9:00am Tuesday 6th May 2008
By Emily Walker
A headteacher has said his school will never be completely secure.
Wroughton's Ridgeway School head Steve Colledge, who has previously refused to speak about school security following the hammer attack on pupil Henry Webster on January 11, 2007, granted the Adver an interview last week.
Despite the Adver highlighting lax security at the school last month, we were still able to walk unchecked into the school through a kitchen entrance prior to our meeting with the head.
"We are not a prison camp and I don't think we can ever say we are 100 per cent secure," said Mr Colledge.
"There are too many people with too many reasons to come and go.
"Since January 11, we have installed new cameras and a security fence.
"I don't think we would have had the security fence if this incident hadn't occurred and at the time there was a lot of opposition from local people about it. Parents don't want to see a prison camp.
"Although we have got the fence the school is still not totally secure. There is the main entrance and the one on St Andrew's Drive for the pupils to use in the morning.
"The second entrance is only open in the morning and closed when the bell goes.
"This is a mixed age building with no fixed entrances and exits.
"We are going to get swipe cards. We keep reviewing our security, but there is always a lot of movement around the school."
The school plans to bring in electronic swipe cards allowing only students to come into the two main entrances, but the technology won't be introduced until September 1, while the leisure centre and school kitchen doors will not be included.
Mr Colledge insisted the attack and subsequent trials had not effected morale among pupils or teachers at the school and said the resignation of 17 teachers since last January, with another 15 teachers due to leave in September, was due to them reaching retirement age.
"We have had quite a lot of staff turnover. But the incident itself has had no impact at all," he said.
"Throughout this the school has remained strong. The response on January 12 was complete calm.
"That incident happened to occur at Ridgeway School. Nationally there have been incidents in many schools.
"It was an incredibly regrettable incident. It is just terrible what happened."
The Advertiser asked Mr Colledge to provide details of the number of times the police had been called to the school, but he said the school did not know.
"We don't generally contact the police," said Mr Colledge.
"If a parent was concerned about threats or something they would inform us. We would say have you involved the police? Then they would call the police.
"We wouldn't record if the police were involved."
As Mr Colledge explained the school's policy on policing, a police dog van pulled up outside the window of his office.
The school had called the police just 10 minutes earlier, after a pupil feared someone would be lying in wait for him after school.
When asked about this latest incident, Mr Colledge said: "We made our local community police aware."
He described the call-out as "usual and routine".
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