Agenda item

[Bill Hague, Service Manager  - School Places and Transport, to present report on the Primary School Organisation Strategy 2015-2018 and an update with regard to the Council’s 2015 Primary School Expansion Programme.]

Bill Hague, Service Manager - School Places and Transport introduced the report on the Primary School Organisation Strategy 2015-2018. The Service Manager explained that this is the third draft of the strategy which had been previously considered by the panel.

The strategy has been sent out for consultation. No formal comments received. The Service Manager updated the panel on The Royal School Wolverhampton plans to convert to a free school status from September 2015. The Service Manager commented that the schools governing body had proposed an expansion of existing school places which could provide extra capacity. The Service Manager explained that the Department of Education has advised that the view of the Government is that the school should open in September 2016. The Council will need to respond quickly to any decision to expand current capacity.

The Service Manager commented on the challenges in predicting increases in demand for school places and responding to ‘spikes’ in numbers during the year, which will require asking schools to increase their capacity.

The Service Manager commented that surplus places estimated at 4%-5%.

The panel commented on the link between the strategy and the increase in the number of school education appeals and queried if there was work being done to look at links to the impact of new housing developments and the demand for extra places.

The Service Manager outlined the modelling work used to estimate demand for schools places and explained that the process does not take account of families outside the City moving to the area, as does not provide a reliable indicator of future plans.

The panel commented on the increase in the number of Y2 places by 65 and queried how other intelligence is used to predict the likely demand for places. The Service Manager commented that the assessment process does not take account of birth data. The panel discussed the likely implications on demand for secondary school places based on current predictions at primary school.

Alexandra Chilcott, Head of School Standards, commented that a new free school will be opening which increase capacity for places, but accepted the challenge in meeting increased demand at secondary schools in the future and creating surplus places. The Head of School Standards is waiting for details of the Royal School Wolverhampton admissions policy to be published before assessing the impact on meeting the demand for places at other schools.

The panel queried the impact of planning building work to increase capacity will have on the lessons and the concern about the disruption among children taking exams as work could not be completed during the holiday period.

The Service Manager commented on the building plans and situations where temporary classroom solutions will be considered and situations where a more permanent building would be a better solution to provide extra capacity. The Service Manager commented on the quality of temporary classrooms that will be provided at schools.

The panel discussed the potential factors that might impact on demand for school places in the future.

Resolved

The panel welcomed the report and accepted the recommendation. The panel comments on the strategy to be referred to Cabinet.