This follows an announcement that the Synergy Multi Academy Trust, which runs 15 schools across Norfolk, plans to make 25 posts at the high school redundant, including 16 teachers.

An online petition that calls for a reversal of the planned job cuts has more than 1,150 signatures and a dedicated Facebook page has over 500 followers to date.

The proposed job cuts will be the topic of conversation on Teachers Talk Radio this evening (Tuesday 17 December) from 7.30–9 pm, including a representative from the National Education Union and anyone that wants to call in. Listen live HERE.

According to an organiser of the Stand With RHSC Teachers & Staff parent action group, meetings have been requested with local MPs, including Steffan Aquarone, Jerome Mayhew and Alice Macdonald.

The post Parents to protest against proposed high school job cuts appeared first on REEPHAM LIFE.

The benefits of gardening are well known: common sense, anecdote and academic research all reveal the same truth – being outside, hands on with nature, is good for both our physical and mental health.

A desire to see as many young people as possible benefit from the opportunities and outlook that gardening provides has shaped the unique charitable purpose of the Papillon Project, that of establishing and developing secondary school allotments.

When Matt Willer established the Allotment Project at Reepham High School in 2015 he had little idea how successful the project would become.

Currently, the Papillon Project works with 32 schools across Norfolk, reaching thousands of young people to help them understand and develop skills in food production, horticulture, environmental awareness, communication and teamwork.

At other times Papillon allotments simply provide a different type of space for young people, one in which they can relax, away from technology, examinations and the myriad pressures of modern life.

The allotments at Reepham High School are growing from strength to strength, not exactly a “jewel in the crown” of the Papillon Project, but certainly a “cabbage in the compost”.

The Papillon Project employs a small team who transform land to create new plots, help maintain the productivity of established allotments and support schools with educational enrichment on the allotments.

However, to maintain the charity the project relies for its success on a great number of volunteers, both on the allotment and in the “office”.

These stalwarts enable the school allotments to thrive, the charity to grow and young people to cultivate food for themselves and their local community.

Gardens demand a lot in terms of time, effort and knowledge. Without the time, work and insight of its volunteers the wonderful resources the Papillon Project freely provides schools and young people with could not continue.

For more information about the Papillon Project (charity no. 1189383) or to enquire about volunteering, please visit the website or contact by email.

The post Help with creating and developing school allotments appeared first on REEPHAM LIFE.

Reepham Primary School pupils donated 143 kilograms of food and Reepham High School collected 158 kilograms. Together, this amount will feed 43 people for three days.

This harvest season local churches and schools have donated 2.4 tonnes of food and toiletries.

As part of the Trussell Trust network of foodbanks, Mid Norfolk Foodbank provides three-day nutritionally balanced emergency food parcels to local people referred to the charity in short-term crisis.

Last year, from April 2022 to April 2023, the foodbank fed 4,878 people, including 2,031 children, according to the foodbank’s operations manager, Suzanne Bushby.

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Cllr Stuart Beadle

Cllr Stuart Beadle proposed that the town should have such a plan within a few months of being elected in May 2019, but the town council at the time declined.

“It is a town council decision,” he said. “If the process had been started it should have been completed and be in place by now with the weight of a referendum of the electorate of the town supporting the policies decided within the town.”

He continued: “A neighbourhood plan covers many things. By using mainly grant-funded professional consultants the residents of the town would be consulted by questionnaires on many issues, including the nature of any development, what facilities should be provided or improved, and, crucially, a neighbourhood plan has to be taken into account by Broadland District Council in deciding planning policies and planning applications. All this is done with the help and support of the district council.”

Cllr Beadle said that when a residential plan is successful, the developer has to pay a Community Infrastructure Levy, of which 15% goes to the town council for community use. “If the town has completed a neighbourhood plan, this rises to 25%,” he pointed out.

Speaking about the Broomhill Lane development, which recently received planning consent, Cllr Beadle, who is a governor of Reepham High School and College (RHSC), said he supported the applications on the basis of the community benefits that Reepham could receive.

These include a developer contribution of £1.5 million towards a new indoor sports hall for RHSC and converting the existing sports hall to a modern performing arts studio, with both facilities available for school and community use.

In addition, the residential development of 141 new houses will include 39 “affordable” homes (28% of the total) comprising 19 houses, four flats and three wheelchair-accessible bungalows, all to let, with a further 14 properties for shared ownership.

“All the let properties will be given preference to people with a Reepham connection,” said Cllr Beadle.

