Bid to bring pupils under one roof

Pupils could be moved from Eastbrook Primary Academy's Gardner Road site, if parents agree

Seven years after parents fought to keep Fishersgate First School, Eastbrook Primary Academy is now hoping to move the 47 pupils at its south site up to the main building.

The new build, which started at the Manor Hall Road site in January and was completed for the September intake, means there is now ample room for all the children.

New head Julia Sherlock wrote to parents on Friday telling them of the plans and asking them to find out more at meetings to be held on November 7.

A representative of REAch2, which runs the academy, will explain the vision for the school and parents will be given the chance to discuss the implications in separate groups.

Mrs Sherlock said the parents would be the ones to make the decision.

The Gardner Road site would be retained for educational purposes and parents would be asked for their ideas and preferences on how to best use it to enhance learning.

Elaine Ross, a higher level teaching assistant at the school, was chairman of the parent’s action group for saving Fishersgate First School back in September, 2006.

In the end, three schools were merged to form Eastbrook Primary School, but the Gardner Road site was retained for Fishersgate children.

She said: “We were fighting to keep Fishersgate open as a primary school in its own right.

“The whole thing in saving Fishersgate school was that it was the heart of the community and we are not going to lose that.”

Pupils had already been transferring to the north site in year six, to help their transition to high school, and that proved so successful, pupils began moving up in year five from September.

Elaine, 37, has lived in Fishersgate her whole life and her daughter, Shannon Ross, ten, is now at the north site in year six.

“I will be honest, she was apprehensive but she loves it,” added Elaine.

“She has got new friends and she is so much more confident.

“It has been good to see her being part of the whole school.

“I feel that these children are missing out on that and I feel the time is right for us to be together and part of the one school that we are.

“We try to give them the same opportunities but it is hard when we are separate.”

She hoped it would bring Fishersgate and Southwick together.

She added: “We are still going to be a community, just a bigger one.”