Dear Editor,

Good morning all concerned Westbrook parents,

I pray that you still feel deeply about keeping the Westbrook family together. It can be done if that is your wish.

My experience of listening to you is that many of you have made life choices to move to Folkestone and to have your children educated in Folkestone. You have expressed concerns about your children having to travel daily to Dover, Ashford or Canterbury. For that reason I have been in touch with KCC and the Southwark Diocese to request information about closed schools in close proximity to Folkestone. We have visited two prime sites that would make good locations for a new school to house the Westbrook family.

In my mind schools should have a single purpose and that is to provide a loving, caring and nurturing environment within which the best is brought out in the children. Their happiness leads to their academic flourishing. We have seen it happen.

Please trust me, we can make this happen if you feel strongly enough about it.

Sunday’s meeting at 4.00pm in Lyminge village hall for parents, teachers and governors of the closed Westbrook House is about making this happen.

Westbrook lives on in those parents and children who wish to remain part of it. Finding a new home for the family will not be difficult; there are appropriate sites out there. We have enough teachers on board to provide for your child’s entire educational requirements. We can purchase/retrieve equipment. It does not matter how small the school starts off at initially.

As a parent/teacher run organisation costing and budgets will be in your hands. School deposits can be used to secure the property.

The publicity must continue. We are attempting to set up a parent/teacher run school. It has been done before. Our publicity will work for us to ease our way. Sue Lefevre from KCC is a past parent of Westbrook and has promised to do all she can to help.

Have faith everyone. I will talk to Reverend Anthony today.

Please spread the word, set up phone trees, ask likeminded parents if they want to buy into this project. Your children’s happiness and academic success come first. We as teachers with your help have provided an excellent learning environment. Your children have been making excellent progress. We can provide more academic success than you are going to get anywhere else outside of Vernon Holme and St Edmunds in Canterbury or Ashford Friars. Westbrook ranks amongst that class of educators. Westbrook can provide for the Folkestone locality.

Sunday is our chance to make it happen. Please be there.

Rosie Lagrue