Answering a question at last week’s meeting of Reepham Town Council, Cllr Beadle confirmed that the approval of the Broomhill Lane planning applications was not the result of Reepham not having a neighbourhood plan, which the town council said had been not been ruled out.

See our earlier stories:

• Town council unconvinced about benefits of a neighbourhood plan
• Neighbourhood plan back on the agenda
• Plans for large housing development approved

The post Missed opportunity with no neighbourhood plan, says district councillor appeared first on REEPHAM LIFE.

The proposals, which include a 0.3-hectare extension of the town’s Whitwell Road cemetery, were discussed at a meeting of Broadland District Council’s planning committee on Wednesday 7 September, after last-minute postponements at the July and August meetings.

Also approved were separate but related planning applications for a new sports hall for Reepham High School & College (RHSC) and widening of the Broomhill Lane junction with Whitwell Road and the introduction of traffic calming measures and a shared cycleway and footpath.

A number of objections to the plans were raised by residents and other bodies, including the impact on the sewage system, traffic on adjacent roads, the loss of school playing field space and the level of affordable housing, although this has been increased to 28% of the total, with 39 of the new homes to be “affordable”.

The site was originally designated for 100–120 homes, the meeting was reminded.

Speaking in favour of the plans, RHSC head teacher Tim Gibbs said the school’s existing sports hall was “inadequate” and noted that both the high school and college are not at capacity. “More houses will mean more financial security for the school,” he stated.

Mr Gibbs added that the school was not short of playing fields and that the old sports hall could eventually be transformed into a performing arts centre that could also be used by the community.

However, questions remain over whether the sports hall will be built in the long term, despite a £1.5 million contribution from the developer Lovell Homes under a Section 106 agreement.

Broadland District Councillor for the Reepham Ward, Stuart Beadle, who sits on the planning committee and is also a governor of RHSC, abstained from participating in the meeting as a committee member and did not vote on the proposals.

But speaking as district councillor, Mr Beadle highlighted the many benefits of the plans, both to the community as well as the high school.

See our earlier stories:

• Major housing development decision postponed
• More delays to Broomhill Lane housing development

The post Plans for large housing development approved appeared first on REEPHAM LIFE.

The Papillon Project, which grew out of Reepham High School’s Allotment Project is now a registered charity and continues to support Reepham’s school allotment on a regular basis.

The project’s founder, Matt Willer, now aims to raise £10,000 for the charity by walking barefoot from Thetford to Holme-next-the-Sea, a distance of 46 miles (74 km), from Saturday 31 July to Sunday 1 August.

Founded in 2019, the Papillon Project helps to establish school allotments to benefit young people and the planet, working in more than 20 secondary schools and colleges throughout Norfolk.

Mr Willer, who was a teacher at Reepham High School before leaving to work full-time at the Papillon Project, said: “School is about so much more than passing exams. We work closely with young people to bring them closer to nature and experience the benefits of the great outdoors: growing food, developing manual skills and crafts, and learning about environmental awareness and sustainable living.

“Our school allotments are flourishing, but each one requires time and resources. Our volunteers are unpaid, so all money raised will go directly into our projects – from the necessary materials and equipment they require, to supporting teachers and teaching assistants with the supervision and maintenance of their allotment sites.”

Mr Willer said that by walking barefoot, he wanted to represent how humans should now tread carefully when it comes to our relationship to nature, and the need to reduce our carbon footprint as soon as possible.

“I am also totally flat-footed and was born with a talipes (twisted) right foot, which corrected when I was young. Although both conditions certainly don’t cause me any impediment, my right foot especially does almost always ache after a long walk.”

To sponsor Matt Willer on his barefoot walk, click HERE

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These concern a proposed residential development of 141 houses off Broomhill Lane and the widening of the road situated to the south of Reepham town centre.

While the original site allocation was for a maximum of 120 dwellings, property developer Lovell Homes has added a further 21 houses to the plans and moved the proposed sports hall from the 7.5-hectare development site to part of the existing school playing fields, adjacent to Whitwell Road.

The 1,340 m² sports hall would be partly funded by proceeds from the housing development, with opportunities for the local community and sporting teams to use the facility outside school hours, although uncertainties have been expressed about the viability of project.

At its meeting on 10 February, Reepham Town Council restated its earlier objections to the sports hall, particularly the loss of high school land and in view of a possible increase in student numbers with the housing development, which could add around 320 residents to the town.

The district council has received a number of comments on the sports hall planning application, including objections from Sport England and the Ruth Nicholls Volleyball Foundation.

