Another win for South Bookham

February 14, 2010: "Outstanding." That's the Ofsted inspector's verdict on Bookham's Polesden Lacey School in Oakdene Close: "Its reputation is justifiably high," said Ofsted's Richard Blackmore, "both within the local community and further afield, because of its inspirational eco-friendly culture and inclusive and nurturing environment. Children receive a warm welcome to the Reception class and quickly become happy and eager to learn."

Blackmore awarded the school top marks both in overall effectiveness – how good the school is – and in its capacity for sustained improvement after his visit at the end of January. The top scores also extended to the pupils' achievement, safety, behaviour, healthy lifestyles and contribution to the school and wider community. Their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development was also top notch. No wonder that one parent told the inspector the school was "a truly special small school."

In a covering letter to his report earlier this month, Blackmore said: "You go to an outstanding school and it has a many strengths. You make outstanding progress. By the time you leave school, you reach standards that are high. You are extremely well cared for and given very good quality help to make sure you learn quickly.

"You have an excellent understanding of how to keep safe and be healthy. Children in Reception thoroughly enjoy school, work extremely hard and cooperate very well. You have excellent relationships with each other and your teachers and teaching assistants.

"Your school keeps you very safe. You have an excellent understanding of how other people in the world live. You love your clubs and trips and visits."

Chair of Governers Sean Whetstone told the Bugle: "We are the first community and non-faith school in Surrey to receive the Ofsted Overall Outstanding grade since the new Ofsted Framework was introduced on 1st September last year. We are only the second school in the Surrey to get the Outstanding grade since the new much tougher Ofsted framework was introduced last year. The first school was Church of England school Ewhurst."

Nationally, he said, less than 15 per cent of the top schools achieve the Ofsted Outstanding grade but that is expected to reduce under the new framework.

As reported, Polesden Lacey school already has a great reputation for instilling environmental awareness in its students.

Above right: Polesden Lacey School head teacher Rosie Keedy pictured with some of her star charges.

Polesden Lacey school 'punches above its weight' on the environment

Tuesday, December 2, 2008: Polesden Lacey Infant School was highly commended at at the National Energy Awards at the Globe Theatre in London today. Head teacher Rosie Keedy accepted the commendation in the Schools section from award sponsor David Lucioni of Canon UK (picture, right).

The judges said of the Oakdene Close, Bookham, school's entry that it, "just shows that a lot can be achieved in a little time, with little budget but a lot of imagination – this primary school really does punch above its weight."

Polesden Lacey head teacher Rosie Keedy said: "Whilst it is great for our small school to be recognised nationally for reducing our carbon footprint through energy and paper conservation, the real success is the educational impact this has on our young children to become tomorrow's Eco warriors by learning to reduce their carbon impact on the future world that awaits them."

The National Energy Efficiency Awards celebrate the achievements of individuals and their organisations in significantly reducing energy use and helping to combat climate change.

The Awards showcase the successful implementation of innovative, cost effective and transferable energy efficiency measures across a range of categories. They cover the full range of energy users, including large and small companies, the public sector, schools, community groups and individuals.

An article on Polesden Lacey's Infant School achievements is due to appear in Monday's Independent paper.

Polesden Lacey School has a strong commitment to giving its students a deep understanding of climate change and the actions needed to combat it. A page on the school's website lists a string of eco-projects and awards, including Eco Silver Award, an award from the Royal Horticultural Society, Polar Bear project and the 'Golden Boot'.

Its projects for 2009 include:
[] the setting up of a wormery donated by Compost Works
[] a windturbine subject to a grant, planning permission and local company sponsorship and,
[] a greenhouse building project made out of clear plastic bottles.

Mole Valley does its bit to end school run madness

July 6, 2007: Children from 241 Mole Valley schools joined the Golden Boot challenge to reduce their carbon footprint at the end of last term, says Surrey County Council.

The aim is to cut down the estimated 70 million Surrey school journeys are made by car each year. "Families would never be able to plant enough trees to balance out that scale of carbon emission,” said school travel policy coordinator Dave Sharpington.

“A much better plan is to cut down the amount of carbon generated by school runs in the first place and the Golden Boot Challenge has proved that this is an achievable goal.”

The scheme, part of Surrey County Council’s Safe Routes to Schools initiative, has been run county-wide for the last four years and schools that have really taken the message to heart now make over 90 per cent of school journeys by sustainable means.

Bookham's own Dawnay School is the greenest in Mole Valley when it comes to school runs thanks to the Golden Boot. One of the parents, mother Julia Dickinson, said the school had taken up the challenge every year: “The children are very keen and we get really good participation. The Challenge has helped to change people’s philosophy on travel and is a very helpful annual reminder to stay green.

“The schools in our cluster have made sustainable development the goal so it feeds into the wider Sustainable Schools Initiative.”

This year the challenge is flexible so that schools can make the most of this opportunity to involve parents and children in sustainable travel planning. Pupils are encouraged to persuade parents to leave the car at home and they then score points by using an environmentally friendly alternative. Classes compete with each other to be the greenest travellers and the winner receives a splendid Golden Boot trophy. And if they need a little encouragement, the much loved Safe Routes to Schools Mascot, Freddy Fox, resplendent in his very own pair of Golden Boots, will be there to spur them on.

The fifth anniversary challenge runs between 11 June and 6 July and schools can opt to travel green for four Fridays or the full 20 days. New initiatives are the on-line registration for speed and convenience and interactive white boards to help teachers record the way in which the children are travelling, for example by scooter, pony or bicycle. It is widely held up by the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) as an example of good practice to be shared nationally with other local authorities as one of the most successful green travel campaigns in the UK, and has been copied already by schools in Estonia.

