The October newsletter issued by Fox Lane & District Residents' Association (FLDRA) includes an update on provision of primary school places, with especial reference to the question of how long Bowes Southgate Green School (BSG) will continue to take new reception pupils. Enfield Learning Trust, mentioned in the update, is the academy trust which runs both BSG and the main Bowes School site in Bowes Road.
Bowes Southgate Green School: "immediate future is secure"
We started the new school year with progress on securing provision of primary places to fill the long-standing "black hole" in the centre of the FLDRA area. LB Enfield has responded positively to this situation. Officers have gone over all their data on projected numbers, including the redevelopment of the Ladderswood estate, which they expect to take up all the spare capacity at Garfield Primary going forward. They have now committed around £100k to fund a reception class at Bowes Southgate Green (BSG) in 2020, so it will be in the admissions brochure for parents and the immediate future is secured. We assume that Enfield Learning Trust, which was going to shut down the provision without this funding, will now fully support BSG. Certainly the Save BSG parents’ action group is able to move on to supporting BSG in the medium term. FLDRA will keep a watching brief, as BSG only has funding for 2019/20, so we could be confronted with a repeat of it this year in May 2020. Though there is an assumption that the Enfield Learning Trust will fully support BSG. there is no guarantee and Enfield could easily decide to refuse funds for another year if other schools in the borough have vacancies.
The pupil numbers are not enough to justify the build of a whole new school on the Grovelands site, so the focus is on the existing provision hosted by Broomfield School, which owns its own site and has been very cooperative but naturally has its own priorities to continue its improvement in quality and reputation. LB Enfield will conduct a full assessment of the current buildings and then engage with Broomfield about the long term future. We hope that the site can support a 6FE secondary school with Sixth Form plus the current BSG primary provision; certainly the issues around lease are a nonsense and all should be signed off immediately.
Perhaps it would be a good idea to relocate the admissions point for BSG, which is currently at the top of Aldermans Hill (presumably because the provision was once expected to transfer to the Grovelands site). A better admissions point would be further east, perhaps 400 metres down the hill at the junction of Lakeside Road with Aldermans Hill. This would be closer to the Broomfield site, closer to the black hole, and more likely to guarantee a strong, stable demand for Southgate Green.
Meanwhile in its KS2 (end of primary) SATs results, Enfield has climbed the London Boroughs league table from 31/32 last year to joint 26th, just above Brent, Hackney, Haringey and Barking & Dagenham. Enfield had the second largest cohort of pupils at 4714; only Newham was bigger.
