Newnham Labour’s County Council candidate Peter Sarris has written to the Cambridge Evening News regarding educational provision across Cambridge:

Bottleneck for schools

The Cambridge News’ campaign for fairness for Cambridge’s schools is to be commended. However, it is also important that there be fairness of educational provision across and within the city of Cambridge.

Parkside School is one of the jewels in the crown of our local state secondary system, but the recent decision to expand one of its feeder schools (St Matthew’s) by 50%, while keeping the numbers at Parkside static, is going to have the effect by 2017 of squeezing out applicants from schools further away from Parkside – such as Newnham Croft. This will make it harder for pupils to transfer to secondary school as a group and will disrupt the ties of friendship and support on which many rely.

In the immediate term, councillors and school governors need to work together with parents to ensure that the expansion of one primary school should not deny secondary school opportunities to others. The current provision at Parkside for Newnham Croft children should be preserved. Looking forward, efforts should be made to locate the new secondary school proposed for Trumpington as close to Newnham as possible with easy cycling access for parents and children.

Peter Sarris

Trinity College, Cambridge