Lewisham said this today about Horniman bulge class

[sarahew]

Just to let you all know that I called the admissions office at Lewisham council today, and a lady read from an internal email that had been sent to staff this morning: "a feasibility study showed that it was too expensive and offered poor value for money". She said "it's to do with finances". She then realised she shouldn't have been reading from an internal email and the conversation closed.

I then phoned a different department, and got lots of information from an open and helpful lady. When the build work went out to tender the costs came back at twice those that had been advised earlier in the process, at over a million pounds. There are some 'very stern' conversations going on with their external management consultants about the advice given on the project. The upshot is that the project is withdrawn and being considered for future years. I advised that the parents I have talked to are angry, and they should expect 'feedback'. She was actually quite sympathetic, and said they would never have promoted the bulge class had they known that there was a chance it wouldn't go ahead, and they have let their advisors know of the scale of the impact on a number of parents.

The bulge class will now be taken in by Kelvin Grove, which is moving to a four form entry. Yes, that's four forms. They have the capacity in the building to do it, and are spending some money on the outside play area.