The Pinner Association
– The Voice of our Community
Harrow Council have kindly provided us with the presentation slides from the Residents Meeting held on 28th March
Daniel Lester Head of Communications at Harrow Council stated the following in an email
We are focusing at the moment on getting everything right for the Summer Term temporary arrangements for children, parents and the school – we should be able to focus more clearly on communicating with residents from next week.
In view of Pinner Wood School’s unexpected closure, the Heath Robinson Museum is offering a free art class in the Activity Studio to Pinner Wood children in Years 4 or 5 – must be aged 8 or over. Spaces are limited; book soon!
To book your free places click on the link below
I have received a message from “St. Jérôme Church of England Bilingual School”
During Thursday, Friday and over the weekend the team at St. Jérôme Church of England Bilingual School, along with the London Diocesan Board for Schools and Harrow Council have been working to assist with a solution for Pinner Wood School.
A letter has just been emailed to our parents, that you can also read here.
We are currently working on a FAQ page, but as you can imagine we have been a little busy. We believe in the Christian value of Outrageous Hospitality – so we could not but offer to help.
Having received confirmation this morning from the council; if you need to contact the council regarding questions/queries. Please use email address
[email protected]
Subject Line PINNER WOOD SCHOOL
or you can contact 020 8863 5611
Following the parents meeting this week as factsheet has been produced and can be accessed by clicking on the following link
http://www.harrow.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/9596/pinner_wood_school_faqs
Although the email address on the above document states [email protected] a new specific email has now been set up to deal with any queries over the closure.
This is [email protected]
If you are a local resident and would like to know more about the closure of Pinner Park School, a meeting is being held.
Location: West Lodge School
Date: 28 March
Time: 7pm
If you are concerned or have any other queries please email [email protected]
This meeting is primarily for the 700 residents that received a letter with the date included.
Headteacher – Mrs D Spruce Latimer Gardens, Pinner, Middx, HA5 3RA Telephone No: 0208 868 2468 Fax No: 0208 429 1629
E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.pinnerwood.harrow.sch.uk
23 March 2017
Dear Parents/Carers
Today we have had to take the very sad and difficult decision to close the site of Pinner Wood School from the end of the school day. We understand what a tremendous blow this will be for everyone, but we have to put the safety of the children first and follow the recommendations of the Council and industry experts.
Please do come to tonight’s meetings at West Lodge School at 6pm and 8pm to find out more about the decision and arrangements for the future.
We have always prided ourselves that Pinner Wood is a special school. A place of excellence, happiness and caring.
We are all determined the school we know and love will continue and we have the people here who will make that possible. I know we will come together as staff, governors, parents and children to ensure the spirit of Pinner Wood continues.
We are moving fast to secure new settings for our classes in the Summer Term. It is our preference to have the school together on a local site and so we will be working with the governors and the Local Authority to achieve that as soon as possible.
Children are not to come to school tomorrow, Friday 24th March. From Monday 27th March, Year 6 will take a week of classes at Whitefriars School. From Wednesday 19th April years 3, 4 and 5 will join year 6 at Whitefriars School. Reception, year 1 and year 2 will move in to buildings on the Civic Centre site that were previously occupied by Marlborough School. I will give you further details of classes and transport offer as soon as I have them and offer you the opportunity to visit your children there when we are settled.
Our thanks to the Local Authority and Chris Spruce, Head of Whitefriars School for making this possible so quickly.
Going forward we will contact you by parent mail and posting messages on the website. We will do everything we can to keep you fully informed of the emerging picture. Thank you for your support.
Yours sincerely
Mrs D Spruce Headteacher
Closure of Pinner Wood School site at end of school day today
Dear parents and carers,
The site of Pinner Wood School is closing at the end of the school day today after a joint decision by Harrow Council, the governors and the leadership team of Pinner Wood School.
The reason for the closure is that geotechnical surveys have this week reported an unacceptable risk that the ground beneath the school buildings and playgrounds could become unstable and unsafe, due to the condition of very recently discovered chalk mine tunnels below.
The professional advice provided to us and the joint view of the Council and the school is that immediate closure of the site is prudent, reasonable and proportionate.
Pupils will not return to the site until further notice. The Council is locating appropriate educational settings elsewhere in Harrow, where Nursery to Year 5 classes will relocate in time for the start of the Summer Term. Year 6 classes will relocate to Whitefriars School and resume on Monday 27 March. For details of current plans for the relocation of classes and transport of pupils, see the accompanying letter from head teacher Deb Spruce.
For a summary of the findings leading to today’s decision, and the next steps for making the school site safe, please see overleaf.
