range.
In practice, when it does open, the school would not take the full age-range at once.
Children preparing for exams would not be moved and the school needs time to get settled
and established. The new school will probably only take 1st year pupils in 1987; or it
might take 1st and 2nd year pupils.
If the school opens in 1987, taking 1st year pupils, children now aged 7 and over will
continue to attend schools elsewhere in Swindon. If it takes 1st and 2nd year pupils,
children now aged 8 and over will continue bussing to secondary schools, in which case
children now aged 6 and 7 will form the first intake of the new school.
The new school will not be fully operative with 11-16 pupils until 1990 at the earliest,
or possibly 1991, or ..?
BUT RIGHT NOW WILTSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL MUS1

ENSURE that no further postponement of the new school is allowed for ANY reason.
CONSULT with local people and interested parties about the design of the school, bearing
in mind its uses for recreation, for youth, for general community activities, to make
sure that the maximum benefits are obtained in an area where there are NO purpose-built
places for young people, very few sports facilities, and great pressure on community
facilities - and a large, young, active and rapidly growing population.

MAKE STRONG LINKS between local primary schools and local secondary schools (Wroughton,
Commonweal, Hreod Burna) in time for September 1984, when children leave local primary
schools for the first time.
If you have read through this page with mounting frustration and anger, don't think you are
the only one. Many parents and others feel the same. Can anything be done? Unless residents
of the area get together to find out, we will never know. Should the old Education Action
( , n n k- r oa, a^ l ? Tf any 1-h nl- ,Ac nnnfant • lnhn I nnn nn R72ffL1.