ITEM CA12 CABINET – 20 MARCH 2007 CONSULTATION ON NEW PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN BICESTER AND BODICOTE/BANBURY Report by Director for Children Young People & Families Introduction 1.
At its meeting on 18 July 2006 the Cabinet was notified
of the need for Consultation for new Primary Schools in Gavray Drive,
Bicester and at Banbury. Appropriate consultation on these two schemes
has taken place. The County Council has a policy that the smallest school
it would wish to open would be six classrooms plus foundation stage and
early years. This means that there would eventually be classes up to
30 pupils for each year group and this pattern has been followed in the
proposals for Bicester. Both schools will be opened in phases so the
schools would primarily service their local area and provide places for
children generated from the new housing developments as they grow. The
current aim is to open both schools by January 2009, but this is subject
in part to the progress of the respective housing developments. Banbury2. There are proposals for up to 1,070 houses and flats at land south of Banbury at Bodicote/Bankside and east of Oxford Road on the southern edge of the town. This is the proposed urban extension as set out in the Non-Statutory Cherwell Local Plan 2011 (NSCLP). Planning permission for the site is agreed in principle subject to the finalisation of a Section 106 Agreement. Funding would be made available by the housing developers to provide a new 9 classroom school, i.e. 8 classrooms plus reception class and nursery as part of the Foundation Stage. The school would provide facilities for early years (foundation stage and nursery), and allow the school to be an “extended school” offering access to children before and after school. These additional facilities will be included in the brief. Although there is some evidence of falling rolls in parts of Banbury, two of the nearest schools, Bishop Loveday and St John’s Catholic school are full and are forecast to remain so. Numbers have fallen recently at the Grange but a significant amount of the accommodation at the school is in temporary accommodation. There would be difficulties in expanding any of these schools as the sites are small and surrounding roads congested. If there is a need to provide extra temporary accommodation for children from the new housing before the new school opens, it may be possible to provide that accommodation in new permanent classrooms at existing schools rather than use more temporary provision. If that was the case, the receiving school, likely to be The Grange, may have the potential to take some of the children from the new housing on a permanent basis. It is likely that a further review of catchment areas in the rest of Banbury is likely to take place as part of the Primary School Review process. The new school would serve the new estate and it is proposed that the catchment area for Bishop Loveday School will end at Oxford Road. Consultation 3. A consultation paper was circulated to parents of all children at the schools named above and the schools’ governors. All of the schools in Banbury received copies and were asked to inform parents. Local District and County Members, the local M.P., Banbury Town Council and Bodicote Parish Council were provided with the paper. All early years providers in the town were notified and there was a press release. There was a public meeting on 27 February 2007 at The Grange. The closing date of the consultation was 6 March, after the submission of this report. An update on responses will be provided to the meeting. The responses to the consultation will be available in the Members’ suite. Bicester- Gavray Drive4. The need for a new school arises from the granting of planning permission for 500 new houses at Gavray Drive. The school will provide for six classrooms plus facilities for early years (Reception and full foundation stage including nursery) and allow the school to be an extended school. It is expected that the new school will open in January 2009, again subject to progress of the housing development. 5. The school will be opened in phases as new houses are built to ensure it serves the local area. It is anticipated that for some parents who live outside the new estate this will be the nearest school and will wish to send their children here. This is likely to have limited impact on other local schools. However, it is intended that the development of the new school will be carried out in collaboration the experience and expertise of other local headteachers. A new school means that there will have to be changes in the school catchment areas, initially affecting Langford Village, but the intention is that the catchment area serves the new estate. Consultation 6.
A consultation paper was circulated to parents of all children
at Glory Farm, Longfields, Langford Village and Launton schools and the
governors. All of the schools in Bicester received copies and were asked
to inform parents. Local District and County members, the local M.P.
