Parent's at a Teddington primary school have vented further 'frustration' after a meeting is pushed back to discuss incomplete renovation works as autumn term.

The headteacher, Ian Dickinson, sent out a letter to parents detailing that the meeting to discuss the 'building project' at Stanley Primary School, in Strathmore Road, will be pushed from September 12 to September 15 as Cllr Susan Chappell cannot make the original date.

Harriet Filmer, 46, from Twickenham, is now ‘outraged’ with the postponed meeting after receiving the first letter informing her that the roof was 'worse than originally thought' so ‘temporary classrooms’ would be in place when her children began school on September 6.

Mrs Filmer, who has a daughter going into year six, said: “This information just creates further frustration for the Stanley school team and parents.

"The local authority continues to fail to conduct their role and be accountable."

The original letter received on September 1 explained that ‘immediate extensive remedial work is needed’ to the roof on the year five and six block after work throughout the summer revealed the real conditions.

Mrs Filmer added: "We got the letter via parent mail five days before the children were going back to school.

“It is ridiculous and unacceptable and a complete surprise.

“This is all we know at the moment and we have had no opportunity to ask questions before they went back but as far as the school goes they have a plan hatched with the local authority.”

The school, which scored ‘requires improvement’ in an Ofsted inspection in December 2016, informed parents that the roof ‘needs to be propped and supported from below with scaffolding towers erected within the year six area’.

Consequently ‘alternate classrooms for year six children’ would be provided for the duration of the work which is expected to take ‘eight months to complete’.

Mrs Filmer added: “There has to be a better solution though that this - the school have already had all sorts of issues when carrying out previous renovation works.

“At one stage not all the kids could play on the same day on the field because it wasn’t big enough and each class had a field day.

“They are proposing eight months but we all know building work goes on for longer – it is likely to be the entire school year at this rate.”

After the school met with the local council ‘high quality accommodation’ was secured and the children are to be taught in a ‘four-classroom block’ in the current staff car park - expected to be in place from September 18.

Until then the children will be merged from ‘four morning classes into two larger groups’ in the ‘temporary classrooms in the hall and gym’ taught by two teacher each who will be supported by the year group teaching assistants.

Mrs Filmer said: “There have just been seven weeks of holiday how are there no classrooms for these years.

“You can’t blame me for thinking the temporary classrooms will not just be for two weeks - it is not good and it is unacceptable.”

The letter also stated changes to school teaching curriculum for the first three days of term for year six students.

“For the first three days of term we have commissioned a company to provide a number of cross curricular activities to support the projects taught in year 6, these will be exciting and engaging activities to start the new year for the children. From Monday 11th September the children will be following the year 6 curriculum as planned.”

Mrs Filmer said: “Also why is it the year six being affected – this is such an important year for them with SATs etc why can’t they do some adjustments and use the temporary classrooms for younger years who mostly play anyway.

“The first week will be an absolute nightmare I think.”

The entire school has ultimately been affected as the hall space is out of operation for the other years and only a ‘packed lunch option for school meals’ is available.

The headteacher said: "It has been a very calm and successful start to the term for the children despite the frustration and upset we have faced due to delays to the ongoing building project, which are outside of our control.

“Within 5 working days of being told the year six children would not be able to use their classrooms, staff have worked above and beyond to transform the halls into good teaching spaces for the children, four teachers and support staff to work in.

The renovation problems come shortly after another Ofsted inspection as required by the Education Act 2005 in June to monitor the actions being taken to improve the school after it scored ‘requires improvement’ in three of the five categories in its statutory inspection in 2016.

The headteacher added: “The children’s education remains our priority, continuing the improvements recognised by our recent Ofsted monitoring visit and strong SATs results.

“Parents have been very supportive and recognise the work undertaken by staff to get the children into school on time.”

The original report outlined key aspects which need to be addressed including “Leaders have not responded effectively to pupils’ underachievement in recent years”, “The differences in outcomes between disadvantaged pupils and other pupils persist” and “The quality of teaching requires improvement as teachers do not give all pupils sufficiently challenging work to enable them to achieve their best”.

After the results were published, Jo Merritt, the chair of governors and the headmaster contacted parents explaining they were ‘disappointed that the timing of the inspection did not allow the inspectors to judge the impact of the improvement strategies already in place’.

The letter sent out also emphasised the positive feedback from the report such as ‘Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural education is incorporated into all aspects of school life’, ‘Children quickly gain in confidence and independence because of the safe, caring and stimulating environment in the early years’ and ‘parents appreciate their close communications with teachers.

Cllr Susan Chappell, Richmond Council cabinet member for children’s services and schools, said: “I know that this will be deeply frustrating to the children, their parents and school staff who have had to cope with the long term building works at Stanley.

“We were all hoping that the recent works would see a successful conclusion to the development. I am very sorry that this isn’t the case and they face a further disruption. I share their frustration.

The letter sent out to parents on September 6 informed them that the meeting date had to be delayed because Cllr Chappell ‘is unable to attend a meeting on Tuesday12th September. There is a full council meeting that evening which she must attend.”

The Cllr has added: “As part of our Primary School expansion programme, the council has contracted expert, qualified, builders to expand a large number of our schools. In all our developments, we work with contractors to mitigate any issues that arise throughout the process. It was not possible for the Stanley School development.

“In this case it appears that the works have not been delivered to the high standards that we require. As such the Council is investigating and pursuing all legal recourse available. The full extent of the problems with the roofs only became apparent when our new contractors removed the roof of one of the buildings last week.

The letter further detailed that ‘she is committed to meeting with parents to discuss the building project at Stanley and the impact of the current problems and that she will ‘be joined by officers from the LA responsible for the management of the building project’ at the rescheduled meeting.”

Cllr Chappell added: “The most important, immediate action is to ensure that our children receive quality education in a safe and suitable environment. Whilst the repair work takes place, we have suggested a number of temporary options to the school. We are now working with them to temporarily adapt their school halls to create four classrooms whilst ‘modular buildings’ are installed on the site.

“Over the next few weeks I will be working closely with the Headteacher, Chairman of Governors and the staff of the classes impacted. I will be looking at what additional support we can give Stanley, its staff and students.”

Since the article has been published the Richmond and Twickenham Times has been contacted by the leader of the opposite party.

Cllr Gareth Roberts, leader of the Liberal Democrats for Richmond and Twickenham, said: “No amount of hand wringing apologies from Cllr Chappell can disguise the fact that this is an absolute shambles caused by this administration's policy of doing things on the cheap.

“It's unfortunate for her that she has to carry the can when the real responsibility lies with her new boss, Cllr Hodgins on whose watch this occurred when he was in charge of education.

“As a result of his poor judgement pupils and families are now suffering"