We, the staff at St John's School, Northwood, are under threat of losing teaching and non-teaching staff. A Council decision will be made in the next few weeks in which a number of us may lose our jobs.

The main issue is that the Council feel that staff numbers have added to the traffic congestion on Potter Street Hill, which has caused a few local residents to complain.

We disagree with this because of the following points:

* Most of the staff at the school do not use Potter Street Hill and therefore do NOT add to the congestion at all.

* The vast majority of full-time teaching staff arrive well before the parents, and leave long after the end of the school day.

* Parking is provided for all staff on the school premises, away from any parental traffic zones.

* Some staff actually live on the school premises or are close enough to walk.

* Teaching and non-teaching staff numbers have remained in line with those provided by the school in 2001.

* St John's is simply seeking to maintain the current staff numbers in line with comparable local schools.

Without the current staff numbers, our school cannot continue to thrive and provide the boys with opportunities to grow and develop into responsible members of the community. In the words of the latest ISI Report (Independent Schools Inspectorate Report): ‘Boys... in discussion with Inspectors... were overwhelmingly supportive of their school.’

Please sign this petition. We can't underline enough how much difference your support will make.

Planning Application 10795/APP/2011/2627

We the undersigned are writing to you to support the recent St John’s School application (number above) to ratify the current staff numbers at the School.
It is clear that back in 2001 there were already approximately forty fte teaching staff working at St John’s. Further to that, there was also at least twenty fte non-teaching staff working at the School.  It is therefore clear to us that when the planning agreement was put in place in 2001 that it was not specific or accurate in terms of staff numbers. Clearly an establishment such as St John’s will need approximately 60 – 65 fte staff to function properly. Note that the two other local Preparatory schools educating similar numbers have comparable staff numbers.
Obviously, traffic has been perceived to be an issue on Potter Street Hill by some local residents. However, the vast majority of the staff travel to work well before 8am (or well after in the case of the kitchen staff, for instance) and travel home well after the majority of children are picked up. Therefore, the staff commutes have no impact at all on the traffic flows on Potter Street Hill. Indeed many of the staff do not even use Potter Street Hill and five live on site.
It is also clear that even with the School reducing its numbers down to 350 pupils, there is no way that the School could continue to function on a total of just 40 fte staff. The School would not be viable and as a result there would be over 70 redundancies and 350 children would be looking for a new school. We are sure you will agree that this is certainly not a position that would be in anyone’s interest. We are sure that there would be a rather unpleasant knock-on effect on local state and independent schools which would no doubt result in increased traffic away from Potter Street Hill onto other public highway routes in Northwood and surrounding areas. We daresay that there would also be an increased burden on pupil numbers on the local state and independent schools. It is a matter of public record that the LBH have concerns about the lack of education places available in the state school system.
Returning to the traffic issue briefly, we ought to point out that the School, as of last year, won awards for their work undertaken through the School Travel Plan and putting various strategies into place to improve the traffic flow.
St John’s School has in recent years made useful contributions to the local area through visiting residential homes such Erskine Hall and educational establishments such as Sunshine House. St John’s School also sponsor the Northwood Hills Christmas Tree and participated in the celebrations with the Mayor and the turning on of the Christmas lights. Further to that St John’s School has made some phenomenal contributions to charities. In the last nine years the School has donated £136,900 to charities such as Water Aid, the NSPCC and the National Deaf Children’s Society. St John’s has helped build a school in Malawi and close to hand we engage in conservation projects such as bee-keeping and woodland development. The school is currently running a Tag Rugby Tournament at which local state primary schools are attending.  We think it is fair to say that should the School be refused in its planning application, these fantastic contributions and the level of the school’s involvement with these and future charities will cease. In the current economic climate this would be a great shame.
Further to the above point, it seems quite extraordinary that any Council would put at risk a perfectly viable and flourishing school that achieves very high educational standards as evidenced by the ISI inspection team because of an oversight and mis-understanding over ten years ago and the chagrin of a handful of local residents. The School also has no plans to increase staff numbers in the future and simply wants to ensure the continued well-being of its staff and pupils.
St John’s is a successful and thriving school. Please allow it to continue that way.