20 www.wokingham.gov.uk
Maiden Erlegh School – new admission arrangements You may have heard recently about a change to Maiden Erlegh School’s admission arrangements for 2012/13. There’s been some confusion about what the new arrangements are and what they mean for Earley and Lower Earley families. After new admission arrangements were adopted by the Council for most of our secondary schools in March 2011, a number of objections were made against the arrangements for Maiden Erlegh. As a result of this, the independent schools adjudicator, on behalf of the Secretary of State, reviewed our arrangements and decided to amend the tie-breaker rule. The previous tie-breaker was based on distance a pupil would have to travel to Maiden Erlegh or to Bulmershe, aiming to reduce journey times for children, and it gave a high degree of priority to those families living in the streets around and to the south-west of Maiden Erlegh, where access to other schools was more difficult. The new tie-breaker will now give priority to those families living closest to the school, within the designated area. The designated area for Maiden Erlegh is now bigger meaning even more parents will have the chance to apply for the number of places available. We are disappointed by the Secretary of State’s decision. We sought to correct what we believed, and still believe, was a significant historic unfairness in how the old admissions arrangements operated. We hoped to create greater overall fairness, and we feel that the adjudicator’s decision, in accepting some of the objections, undermines some efforts to achieve this. t. (0118) 974 6143 / 6111 / 6225 e. schooladmissions@wokingham. gov.uk www.wokingham.gov.uk/ admissions
Safe Drive Stay Alive
safe drive
Every year in the Thames Valley dozens of teenagers and young people are killed or seriously injured on the road. As Wokingham Borough News went to print, 1,329 young people from schools in the Borough were booked on Safe Drive Stay Alive, a hardhitting event held annually to warn young people of the dangers involved in speeding, not wearing seatbelts, using mobile phones, drinking, taking drugs and driving recklessly, with the ultimate aim of reducing those involved in road traffic collisions. The event revolves around a film about a group of friends involved in a traffic collision interspersed with real life
stories from the emergency services, victims and bereaved parents. After attending the event last year, one student said: “I would just like to say how truly and completely touched I was by it. It must have taken so much courage for those people to stand there and tell their stories. It had a deep emotional impact on me and I know I, and a lot of my peers, are now more aware and will drive slower in the future.” Watch videos and find out more at: www.safedrive.org.uk