Agenda item

[Bill Hague, Head of School Planning and Resources, to present report]

A report updating the panel regarding school place planning activities in Wolverhampton was introduced by Head of School Planning and Resources.

The report highlighted current pressures on school places, outlined the anticipated future needs of communities, and detailed the status of proposed expansion programmes.

The panel considered that it was worrying that the Local Authority had to negotiate with academies to get children into school. 

The question was raised as to whether the Council was looking at development in the north of the City where hundreds of houses being built and how the primary and secondary differences had been mapped.

It was stated that people were now more willing for their children to travel to the school of their preference and clarified that the Council could only seek to expand good or outstanding schools which made the task even more difficult. It was stated that a school might be in the right place but the Council could not seek to expand it if it did not have the required rating.

It was also stated that due to parental preference the Council was looking to expand popular schools. At the moment this had resulted in more being done in the south of the City where there was increasing demand which marked the start of a longer term expansion programme. It was stated the in the future the Council would look to mirror what it had done with primary schools in the secondary arena but that it had to be recognised that there were less but bigger secondary schools resulting in less options for development.

A panel member stated that in his opinion, Wednesfield was struggling and was already short of primary places with more housing planned.

Officers stated that this was part of the rationale of moving from 3 to 4 planning areas. The Council needed to be really sure that the number of children in that part of the city equalled demand for schools in that area. The Council did monitor places across the city and also considered areas for contingency sites. If there was a need to create additional primary places then this was accepted but it also had to be noted that this could then be a future issue for secondary provision and that creative solutions were required. Officers confirmed that the concerns of the Councillors in Wednesfield had been noted and were reflected in the projections.

The panel commended officers on a brilliant paper.

The panel queried what the school appeals were like and whether there was a back log. It was confirmed that there was no backlog but a large number of in year appeals continued to come in. The Council had a legal duty to provide a right to appeal and the City Council had the best success rate in the West Midlands with a team that was focused on process and if possible finding solutions for families that negated the need for an appeal.

The panel considered the fact that expansion post 16 was a very different issue and that note needed to be taken of current year 9 figures which would then lead to issues post 16.

Officers agreed that yes Post 16 was a very different situation and that the Team had modelled several scenarios regarding what a school might look like without a 6^th form and whether the idea of a 6^th form quarter should be pursued. There was currently an appetite from schools to get stuck into 6^th form agenda.

The representative from the Youth Council expressed some concerns in relation to the expansion of St Peters which was already a large school over a large geographical area that consisted of poorly planned buildings which resulted in students having to go through one building to get to another building. There were already three lunch sessions at the school lasting for 30 minutes each which was not enough and the school could not support more pupils.

Officers stated that the Council was not in full control but that work had been done with governors at the school and with the head teacher and that all parties needed to have full confidence that the proposal was viable and that in the case of St Peter’s that there was full confidence. Officers noted that the points regarding navigating around the school were extremely valid and suggested that students fed this back to the school though the School Council and that the school could perhaps engage the pupils regarding their concerns.  Officers stated that the site was not as large as some of the sites and agreed that there may be some issues with the buildings but that they had worked with the school to ascertain what the school needed to function properly particularly in relation to teaching space and social spaces including dining areas.

Resolved:

That the comments of the panel be noted.