Issue - meetings

Cabinet Member: Education

Forward Plan Ref: 2013/034

Contact: Diane Cameron, School Organisation Officer Tel: (01865) 816445

Report by Director for Children’s Services (CA7).

This report details the background to, process of and outcomes of a public consultation on new schools required for Great Western Park in Didcot/Harwell.

Didcot is planned to grow by 9,000 homes over the next 20 to 25 years. In the first instance, school models and providers need to be identified to meet the needs of the Great Western Park development of around 3300 homes. However, planning for these, in particular for secondary education, needs to take place within the longer term, broader context of development in Didcot.

A public consultation was carried out to hear the views of the local community and other interested parties on what type of new schools they would like to see being built. The findings from this consultation are set out in the report.

The consultation responses fed in to the writing of a specification for the new schools needed, and this draft specification is appended as Annex 1.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to note the outcomes of the consultation into new schools for Didcot and RECOMMENDED to approve the specification as the basis for seeking academy providers for the Great Western Park schools.

Cabinet considered a report that detailed the background to, process of and outcomes of a public consultation on new schools required for Great Western Park in Didcot/Harwell.

Councillor Gill Sanders spoke in support of the need to plan for increased numbers given the massive increase in house building in the area. She expressed concern over the possible delay in the UTC for 14-19 year olds. The proposed specification was based on the assumption that it would open and Councillor Sanders sought assurances that plans were in hand to deal wit the shortage of places should it not proceed.

Councillor Nick Hards, speaking as a local Councillor commented that in his experience the number of pupils generated by housing development in Didcot had been consistently underestimated leading to temporary classrooms and he was anxious that this should not happen. He sought assurances that the additional primary pupils would not need to go to schools in surrounding villages. He reiterated concerns over the provision of places through UTC and plans to cover any gaps in provision in 2015. Finally he suggested that there was little detail in the report about provision for pupils with Special Educational Needs and queried how the needs of these children would be met.

Councillor Melinda Tilley in introducing the contents of the report detailed how the additional provision was to be provided and although accepting that there were still some way to go she felt sure that the UTC would go ahead. Responding to the points made Barbara Chillman confirmed that there were currently some spare places giving the time needed to provide the additional places and added that the methodology used to determine the numbers need was very robust. Se explained the approach to be taken with potential sponsors to discuss the unpredictability around numbers linked to the housing development. Roy Leach detailed provision for pupils with the most severe Special Educational Needs. He added that there was no reason to doubt the development of UTC would take place but that if it did not go ahead then the proposed secondary school would be larger.  

RESOLVED:                        to note the outcomes of the consultation into new schools for Didcot and to approve the specification as the basis for seeking academy providers for the Great Western Park schools.