West Ealing Neighbours

A view along Radbourne Walk

As an allotment holder on the Northfields site I have an interest in this.  The Northfields allotments are now self-managed – by the Ealing Dean Allotment Society (EDAS)  – and it needs support to get a grant to make a little hidden gem of green space called Radbourne Walk even better!  Radbourne Walk is the name now given to the footpath that runs along the back of the allotments parallel to Northfield Ave. If you’ve walked down it in the past 12 months or so I hope you’ll have noticed  some changes with weeds cleared, poppies and other wildflowers giving a splash of colour in spring and summer.  This work was all done by volunteers and organised by EDAS. It now wants to make Radbourne Walk even better by putting in a new surface to replace the current rutted, muddy one and installing low-level solar lighting. They also want to plant new trees and fill in the gaps on the hedge with native species such as hawthorn, buckthorn, spindle, hazel and elder plus dogwood, dog rose and more which are ideal for wildlife.

EDAS wants to apply for a grant from the Council’s share of the Capital Clean Up Fund. Your help is needed for them to have a chance of success getting a grant. All you need to do is visit their website and leave a mesage of support. The more support they get the more likely they are to get a grant. Here’s just one message of support so far:

‘Many families use this as their ‘country walk’ at the weekends. I think this work would definitely raise the standard of this forgotten footpath, for everyone’

You can find out much more about Radbourne Walk here.

Thank you for your support.

I remember being told that for an area to thrive it needs good schools.  A few weeks ago I drove past St John’s Primary School in Felix Road and a banner caught my eye.  The banner proudly declared the school had a ‘good’ rating from its recent Ofsted report. So, I thought I’d ask the school about it and here is their reply:

‘Staff and pupils at St John’s Primary are celebrating a very positive report by Ofsted following an Inspection on the 1st and 2nd of July 2014. The school was inspected under Ofsted’s more rigorous framework for inspections during the two days, where the inspectors observed lessons, interviewed staff, governors, children and parents. The school secured a judgement of “Good” in all four categories including achievement, teaching and learning, leadership and management and behaviour and safety. “We are proud our Ofsted Report which recognises sustained improvements and has judged it to be good in all areas.” said Head Teacher, Marilyn Borlase.’
Highlights in the report include the comments that:
‘Behaviour is good and this is greatly valued by the pupils and their parents. Pupils say that they always feel safe in school’

‘Teaching is good. Teachers use information about pupils’ progress to plan work which challenges them well’

‘The school is a happy and lively community’

‘Teachers manage their classes well and very good use is made of additional adults to help all pupils do their best work’

Ofsted 2014

Congratulations to Marilyn Borlase, all her teachers and team at St John’s.

In case you want to check on the Ofsted rating for any other local school you can start here and follow the links to the particular school you want.

Out of interest I checked other local primary schools and all had ‘good’ ratings from their last Ofsted report  – Drayton Green, Fielding and Oaklands. Also,  Elthorne Park High School, on the back of its recent GCSE results, is the most improved high school in Ealing over the past two years. Congratulations to them too.