12^th June 2024

Dear Parents and Carers

Ravensmere Primary School Re-location

Following my recent letters, I am delighted to confirm that the relocation of Ravensmere Infant School to the Albert Pye site has been approved by the DfE’s Regional Director and will now proceed as proposed.

The relocation will take place in time for the children’s return to school after the summer holidays on Thursday 5th September 2024.

Following the relocation, the schools will continue to be known as The Albert Pye and Ravensmere Schools Federation.

While this is an exciting time for everyone involved, I also recognise that you may have a number of questions relating to this change. I hope the following points will be helpful in addressing these:

• Transition: Details will follow about transition activities for the Ravensmere children in the coming days.
• Uniform: All pupils will wear the green uniform currently worn at Albert Pye. We are pleased to be able to offer all existing Ravensmere pupils a new sweatshirt free of charge in time for the new term. Arrangements for this will be shared with you in due course.
• The Ravensmere site: Plans for the future use of the Ravensmere site are yet to be confirmed and we will continue to keep you updated on this.
• Accessing school information: We are in the process of combining the schools’ websites which will create one website containing all the information you need about The Albert Pye and Ravensmere Schools Federation. For the rest of this term, the Ravensmere website, social media and all contact details will remain unchanged.
• Work relating to the relocation: Our focus is on continuing to provide a consistently high quality of education to all our pupils across both schools for the rest of the summer term. Therefore, all work related to the relocation has been planned for the school holidays and there will be no disruption at either site during term time.
• Ravensmere Relocation Party: We will be holding a special event before the end of term to mark Ravensmere’s move and to share our many happy memories of the school. More details will follow soon.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact me, Mrs Aldous or Ms Creed.

I would like to thank you for your continued support and I look forward to you and your children benefiting from the continued success of The Albert Pye and Ravensmere Schools Federation.

Yours faithfully

Lynsey Holzer                                                                                                        
Chief Executive Officer                                                                                        
The Active Learning Trust                                                                                   

Why are we proposing this and what would be the benefits?

• A number of parents have asked us if this is feasible;
• No pupils in either school would be taught in mixed year group classes;
• More straightforward transition arrangements between Nursery and Reception and Year 2 and Year 3 for Ravensmere pupils;
• Ravensmere pupils would gain access to a playing field, improving their experience at play time and increasing the range of opportunities available during PE lessons;
• Ravensmere pupils would gain access to both breakfast club and after school club on-site, allowing full wrap-around care, there is currently a “walking bus” to the Albert Pye site;
• Ravensmere pupils would have greater access to music, art and other enrichment activities, which are not currently available to them;
• Even greater collaboration between staff at both schools; and
• Fewer car journeys and easier drop off and collection arrangements for parents and carers with children at both schools, reducing the environmental impact.

What will happen to the Ravensmere site?

If re-locating Ravensmere is found to be the best option, we would like to continue to use the school for educational purposes. Depending on your feedback, if the recommendation was to go ahead with the re-location we would work with Suffolk County Council, who own the Ravensmere school, to explore the possibility of using it to support children with additional needs.

How can you have your say?

A drop-in event will be held at Albert Pye Primary School on Thursday 14th March between 4-6pm  where you can come and find out more about this proposal.

If you are unable to attend this event but would like to comment on our proposal, you can have your say by:

• Accessing our online survey by clicking here
• Returning the completed form to the school office at either Ravensmere Infant School or The Albert Pye Community Primary School.(see form below)

We need all responses by 12 noon on Thursday 28th March.

What happens next?

The Active Learning Trust will consider all the responses received during the consultation and decide whether to complete a business case and send it to the Regional Department for Education (DfE) Director’s office for a decision.

We would like to hear from as many people as possible. Your views will help us to decide whether we make these changes.  We will also use any personal information to understand how different groups of people feel about our proposal.

We will process any personal information we receive from you in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Academy Trust’s data protection policy and guidelines. This means that The Active Learning Trust will hold your personal data and only use it for the purpose for which it was collected, being this consultation.

We won't identify individuals when reporting back our findings and, under our record management policy, we will keep this information for five years. We will also, under normal circumstances, not pass your personal data on to anyone else. However, we may be asked under access to information laws to publish or disclose some, or all, of the information you provide in response to this consultation, including any personal information. We will only do this where such disclosure will comply with such relevant information laws which include the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

Please could you respond by 12 noon on Thursday 28th March to ensure that your response can be used to inform any decision