The documents relating to planning application 20201183 can be viewed on Broadland District Council Planning Explorer.

See our earlier stories:

• High school submits plans for new sports hall
• Community benefits from new high school sports hall

The post Objections to new school sports hall continue appeared first on REEPHAM LIFE.

You may be aware that there are early plans to build a new sports hall at Reepham High School & College. This would be fantastic, as we are one of the few high schools in the area without one.

When I joined RHSC in 1996, I was told by my predecessor, Mike Rowson, that the current sports hall was built in the early 1970s, half-sized, with a plan to extend it fully in the future. Clearly, that never happened, so we are left with what is, frankly, not a great facility.

Subsequently, it could be easily argued that every sport we play in that hall is compromised, and therefore the physical education of our pupils is compromised too; this is not acceptable for our young people.

A new sports hall would be fantastic for the area, as we fully intend to make it a joint school and community use facility.

We currently sit in the middle of an area without a sports hall, surrounded by other towns and schools with such a facility, all of which cannot be called “local”. This is clearly unfair on our pupils – and the wider community.

It would be wonderful to see local sports teams and clubs using the new sports hall out of school hours, and it becoming a key sporting hub for Reepham and the surrounding area.

Fortunately, we enjoy a huge school playing field, which has been in existence since the opening of Reepham College more than ten years ago, so the news sports hall can be placed perfectly for easy access for community use – without compromising the security of the school site.

There would also be other knock-on benefits of this new accommodation, as our plan would be to turn the old hall into an impressive performing arts facility, again with the potential for community use.

In summary, a new sports hall would represent an important and long overdue improvement to the school and community’s sporting life.

But, from a headteacher’s point of view, please understand the main aim of a new sports hall is to ensure our community’s young people can be involved in a truly first-class physical education experience, as we try to equip them for an active, happy and healthy life.

See our earlier stories:

• Town council objects to Broomhill Lane housing development plans
• Plans submitted for 141 houses off Broomhill Lane

The post Community benefits from new high school sports hall appeared first on REEPHAM LIFE.

The school, which has 1,055 pupils and is part of the Synergy Multi Academy Trust, was inspected in early February.

The inspection was the first since 2016 and saw the school retain its “good” rating after recent changes to curriculums in core subjects and doing away with grades for year seven pupils in a bid to improve GCSE results.

See the full story HERE

The post High school maintains good’ Ofsted rating appeared first on REEPHAM LIFE.

Indicative sketch of the proposed multi-use sports hall

The plans indicate a total of 141 new dwellings on the 7.5-hectare site, as well as a new sports hall for the high school and improvements to Broomhill Lane.

The site will comprise a mix of one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom houses, together with public green space, associated infrastructure and an extension to the existing cemetery on Whitwell Road.

The development proposal includes 28 “affordable” homes – somewhat lower than Broadland District Council’s target of 30% affordable homes out of all housing completions.

Vehicle access will be via Broomhill Lane only and there will be provision for visitor parking.

Lovell is proposing a mix of three main styles of building defined as “parkland edge”, “tertiary street” and “urban”. The company said it uses sustainable products “wherever possible” in building homes.

If approved, the housing development could add around 320 residents to the town’s existing population of just over 2,700 – an increase of almost 12%.

Meanwhile, concerns have been raised about increased traffic on Whitwell Road and School Road and at Townsend Corner, especially at school times and peak periods, and the existing overcapacity at the schools and doctors’ surgery, as well as the water treatment works.

The Broomhill Lane site was allocated for residential development of 120 homes in 2016 under Broadland District Council’s adopted development plan (policy REP1).

Speaking at a public exhibition held in Reepham Town Hall last week, Jason Barrett-Brown, development co-ordinator for property developer Lovell Homes, said the increase in the number of homes (+21) on the site was needed to fund building the sports facility, which is now proposed on land south of the sixth form college on part of the existing playing fields.

The multi-use sports hall, which could also be available for use by residents and other public visitors, will include four badminton courts, a reception area, changing and shower facilities, and amenity areas. Access to the sports hall will be via the existing school car park and parking facilities.

A planning application is expected to be made within the next few months. If approved, preparations could start as early as this summer, initially with the upgrading of Broomhill Lane, said Mr Barrett-Brown.

He added that preparatory building work could begin in September/October, with the completion of up to 50 properties a year, which equates to a three-year build programme.

See our earlier stories:

• Public exhibition for Broomhill Lane development
• Planning inspector gives green light for Broomhill Lane housing

The post Broomhill Lane housing plans unveiled appeared first on REEPHAM LIFE.