Lord Bill’s to remain two separate schools

IT has now been officially announced that a project to move Lord Williams’ Lower School in Towersey Road to the Upper School site in Oxford Road, creating one large school, is no longer on the cards.

Retiring Headteacher, David Wybron, told Thame.Net today: “The strategy moving forward will be to improve the facilities on our two separate sites through all the means open to us.”

‘Too risky’

Mr Wybron explained that the key reason for the change in direction is that the Local Authority (Oxfordshire County Council) no longer supports the project as it feels that there is too great a risk in terms of the investment necessary to support the costs of planning, including a possible bridging loan (so that new buildings at Oxford Road could be finished before moving students from the Lower School). Also, the local authority was anxious about the school’s ability to satisfy Sport England requirements for two rugby pitches.

Frustration over sports pitches

“This latter reason has been a source of frustration for us for many years,” said Mr Wybron, “and despite huge efforts by the school, we have not been able to satisfy their requirement for two rugby pitches to be replaced, even though this would have no effect on the sporting activities of the school.”

Better for commuting staff but the community not behind the scheme

“The single site aspiration was a good opportunity to provide more learning time for our students, to improve access to extra-curricular activities and to end staff commuting. It has been frustrating that local bodies have not been able to help us solve the rugby pitches problem. However, I have felt for some time, that the Thame community was never really behind the scheme and perhaps few people will be disappointed by this decision.”

New site for housing may be needed

The Towersey Road site will no longer be sold for housing as was intended by the Thame Neighbourhood Plan (now in the process of being revised) and reserve sites, also allowed for in the TNP, will now have to be considered for any new development, depending on the numbers of future housing planned for.

Mr Wybron concluded: “As we celebrate another year of excellent A Level results, I can understand why many in the local community do not want such a change, because the school continues to deliver a first class education to the young people of Thame and the surrounding villages.”