The Council would like to invite parents and carers to one of three briefing and information evenings where you can find out more details and discuss our next steps. They are:
Today, Thursday 23 March, 6pm-7.30pm at West Lodge School Hall, Pinner
Today, Thursday 23 March, 8pm-9.30pm at West Lodge School Hall, Pinner
Tomorrow, Friday 24 March, 5pm-6.30pm at West Lodge School Hall, Pinner
We would like to stress that the imminent risk to the school buildings is believed to be small. The structure of the buildings is not showing any areas of concern. Regular full assessment and inspections by structural engineers have found no anomalies.
With the evidence to hand, we are certain that this is the right decision. The Council would never ask or permit any school to operate when there is a known risk, however small, to the safety of the site or the staff and children within it.
We acknowledge that closing the school site will cause huge disruption to the lives and schooling of local people, and we apologise for the great inconvenience this decision will inevitably cause.
Yours sincerely
Michael Lockwood
A summary of the findings leading to today’s decision and next steps
During the summer holidays of 2015, a hole unexpectedly opened up in the tarmac of the staff car park at Pinner Wood School. The hole was roughly 3 metres wide and 1 metre deep.
The Council and school made the area safe and commissioned specialist geotechnical engineers, structural engineers, environmental engineers, surveyors, geophysicists and health and safety professionals to analyse the causes of the hole. They determined that the hole was situated on top of an old, disused shaft. The material used historically to backfill that shaft, they concluded, had only been loosely compacted and had subsided – creating a hole.
In the light of that discovery, we undertook to continue our investigations to make certain of the condition of the ground under and all around Pinner Wood School.
Over the past 21 months, extensive studies including probing and drilling had given no reason to believe there is any risk to the stability or safety of the school’s buildings or the site.
Our latest surveys, however, deploying the most modern laser-imaging techniques and deployed from targeted boreholes, have in recent days revealed previously unknown and uncharted chalk mines beneath the school estate, located roughly 20 metres below the surface. Some of these mine tunnels stretch directly underneath the school’s main buildings.
Furthermore, our latest surveys indicate that at least two of the tunnels underneath the school have partial roof collapses. There is also evidence that spoil (largely made up of clay and sand) has fallen from above, into the voids below. It is not known when these collapses occurred.
The professional advice provided to us is that these roof collapses are likely to migrate through the ground and open up new surface holes under or near the school at some point in the future. This could put staff and children at risk or even compromise the structure of the school building.
Furthermore, our work, though extensive, is not exhaustive. It now appears likely from the information we have that there may be further as-yet-undiscovered tunnels, collapses and shafts in other parts of the school estate.
As a result of the professional advice provided to us, the joint view of the Council and the school is that immediate closure of the site is prudent, reasonable and proportionate.
More extensive testing of the ground throughout the site is now essential, to assess the site’s condition and safety. Such a survey is an extremely intrusive process involving rigs, drills and probes and is likely to take months, once the site is vacated.
Our hope and expectation is that, following that comprehensive survey, we will be able to stabilise the ground and return the site to a safe condition – probably by pumping a quantity of material underground to fill the mines themselves. The school would then, subject to a full structural assessment, be able to return to its current site and buildings.
It may, however, be the case that it is not economically feasible to restore the ground and that the school may never reopen in its current form on its current site.
All our investigations have been limited to the school site and although the full extent of the workings are yet to be determined, currently we know of no reason to suggest that the tunnels we have discovered to date stretch under neighbouring properties.
Pinner Wood School might never reopen, the council has warned.
A junior school is facing an uncertain future after a chalk mine was discovered beneath it.
Geological surveys have found an “unacceptable risk” that the ground below the Pinner Wood School, in Pinner, north-west London, could become unstable, Harrow Council said.
Pupils of the primary school have been told they will not be able to return to the site until further notice.
But it is also possible they will never be able to return to their school.
Harrow Council said classes would relocate to other educational settings for the summer term while more tests were carried out to assess the site’s condition and safety.
The recently discovered chalk mines are likely to date from about 1800.
Laser imaging of the previously uncharted and unknown tunnels reveal they stretch beneath the school buildings and that mine roofs have collapsed in certain places.
But the surveys could take months and it is possible the ground underneath the school will be deemed so unsafe that the school can never reopen in its current location.
Geological surveys have shown the ground beneath the primary school to be unstable
The leader of Harrow Council, Sachin Shah, said: “With the evidence we have discovered in the past few days, we are certain that this is the right decision.
“We would like to stress that the imminent risk to the school buildings is believed to be small.”
Dr Clive Edmonds, partner at Peter Brett Associates, which carried out the geotechnical surveys, said it was likely that the mines dated from the early 1800s.
“As is common for chalk mines of this age there are no mine abandonment plans and the mine workings are in a state of breakdown, as confirmed by the laser survey, posing a hazard to surface stability.”
