Below is a list of questions we have received from parents and forwarded to the Councillor in advance of Friday's meeting:

• What is happening about the spaces other than classrooms that the school is losing?

• Is this affecting the school budget in any way? Having made parental donations, are these going to be used to cover any of these costs?

• Will the move to the temporary classrooms definitely happen on 18th September?

   

• How can we as parents feel assured that learning will not be affected this year?

   

• How does a roof repair take 8 months?

   

• Are the Council suing the first contractor Jerram Falkus? I believe this contractor to be doing work at other schools within the borough and based on the job at Stanley they should not be allowed near a school ever again.
   

• How is the Council compensating Stanley school for the enormous amount of additional disruption caused by the shoddy worked carried out by the incompetent original contractor. 6 years after the work was carried out, disruption continues. If you had just chosen the right company for the job, the Council could have saved a lot of money in the long run as well as a lot of bad PR.

   

• What support will you be putting in place in order to help the school staff with the new imminent classes move from the present venues - the hall and the gym - to the future classes in the School’s car park?

• Taking this situation as a “lesson learned” what measures are you putting in place in order to prevent this new contractor leaving without delivering/completing the work at the high spec and standard we all expect?

• The year 6 team is known to be very strong and very supportive. I am concerned that in these cases most staff would/might think to leave and to find a better place to work. Can we have a financial commitment from the Council in order to support the school with Staff retention schemes?

• Can the Council commit to help turning a dreadful situation into something good and positive for the children? For instance: support the school financially so the car park is nice and cosy maybe by buying flower beds and plants?

support the school with extra temporary caretakers to look after the car park area and assist the staff with the imminent move; finance further workshops, linked to the curriculum, for the children in years 5 and 6 so this year will be remembered positively and it would give the teachers the time to catch up with all the work not done due to the moves.

• This issue with the roof must have had dreadful implication on the day-to-day work that was supposed to be completed by staff and has been put on hold because of the new priorities given by the roof issues. Would the council be prepared to fund the post of a junior administrator in the office so that:

  • Senior administrators might have more time to support the rest of the staff with typing and other needs.

  • Staff in the office will have more resources and capacity for all the extra office workload resulting by these issues (e.g. organising meetings like this coming one with parents and Council representatives, councillors etc.)

  • Staff in the office will have more resources and the capacity to deal with parents queries contributing to maintaining the good relationship between school and pupils’ families.

• If the need arises, will the council commit financially to support the school in case of financial compensation to the parents who paid for hot school dinners and did not get what they paid for nearly two weeks – and more if the transfer of the year six children is delayed?

• Who has taken responsibility for this disaster of a build programme? the project has been almost farcical from start to finish (including the field fiasco) and I would like to understand who on the council was responsible for choosing the original contractor, what due diligence was carried out before the selection was made and did anyone from the council actually monitor the build programme and was the project signed off as completed satisfactorily?

• What lessons have Richmond council learnt from the poor delivery of the Stanley school building project.

• Does the contract Richmond council have with Jerram Falkus enable this work to be conducted under warranty.

• What measures have Richmond council put in place to ensure this does not occur with the procurement of future building projects in Richmond?

• What compensation or act of good faith will Richmond Council/ Jerram Falkus make towards Stanley school to say sorry for the stress and disruption it has caused the children and teachers of this school?

• Please clarify what 'limited propping' in Pine and Laurel means. Is there any risk of this roof falling down (including in adverse weather)?
   

• What were the building standards used to sign off the original work - low ones presumably - have these standards been significantly enhanced to prevent this waste of time, money and inconvenience in the future? Can the council assure schools that higher standards will be used in future?
   

• Is there a problem with the inspections or the builders used - are the council seeking compensation and giving it back to the school?
   

• What are the council doing (and paying for) to ensure inconvenienced children have a safe and comfortable working environment, not just something suboptimal they have to 'put up with' in their final year - they deserve better.
   

• Are the council proactively inspecting public building work of a similar type in all other locations and if necessary escalated the warning?