Agenda item

To receive and consider the Secondary School Sufficiency report.

Piers Brunning presented the Secondary School Sufficiency report.

Some of the main points made during his presentation are listed below:

·           This year the Local Authority was able to secure places for all on time Year 7 applicants.  This was possible with the assistance of Emmbrook and Waingels’ schools who agreed to offer additional places;

·           Since offer day the number of applications dropped, as expected.  Now the total number of applications is slightly less than the total number of places available in the Borough;

·           The Forest school has not been popular and as a result there have been a significant number of places available for boys in the Borough;

·           Additional capacity was agreed at other co-educational schools, all of which have waiting lists which includes boy and girls, and this increased the number of unfilled places at the Forest School;

·           It was hoped that following the Forest School’s good Ofsted result that parents would name the Forest School in their preference lists;

·           There have been concerns from families in south Twyford with difficulties in securing a place at the Piggott School;

·           It is a concern for the Local Authority when families cannot obtain a school place near their residence, as this can create difficulties with home to school transport, and the home to school transport budget is tight;

·           Although schools in the Borough were able to provide surplus capacity, this was not sustainable and there was a need to invest in schools in the near future;

·           Bulge years were being projected until 2027, it was expected that numbers would drop back after that.  Some temporary accommodation would be required to deal with this bulge;

·           The high number of house building in the Borough was being considered in planning for future school places.  A site for a new secondary school may be identified in the Council wide plans for future development as and when needed;

·           Meetings with Headteachers and school leaders had taken place before the summer to update them on the planning of school places, these conversations would continue during the year;

·           There were some challenges with capacity in Years 8 and 9;

·           Families continued to move into the Borough, with primary and secondary school children.  This presented a challenge when planning for school places when there were not many surplus places in the Borough;

·           There were no signs that families had moved away as a result of Brexit in the Borough;

·           Construction costs have been going up considerably, which would impact on the Council’s ability to deliver additional places;

·           Currently there was no pressure with the delivery of Post-16 places;

·           The new all through Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) school was on course to open as scheduled.

During the discussion of the item the following comments were made:

·           Councillor Helliar-Symonds asked for clarification in relation to comments in the report about not being able to offer places from the waiting lists to the Forest School;

·           Piers Brunning stated that schools were required by law offer places in accordance to their oversubscription criteria.  All schools, apart from the Forest had waiting lists.  When surplus places were agreed, those schools had to allocate places from their waiting lists (which included boys and girls).  The unintended consequence was additional unfiled places at the Forest.  However, this reflected parental preference;

·           Councillor Helliar-Symonds was concerned about future strategy in relation to the location of future school places, in the context of avoiding children having to travel across the Borough; she also asked how many children were having to travel out of their area to go to school;

·           Piers Brunning stated that he did not have that data at the moment.  He agreed that it was in everybody’s interest to avoid children having to travel long distances to school, it was the Council’s intention to avoid cross Borough movement.  However, there were some practical limitations in certain school sites when considering surplus places;

·           Councillor Mickleburgh asked about the wider effect of the additional capacity for boys at the Forest School, and how this impacted on girls placements;

·           Piers Brunning stated that this was a relatively small Borough, he agreed that attending a school far away from one’s residence had an implication on the ability to attend extra-curricular activities and making friends with local children;

·           Piers Brunning observed that some schools had chosen to become co-educational.  From a school admissions perspective, that would facilitate placements;

·           Piers Brunning stated that the local authority did not hold a budget to invest in academy schools such as the Forest School, but perhaps this was something that should be considered in future planning;

·           In response to a question Carol Cammiss offered to provide more information in relation to the pressure on places for girls in the Borough outside of the meeting;

·           Councillor Mickleburgh was interested to know if there was anything that could be improved, or any lessons learnt in the planning of secondary school sufficiency;

·           Piers Brunning stated that the issue of popularity or unpopularity of single sex schools had not been sufficiently considered at the planning stage.  He stated that it was important to continue to communicate effectively with schools.  Secondary school headteachers were mindful to not undermine capacity at schools across the Borough;

·           Piers Brunning confirmed that there was good communication with colleagues working on developing the housing strategy plans for the Borough.  However, plans and projections were flexible and could change;

·           Councillor Margetts was concerned about the projected bulge and the need for temporary accommodation, she asked how prepared the Council was to deal with the need for additional places in 2022/23;

·           Piers Brunning stated that headteachers had a clear view of the challenges and where they would like to go next, they were working with the Local Authority and discussing options.  He pointed out that some schools also had to consult with their academy trusts about their future plans;

·           The Chairman asked if it was possible to move temporary accommodations to different areas in the Borough, according to demand for places;

·           Piers Brunning stated that it was likely that any temporary accommodation would be left for the school to make use of it.  He explained that a lot of the cost of building temporary accommodation went into things that could not be moved, such as additional car parking facilities for example.

Members wished to thank Piers Brunning for his report and all the information provided.

RESOLVED That;

1)     The report be noted; and

2)     The questions that could not be answered during the meeting would be emailed to Officers and the responses would be circulated via email.