Templemoor Infant School

This statement has been provided by the governing body of Templemoor Infant School in response to Trafford Council's proposal to amalgamate the separate infant and junior schools. 

Governing body statement

Prompted by the resignation of our Headteacher, Templemoor’s governing board met on 28 March 2023 to discuss the issue of a possible amalgamation with Moorlands Junior School and to explore the advantages and disadvantages of a merger. After a discussion with the Director of Education for Trafford Council, we voted unanimously not to pursue an amalgamation with Moorlands. Whilst the board recognised that in principle the amalgamation of infant and junior schools may present some benefits, we decided that in the case of Templemoor, there are certain operational and strategic issues which mean that any potential benefits do not outweigh the possible negative implications for our school. We concluded therefore that an amalgamation would not be in the best interests of the quality of education for our children, nor the safety of our pupils given the distance between the schools and the busy road dissecting the route between Moorlands and Templemoor.

Impracticality of a split site school

There is no safe, practical and affordable solution to physically facilitating the movement of pupils and staff between the two sites. Transit between the two sites would mean pupils and staff moving through an area around which there are considerable road safety concerns. This activity would also take up valuable time and necessitate extra staffing for safeguarding purposes. Any drive to create 'one school' would be thwarted by the inevitable ongoing operation of them both as separate sites meaning that for parents/carers and pupils the two sites would continue to feel like two separate schools, negating the effects of amalgamation. Post expansion the amalgamated school size will be over 650 pupils which we believe will be too challenging to manage effectively for one leadership team and one governing board across the two sites. Neither school can accommodate the combined future school size for whole school events and no further investment is available to develop the schools to make them fit for purpose by adapting the buildings to meet the needs of an amalgamated school.

Need for stability for children and staff

To pursue an amalgamation at this point would be to introduce further unnecessary instability into our schools at a time when staff are managing children’s educational recovery post-covid and the demands of the current school expansion projects. The quality of our children’s education will be optimised by allowing our staff to focus on the challenges posed by these two areas without the uncertainty and upheaval an amalgamation would inevitably bring. 

Benefits for children of remaining as an Infant School

Keeping Templemoor as a separate school will help us to maintain the small school, family atmosphere we strive to create and which our pupils and parents/carers value so highly. Nursery and early years education is a specialism and Templemoor staff are all early years specialists, experts at nurturing the emotional, physical and cognitive growth of young children. The success of our school is due to the staff, including the Headteacher and Senior Leaders, being trained and experienced early years specialists. Our ethos, teaching practice, curriculum and policies have all been developed specifically with the needs of infant children at their core. We are concerned that the leadership of the amalgamated school would dilute the focus on this very particular stage of a child’s education and therefore lead to a drop in the quality of education for the infant and nursery phase. There is already effective liaison between the two schools, for example in terms of transition to KS2 and the school already uses some common services, such as the Educational Psychologist, ensuring that key pupil data is shared effectively from infants to juniors. 

Benefits for parents of remaining as an Infant School

Many parents choose Templemoor as an infant specific school as they value the focus that this brings and are aware of our ethos and reputation. Being part of a large, amalgamated school operating over split sites may mean that the Headteacher and other staff are less accessible to parents/carers and pupils. Some of the potential benefits of a merger could be achieved by developing a closer working relationship with Moorlands and certainly a common uniform could be pursued without an amalgamation taking place.  

Financial impact of proposed amalgamation

The headline saving of the Headteacher’s salary must be viewed against the fact that the amalgamation of the two schools will lead to a loss of funding compared to the funding for two separate schools. This is particularly concerning with the ongoing pressure on school budgets. We believe it would be likely that more costs would be incurred to add further leadership roles to effectively manage a school of this size over two split sites. Some savings related to the economies of scale would also not be realised as the school would still be operating on two sites e.g., the cost of cleaning, maintenance and catering.

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