“The Golden Boot Challenge is a brilliant way of showing children that they can each make a difference, both to their own health and also to the planet, by reducing their carbon footprint,” said Surrey County Council’s Executive Member for Transport, David Munro.

“The council is making 2007 the year when it develops comprehensive policies to deal with climate change and the Challenge plays an important role in encouraging the young generation to choose sustainable green travel.”

Pupils join the march against the school run

28 March, 2007: Four Bookham schools have won grants to set up walking buses to schools. The Dawnay, Eastwick Junior, South Bookham and St Lawrence Effingham will each receive £1,000 under the scheme, launched by Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander in November last year.

The scheme provides grants of £1,000 a year for up to three years to state-funded primary schools in England who want to set up a walking bus. A smaller grant of £500 was available for schools who wanted to set up an alternative walking initiative, such as Walk on Wednesdays. Most of the new walking buses and other projects are expected to start during the summer term.

Many pupils would walk to school more often if their parents had the time to accompany them, says the Dawnay's safe routes to school coordinator, Kathy Young. The walking bus idea allows the students to walk on days their parents can't take them, perhaps due to work commitments or because there isn’t enough time to walk siblings to 2 or more schools.

Young says there is already one walking bus which operates for the Dawnay and South Bookham schools. The new funding will allow the schools to set up another walking bus for pupils from another area, perhaps Edenside through Little Bookham Street in the Dawnay’s case. She added that it's unlikely the new walking buses will begin before the half term after Easter. “Although schools know where suitable clusters of students live, we still have to identify and train enough parent volunteers to run each bus.”

Julia Dickinson, another member of the joint school travel working group or 'safe routes to school committee' (SRSC), at the Dawnay and South Bookham schools, says that to qualify for grants schools have to set up walking buses with a route of greater than half a mile. The buses must remove on average 10 car journeys each day.

Dickinson, who also helped the Eastwick Junior school to put in its bid for 'walking initiatives' funding, says two or more siblings in one car count as one journey, and it is assumed that those living within half a mile will walk anyway.

The formal walking buses the SRSC has chosen to set up are harder to establish which is why more money is provided. But formal buses produce better results than mere encouragement to pupils to walk, says Dickinson: 'Children enjoy walking with friends and hence are more likely to keep walking. Walking buses also reinforce road safety training,' she told the Bugle, ‘and a daily walk to school could be just what’s needed to keep our children healthy. Bristol University has just reported research that just 15 minutes of exercise a day may be enough to stave off obesity.

'I'm keen to set up some 'walking bus stations' with 'greeters' to serve all of the Bookham schools.' says Dickinson: 'The greeter system works well at infant schools. There is a drop zone close to the school entrance that is patrolled by someone who helps very young children from the car, ensures they are chaperoned into the playground and prevent escapees! Greeters speed up the throughput,' she adds: 'And, more importantly, [they] remove the need for the infants' parents to park.

'We intend to try this system at other locations that are within easy walking distance of the school gates. Hopefully, by making it easier for parents to drop their children further away from the school gates, those who drive a distance and those who need to drop at two or more schools will prefer to use the walking bus stations rather than add to the congestion around the school gates. As well as annoying neighbours, school gate congestion adds a great deal more hazards for young pedestrians.'

Money will be needed for high-visibility vests, criminal records bureau (CRB) vetting of volunteers, training escorts and children, and to provide trolleys on which the children can load their books and musical instruments.

Dickinson also wants to provide buses with their own mobile phone in case children or escorts can't make the journey. 'It should mean that the bus takes less time to travel. There would be no need to pause to see if an expected child is a little late or just not turning up, for example.

'I also expect that schools will pay a classroom assistant to do some work with the children during school to support road safety training, to build up interest and to find out any barriers.'

There may be areas that are within walking distance but some problem with the route means families don't walk: 'We won't know unless we ask,' she says. 'Questionnaires to parents are useful but the children may well tell you different reasons; it helps to find out all the objections because some are very easy to solve.'

The full list of successful schools is at this link.

Buses4U rides on – now use it or lose it!

February 28, 2007: Buses4U, Bookham and district’s local door-to-door bus service, has been reprieved. Locals who emerged from the Mole Valley budget meeting on February 20 thought the service would be lucky to survive. But Marcus Dodé, the East Surrey rural transport partnership officer, has told the Bugle that for now the yellow buses are safe.

As the Bugle reported last April, Buses4U was under a shadow because so few people use it. The service is an able-bodied alternative to Dial-a-Ride. Dial-a-Ride provides door-to-door transport for those who need vehicles with tail lifts or room for wheelchairs. 
But on weekdays any would-be traveller can contact Buses4U and ask for the bus to take them anywhere in an area within an area bounded by the A24, A23, M25 and the West Sussex border. Bookham residents can use the Buses4U service outside that area to go to Reigate , Redhill, Horley, Dorking or Leatherhead. 


Dodé told the Bugle this week: ‘There are absolutely no plans for its withdrawal. I'm happy to say that the Mole Valley Buses4U service is currently funded through a number of different sources.’

As well as fare receipts, he told the Bugle, Buses4U receives money from Surrey Primary Care Trust, Mole Valley council, Reigate & Banstead borough council, two local bus contracts with Surrey County Council (SCC) Passenger Transport, SCC's Community Transport budget, concessionary fares reimbursement, Bus Service Operator's Grant (from the Department for Transport), and a contract from the SCC Education Department.

Bookings can be made by phone (01730 815 518), text (07714 854 082) or email (buses4u@tandridge.gov.uk), giving your name, pick up time, pick up point, destination and, if you need it, a return time. 
Look at the areas of service to see the destinations available to you and the hours the bus operates. Fares are £1.50 single or £3 return for journeys up to four miles and £2.50 single or £5 return for longer journeys. 


More information available on the Buses4U website.