To, Director of Education, Norfolk County Council
I wish to write and formally complain regarding the recent actions of Redcastle Family School and its Headmaster – Dr Andrew Sheppard.
For many years a section of the school field that has been unused by the school has been enjoyed by local residents – partly as an area for residents to walk their dogs and partly used by young people from the Redcastle community as recreational land. There is a distinct lack of green space available locally due to the high density of housing around Redcastle so this piece of land has been greatly valued and appreciated.
In addition to this, the land in question surrounds the Thetford Community Ballpark and therefore it is important strategically to gain access to the site for things such as grass cutting equipment, emergency access and a route for other vehicles needing to service the site.
The School recently installed a new fence to block off access to the top half of the field (the side closest to the school). Although there was no consultation with the community, or the Ballpark committee this action seemed somewhat logical and many people just went along with it.
Local people then became aware that the school intended to fence off the lower half of the field as well and prevent access entirely. Myself and several other Councillors raised concerns directly with the school about this having been contacted by numerous local residents expressing concerns.
Councillors asked for a meeting with Dr Sheppard to discuss the proposals and asked for more community consultation to occur. Despite our objections, the school rapidly progressed with these proposals and the fence was erected within days.
This has created considerable upset and anger around the wider community and does little to improve the school’s reputation in the community. The erection of the fence has also caused users of the Ballpark considerable challenges as there is now no way to retrieve footballs that go out of the Ballpark enclosure – the schools suggestion of collecting stray footballs the morning after by visiting the caretaker is completely unworkable.
The three community football coaching sessions delivered by the Thetford Community Association have been totally undermined by this action and their request for a key to the new gate to enable football collection to occur during the sessions has been denied. Further, at times when sessions occur the coaches are able to prevent young people from attempting to climb the fence, but at all other times, young people are left with a choice of attempting to climb the fence or likely to lose their football – many naturally attempt to climb the fence which creates a very real health and safety issue. In addition to this, our volunteers who keep the Ballpark site clear of rubbish etc. are now no longer able to access the field area to pick up any litter that may blow onto the field and the area will inevitably deteriorate visually. We are currently not sure how maintenance machinery, including grass cutters etc will be able to access the site – presumably a key will be granted, or we will be “let-in” when convenient.
From a Ballpark Management Committee point of view, they were not informed that fences that were erected by and paid for by the charity would be removed by the school and replaced with alternatives that they felt were more appropriate.
All of this results in a very bad feeling. There is no burning need for the school for this piece of land and there is ample space for the school, Ballpark and wider community to work alongside each other. The lack of respect and courtesy afforded to the schools’ neighbours – both the Ballpark committee and the wider community has been deplorable. At a time when schools are being encouraged to be more engaged with their community, when the ‘extended schools’ concept is being promoted, and when this aspect of school life is increasingly a part of Ofsted considerations, this action is clearly a retrograde step for the school.
I have invited local residents to view this letter and sign to say if they support its content. Names of those supporting the letter and therefore the complaint have been attached.
Yours sincerely,
Councillor Terry Jermy
Saxon Ward Councillor & Member of Thetford Community Association
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