School loses bid for £5m fresh start

8:16pm Wednesday 14th May 2008

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A plan to wipe the slate clean by giving a failing Oxford school a £5m makeover has been scrapped after a bid for funding fell through.

Rose Hill Primary School, in The Oval, was set to become the first school in Oxford to be granted Fresh Start status - meaning it could reopen under a new name, with new buildings, staff and facilities.

The 300-pupil school has been in special measures since January. Its buildings have been described as "unfit for purpose" by its headteacher.

But Oxfordshire County Council's bid to secure Government money to pay for improvements fell through because the school did not fit the criteria.

Today, angry parents demanded to know why they had been kept in the dark over the bid's failure.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families took the decision three months ago.

Maria O'Callaghan, 40, a mother-of-four from Jersey Road, said: "I'm disap- pointed.

"We have been kept too much in the dark. If they have known that long, they could have written to us.

"The school needs funding desperately. It's improving all the time but it's still not good enough."

Samantha Lismore-Barson, a mother-of-five, from St Martin's Road, added: "I would have liked to have known earlier. Maybe we could have appealed and supported the school."

The county council asked for £4.7m for new buildings and another £503,850 for staffing improvements, as part of the Fresh Start bid.

A Government spokesman said the school was turned down because it was already improving and a funding project of that size would be best provided under the department's primary capital programme.

The county council has subsequently applied for schools Improvement funding of £400,000 over three years - roughly one-thirteenth of the amount it originally applied for.

Following the Oxford Mail's inquiries, head- teacher Sue Mortimer sent a letter to parents tonight, explaining the school was disappointed about the decision, because the money would have allowed the provision of additional staff and more resources.

She said parents had not been informed earlier, because conversations about other sources of funding were continuing.

She said: "We wanted to tell them some positive news".

Council education spokesman John Mitchell said the decision to delay informing parents about the bid's failure was sensible as it would have enabled parents to see the full picture.