By: Sally Varley
Directorate: Children and Young People's Services
1. Background
1.1 On 17 December 2009 the Executive Member for Children & Young People’s Services authorised the commencement of Stage 1 of the statutory process to seek the views of the public to an expansion of Trinity Anglican Methodist Primary School from a 210-place to a 420-place primary school by 1 September 2011. This report provides a summary of the consultation responses.
1.2 The general outcome of the consultations to date in relation to the expansion of Trinity Anglican Methodist Primary School shows that the majority of consultees at the time of writing this report (67%) are supportive of the expansion of the school.
2. POLICY
2.1 Local Authorities are under a statutory duty to ensure that there are sufficient school places in their area, promote high standards, ensure fair access to educational opportunity and promote the fulfilment of every child’s educational potential. They must also ensure that there are sufficient schools in their area and promote diversity and increase parental choice.
3. Details
3.1 The Council has been investigating solutions for the supply of additional school places within Portishead. Council officers have been working with the Diocese of Bath & Wells, and more recently with the Gordano Valley Methodist Circuit and the Methodist Connexion, and with the Headteacher and Governors of Trinity Anglican Methodist Primary School to establish a solution to the lack of school places in the town. A consultation to consider a proposal to expand Trinity Anglican Methodist Primary School from a 210 to a 420-place school by 1 September 2011 was started on 18th January 2010 and ended on 8th March 2010. The consultation has taken the form of 350 questionnaires sent to stakeholders of the school i.e. families of the school and other schools affected by the change, staff of the school and other schools affected by the change, local residents, trade unions, the local MP, the Town Council, local Councillors, Early Years providers, Diocesan Bodies and other members of the general public. It is also available on the Council’s website.
3.2 In addition to the questionnaires, two public meetings were held at the school in the afternoon and evening of 11th February 2010. These meetings were attended by 5 and 8 parents and supporters of the school respectively. The community had full opportunities to make its views clear during the consultation process.
3.2 Up to 19th February 2010, 11 paper and 0 electronic responses (total of 11) have been received of which 4 (33%) were against the expansion, 7 (67%) were in favour and 0 (0%) responses expressed no clear opinion. A verbal update on all responses received by 8 March 2010 will be given at the meeting of the Forum. 4 comments were also recorded at the public meetings, two of which were in relation to the needs of the expanded school to have satisfactory school travel plans, one requesting that the school continues with its positive community/family feel and the last posing the question of why the Council closed St Barnabas C of E Primary School if it knew that more school places were to be needed in the future. With the exception of one attendee, all other members of the public were supportive of the change.
3.3 Those in favour of the change have cited the need for more places and a desire for children to walk to school as the main reasons for support. Some expressed concerns about the management of change for the school (pupils, staff and budgets during the building works) and many wanted the change to be in place for September 2010.
Those against the change have expressed concerns over the impact the expansion of the school might have upon neighbouring schools and the possible increase in car usage and traffic should the expansion be progressed.
3.4 Members of the School Council at Trinity Anglican Methodist Primary School met with a Council Officer on 28th January 2010. Their responses to questions raised were as follows:
What do you like about your school?
· The teachers and helpers are very friendly
· The hall
· The classrooms are well decorated
· You can always get help
· You have lots of friends
· The fish and chickens
· The playgrounds are nice and big
· More people to make friends with
· Lunch groups
· The ‘buddy’ system
· The play equipment
What would you like to change?
· To be allowed more time on the field and the MUGA
· To have separate KS1 & KS2 sports days
· More toilets
· Separate girls and boys toilets with floor to ceiling walls
· Need changing rooms
· Need more computers
Do you have any comments/questions on the proposed changes?
· What will the finished building look like?
· We like a small school
· We like the idea of a bigger school so that we can have more friends
· We want our brothers/sisters to be able to come to the school
· A bigger school would make you better prepared for secondary school
· Where will the new buildings go?
· Will there be diggers on site?
· Will we have less room to play?
· There would be more room for more people
3.5 The latest projections are shown at appendix 1. Whilst there are a number of aspects in pupil projection methodology that are generally harder to quantify such as a historic shortage of places, a possible reduction of children being schooled privately and the effects of demographic changes, the latest projections show that by 2011 there will be a deficit of pupil places across Portishead as a whole. Currently the demand for Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 places exceeds the numbers of places available in the town.
3.6 Trinity Anglican Methodist Primary School was built with the infrastructure of a 420-place primary school but with fewer classrooms to accommodate up to 210 pupils. This means that the hall, staff room, grounds, parking and general circulation areas were designed to accommodate up to 420 pupils. Land at the school has been ‘reserved’ so that it is available to enable the expansion of the school. It was always intended that when demand for school places in Portishead increased, Trinity Anglican Methodist Primary School would be expanded to meet new parental needs.
3.7 In February 2010 the school had 7 classes and 176 pupils on roll. It is anticipated that by the end of the 2009/10 school year, the school will be full in most of its current classes and demand for places will continue to be well above the number of places available.