and Bicester Town Council were provided with the paper. All early years
providers in the town were notified and there was a press release. Meetings
were held with the headteachers of the schools named above and a presentation
was made to the partnership headteachers meeting. The consultation closed
on the 26 January 2007. The following replies have been received: (a) Bicester Town Council Welcomed the new Primary school and hoped the school would be big enough to cope with the numbers generated, as they did not want to see applications for Portacabins. (b) Letters from parents Two are identified as being from parents of children attending Langford Village and expressed concerns about -“Stretched secondary schools in Bicester”, improvements needed to the railway crossings and whether the forecasts were realistic and that with falling rolls in Bicester places could be provided elsewhere. One of these parents acknowledged that Langford Village couldn’t expand but new housing numbers were too low and it was suggested that consideration be given to the new school being foundation stage and Key Stage 1 and affiliated to Langford Village School as the Key Stage 2 provision. A further parent from Bicester Fields felt it is too far to walk to Longfields and welcomed the new school proposal and another was concerned at planning issues generally (c) Longfields School The governors have raised a number of issues. They have raised a petition of parents and 56 responses were received and 3 separate parents’ letters echoing the schools points have been received. The letter circulated to parents was the same as that sent in by the school but with a tear off slip with one option to respond to-‘I agree with the Governors response to the Gavray Drive development’. One response has been received not supporting the school’s stance stating that a new school would promote parental choice. (i) If the new estate will have insufficient children to fill the school, it throws into question the necessity to build a new school. (ii) No good reasons why new classrooms cannot be built on the current Longfields School site. Currently there is spare capacity and ample room for development of the existing site. (iii) There are no difficulties associated with crossing a railway line; it is a poor excuse for building a new school. (iv) The Consultation Document lacks information about the changes to the catchment area. (v) The school had direct experience, in 1996, of accommodating pupils whilst a new school was being built. The rapid expansion to accommodate in excess of 90 pupils, who then left en masse when the new school was opened, resulted in considerable disruption to the school community, economic pressures, staffing issues and class re-organisation. (vi) The development presented an ideal opportunity to enhance the existing education opportunities for their children. For example, the developers could build new classrooms, or even a new sports hall at Longfields which would benefit the whole community, improve their extended school provision and improve health, fitness and well being. Their feelings were that there were endless possibilities and initiatives like this that should already have been explored. (d) Headteacher of Launton School has responded in a personal capacity saying that there is enough capacity in neighbouring schools and that a new school would bring instability. Comments7. It is true to say that numbers are falling in some parts of Bicester. There are nearly 600 pupil places across the town in temporary accommodation and in time these could be removed. There might also be the opportunity to expand other schools but the Primary School Review seeks to establish how surplus space can be used to expand services for children and families and maintain locally based provision. Although Longfields has a relatively large site and could be expanded the school are also aware of plans in other parts of the town, which would lead to the expansion of their catchment area and possible new investment which has not been relayed to the parents. Proposals for change in catchment area are limited to taking the new estate out of existing catchments. The position of the new estate would mean families passing close to Langford Village to get to Longfields and even more radical changes to catchment are likely to result, at least initially, in children from the new housing not getting a place at Langford Village which is oversubscribed. Longfields School are also seeking to use accommodation for other family support agencies and have 38 first preferences for 40 places next September. There are no plans to increase the total number of schools further in Bicester despite the requirement to provide at least (taking into account existing commitments and proposals and the draft South East Plan) an additional 4,000 houses in the Bicester area by 2026, and the Primary School Review will look at all school catchment areas and overall provision for the future in this context.The crossing over the railway line itself is an uncontrolled crossing. Although the line is used only for freight traffic there would still be a potential safety issue. If the line were to be upgraded to accommodate the potential East - West Rail (Oxford to Bedford/Cambridge) then crossing the more intensively used line would be more of an issue. 8. Two further key principles have also been applied: The ability through developer contributions to support local choice and to ensure a new community has its own facilities. There are also surplus places at Glory Farm but this is all in temporary buildings which over time will be reduced. Launton Church of England School is oversubscribed as is Langford Village which regularly exceeds its admission number of 60 and currently has temporary buildings in addition to its permanent 14 classrooms. The County Council opposed the application for residential planning permission at Gavray Drive for a number of reasons but the geographical circumstances strengthen the case for a new school. The planning agreement links additional funding to a new school and if the school did not proceed this would not release resources to other schools. Developer contributions could not be used to enhance school provision beyond meeting basic need as the school hope. Responses to the consultation have been placed in the Members’ Resource Centre.Legislative Background9. The new school organisation regulations are likely to come into place in May 2007. It is currently anticipated that for all statutory proposals that are published after this time, proposing a new primary school, will fall into the same process as for developing new secondary schools in that the local authority will be responsible for running a competition for other groups to build and run a new primary school. The expectation is that such a school would probably be a Foundation School. Notices published before May fall into the current procedure and can be promoted as community schools as suggested here. After the implementation of the new regulations, all proposals, whether published under the new or old arrangements, will not be considered by the Schools Organisation Committee (which will be abolished and new arrangements will need to be put into place). The timing of the publications notices is therefore important if the Schools are to be community schools. However, another important point is that if new schools fall into requirement for a competition then this is likely to add 4 – 6 months to the process of approval and opening of the schools. Financial and Staff Implications 10. There are no financial implications arising from this report but any new school project will be subject to a financial project approval. RECOMMENDATION 11. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to agree the publication of statutory notices for new community schools in Bodicote/Banbury and Gavray Drive, Bicester and the final decision to be made by the Cabinet Member for School Improvement or through the school organisation arrangements in place at the time. KEITH
BARTLEY Background papers: Nil. Contact Officer: Michael Mill, Strategic Manager (Property & Assets), Tel: (01865) 816458 March
2007
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