Page 30 - link magazine

30 The Link Magazine • August 2001
Head rides off to the south coast
MOBILE CAR SERVICING & REPAIRS After sixteen years in Swindon, Greendown headteacher Ian Matthews
* Electronic tuning * Welding * Electrical work has departed to live in Shoreham, East Sussex, where he will be
* MoTs arred (no west fee) engaged in school inspections, consultation work and part-time teach-
For a reliable local ser th over 20 years experience ing.
Looking back to September 1996
(No VAT to pay)
when Greendown opened to its
CALL GRAHAM ON (01793) 873045 or 07867 556350 first pupils, he said, although much
has changed in education, the ethos
of care and concern for others was
GARY WILKINSON still central to the life of the school.
"Greendown has always been
Car Body Repairs and Paint Spraying lucky in having excellent, often
M.o.T. Repairs and Welding young, eager staff, committed to
children of all abilities. Over the
Free Estimates
years our GCSE results have con-
Unit 12 Brindley Close Cheney Manor Industrial Estate Swindon tinued to improve, and the school
$ 01793 421 125 $ 0860 808061 is now one of the best performing
in terms of the value added to a
child's education.
"My brief was also to establish
A new service for FIAT Greendown as a community
school, to make its facilities as
& ,Alfa Romeo owners widely available as possible. This Hotel on 13 July
1 has been a success; its kept us very Why should a child educated in
concerned with what we offer to
OPTIMA West Swindon both in education Swindon be worth £500 less than a
similar town not far away?
for its children and what we offer "I've enjoyed the support of par-
Offering: the community at large. To an ex- ents and teachers, and hope the
+ servicing tent the extra income from this has children who've passed through
insulated the school from the poor the school are making a success of
+ electrical repairs
funding situation in Swindon. their lives.
+ cam belt replacements
"The under-funding of educa- "I look forward to hearing of
+ brake & clutch repairs tion is nothing short of a scandal. Greendown's development."
+ MoT repairs
39b Station Road, Wootton Bassett Places under threat at Tregoze
Tel: (01793) 840667
Many parents in Grange Park are concerned by proposals to reduce
pupil numbers at Tregoze School and councillors at a recent meeting
of the West Area Panel vowed to fight the move.
V.S.I.B. R.M.I.F. The school's governing body is Chair of Governors Emily
APPROVED MEMBER proposing a lower intake of pupils Medland said, "the proposal will
from 40 to 30, thus reducing the bring the numbers down to the
chance of parents liv- level the school was Be-
ing outside the desig- - signed for and ease the
nated catchment to overcrowding. For ex-
send their children to ample, ICT is taught in
the school. „r a corridor that was
Tina Neate, from — never intended to be a
Loughborough Close, teaching area. It will
Grange Park, who, like also enable us to intro-
many parents made I duce single age classes
GARAGE plans several years ago °^ ti„r , rather than mixing pu-
pils of different year
to send her three year
old to Tregoze, is hor- groups in the same
rified that he could be class.
shut out. "I visited all Tina Neate & Callum °Existing pupils and
Hawksworth Industrial Estate, Swindon the schools and read their Ofsted their siblings are protected under
(Close to the Oasis Leisure Centre) reports when Callum was two the existing admission rules and
years old, and was really im- will still have a place at the school,
pressed by Tregoze. I placed him even if they come from outside the
MOT n SERVICING ' REPAIRS in the closest playgroup at school's area. The governors are
Greendown so that he could be not recommending any change to
CAR n VAN n LIGHT COMMERCIAL with children who would go to the school's catchment area."
that school. If the intake is re- Swindon Council is currently
duced he stands very little hope of carrying out a consultation before
FLEET & INSURANCE APPROVED getting a place." making a decision in September.
Parents of children already at If adopted, the change would come
DIESEL & ELECTRICAL SPECIALISTS the school are unhappy about over- into effect in September 2002. The
crowding. It was designed to hold consultation document has been
240 children but temporary class- widely circulated and is available
rooms were added to cope with at the West Swindon library. Writ-
high initial numbers taking the ca- ten responses must be received by
pacity up to 280, placing the hall, 7 September and can be handed in
RELIABILITY 0 VALUE 0 SERVICE dining area and non-classroom fa- to any council office, including the
cilities under pressure. library.