3.8 To allow the delivery of capital works to primary schools the Council has engaged the use of the SCAPE Framework Agreement, which is for public sector use, for the delivery of the design and construction projects. The Framework Contractor is Willmott Dixon. In January 2010, Stride Treglown was appointed as the architects for the extension to Trinity Anglican Methodist Primary School.
4. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
4.1 Substantial works will be needed as part of any school expansion project. Whilst detailed investigations are currently taking place to assess the final cost of these works, early indications are that it is likely to cost in the region of £2 – 2.5m to expand the school. Funds for this would need to be found from Basic Need (£800K), Prudential Borrowing (of around £1m from the savings resulting from the closure of St Barnabas C of E Primary School) and Capital receipts.
The Diocese of Bath & Wells is holding funds as a result of the sale of land assets from the old school sites. It is hoped that these ‘windfalls’ are passed to the LA swiftly and used to support the supply of school places.
4.2 Trinity Anglican Methodist Primary School had 174 pupils on roll at September 2009. This number of pupils would generate indicative formula funding of £671k in the 2010-11 financial year. If the school had 315 pupils on roll, the level of funding in 2011-12 would be approximately £1,017K. If the school had 420 pupils on roll, the level of funding in 2011-12 would be approximately £1,276K. Additional funding would be available to the authority through the Dedicated Schools Grant where this growth relates to additional children in North Somerset. Any growth at Trinity Anglican Methodist Primary School due to a reduction at other North Somerset schools would, in the main, be funded by a consequential reduction in the other schools funding.
4.3 In addition to funding allocated to schools via the formula the CYPS School Modernisation Group (SMG) has allocated additional funding to support the proposed changes at Trinity Anglican Methodist Primary School as follows:
· £15,000 will be allocated in the 2010-11 financial year as a one-off sum to support leadership capacity, so that the school leadership can engage in project planning and delivery
· £5,000 in the 2010-11 financial year and £5,000 in the 2011-12 financial year as general resources to support the change process
This funding has been allocated under the rationale described but can be used to support the change process as the school sees fit. In addition, the school, through the formula budget share, may qualify for pupil growth funding. This will measure the change in pupil levels between January counts. To be eligible, the number of notional classes must increase between these two counts and the increase in numbers must exceed 5%.
In addition to the financial support offered, the SMG will aim to support the school through the change process through the creation of a Task Group and additional time from the associated officers.
5. Other Options considered
5.1 To do nothing and continue, if necessary, to offer places to Portishead residents at other schools within the district.
6. Recommendations
6.1 That the Forum notes the content of this report and reviews the consultation responses to date.
6.2 That once full details of the responses are reported to the Forum at this meeting, that the Forum supports the recommendation that the Executive Member for Children & Young People’s Services grants permission to publish a public notice recommending the expansion of Trinity Anglican Methodist Primary School from a 210 to a 420-place primary school on 1 September 2011.
Author
Sally Varley
School Organisation & Access Manager
22 February 2010
Background Papers
· CYPS Policy & Scrutiny Panel School Organisation Working Group Papers ~ 12 November 2009
· CYPS Policy & Scrutiny Committee papers ~ 12 December 2009
· North Somerset Admissions Forum Minutes ~ 9 November 2010
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Appendix 1
TABLE 3: Predicted number on roll 07-08, 08-09 factors / Notional capacity calculated by multiplying PAN by Year GroupsActual NOR Sept 30th 09 / Capacity
Gordano/Pill Group / PAN 2010/10 / PAN*Yr Gps / 2009 / 2010 / 2011 / 2012 / 2013
High Down Infant / 90 / 270 / 270 / 267 / 266 / 261 / 262
High Down Junior / 90 / 360 / 361 / 356 / 354 / 351 / 353
Portishead Primary / 60 / 420 / 412 / 413 / 415 / 415 / 419 / NOR September 2009; AHA data
2007;
St Joseph's Catholic Primary / 30 / 210 / 212 / 211 / 211 / 212 / 212 / transition factors av. 2007/8 and
2008/9
St Peter's C of E Primary / 60 / 420 / 387 / 387 / 402 / 423 / 428
Trinity Primary* / 30 / 210 / 177 / 181 / 206 / 223 / 237
*Trinity: uses growth factors for Portishead Primary 2004 - 2005
Unallocated Year R & Year 1 / 5 / Plus pupils without places Sept. 2009
Unallocated Year R / 26 / 7 / Plus estimated pupils without places
Unallocated c/f / 5 / 5 / 31 / 31 / Carry forward number of pupils without places to reflect unmet demand
Housing gain: Year R (April 2008 data) / 9 / 11 / 13 / 15 / Predicted pupils from new housing
Housing gain Years 1 - 6 (April 2008 data) / 50 / 64 / 78 / 90 / Predicted pupils from new housing
Total / 1890 / 1824 / 1879 / 1960 / 2007 / 2054
Allocation of housing gain
As the growth projections for Trinity are the same as for Table 2, allocation of housing gain remains the same.
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