Agenda item

To receive and consider the School Sufficiency Update report.

Piers Brunning, School Place Planning Manager presented the School Sufficiency Update report and highlighted the following points:

·           There were a number of factors that affected the planning of school places;

·           The number of births in the borough had declined since 2012, with an uptick last year;

·           International migration - there had been a dramatic increase in the number of families moving into the borough since 2021, however it was not certain how long this would continue;

·           Resource constraints within the Council;

·           There was an issue of too many school places in Key Stage 1, due to low birth rates;

·           St Cecilia school opened to serve the needs of Key Stage 2 children;

·           Numbers were rising in the Shinfield area;

·           The planning for secondary school places was dependent on the rate of international migration into the borough.  It was important to match the place planning with the Council’s resources;

·           Work was ongoing to develop post 16 provision at Bohunt school;

·           There was no immediate risk of insufficient provision of post 16 spaces, however there was over reliance on out of brough provisions, which the Council had no control over.

Councillor Gray asked for clarification in relation the funding of a new school in the Shinfield area through S106 agreement.

Piers Brunning explained that the planning for that school had been agreed many years ago through S106 agreements and those were still in place.  The money that the developer offered was tied to the Spencers Wood site; unfortunately this was in the Detailed Emergency Planning Zone (DEPZ), which no one was aware of at the time.  The Council was likely to enter conversations with the developer to change the terms of the agreement.  However, there was a risk that no agreement would be reached.

Piers Brunning added that there were plenty of surplus school places in adjoining areas.  A debate would be had to discuss the need of additional school places and the resource constraints.

The Chairman asked for clarification on the mention of ‘creative ways’ for securing places for Wokingham children attending Edgbarrow school.  Piers Brunning explained that since the production of this report, he was made aware of possible changes in legislation which may allow the Council to use its Growth Fund to support the creation of places in Edgbarrow.

Councillor Bray explained that this was a delicate situation, even if more spaces were created in Edgbarrow, there was no guarantee that they would be given to Wokingham children.  Also, Bracknell had surplus secondary school places in other schools, so they were not so keen to increase the number of places in Edgbarrow.  However, due to parental preference there were waiting lists for Edgbarrow, and Wokingham children were not necessarily on top of those lists.

Ming Zhang explained that the traditional forecasting methods were no longer applicable to Wokingham, due to the current level of migration.  Intelligence was being gathered from senior school leaders to understand the future need of school places, and this was being discussed with senior officers including the CEO at the Council.

RESOLVED That the report be noted.