AS THE Socialist goes to press, the rooftop protest at Lewisham Bridge primary school is still continuing against the council’s threat to demolish the school.
Parents are angry. They are being asked to get their children up early and see them come home late while they are bussed to a temporary school site in New Cross.
And it’s all because the council wants to replace their school with a school for children from 3 years to 16 years old.
On 20 May, Lewisham Socialist Party councillors Ian Page and Chris Flood are putting forward a motion to the full council meeting.
This motion tells Mayor Steve Bullock to put off any demolition of Lewisham Bridge school, at least while councillors work out if there will be enough primary school places for local children if the school is knocked down.
The motion also calls for an end to the ‘decant’ to the temporary school and for the children to be brought back to Lewisham Bridge, at least while all the unresolved planning issues are being looked into.
Parents and teachers can see that squeezing a large ‘all-age’ school into a small site presently occupied by a primary school with half the proposed pupil numbers is a recipe for substandard play areas and classrooms.
The Socialist Party says:
- No to school cuts and closures.
- For a united campaign of teachers, parents, pupils, trade unionists and community activists to defeat these planned cuts.
- Reduce the size of school classes, not the number of schools.
- No to academies. Kick the market out of education.
