We need to add 355 new Year R places over the next two years – 160 in 2011 and 195 in 2012. More places would need to be added each in each year group as the children moved through primary education.
There has been a steady increase in the number of children requiring a school place in Southampton over the past few years. Reasons for this include a reduction in the number of pupils applying to fee paying schools and fewer families moving out of the city when their children reach school age. However the main reason for the increase in the number of places required is due to the rising birth rate in the city. We know this because of:
• figures given to us by the Primary Care Trust
• the number of children in pre-school’s and children’s centres
• evidence from the Office of National Statistics that birth rates are increasing throughout the country.
At this stage there are no confirmed plans to totally rebuild any of the schools listed in this document. Depending on the outcome of this consultation, extra places will be added to several schools throughout the city by:
the addition of buildings to existing schools (modular, temporary and permanent)
re-claiming spaces that are currently being used for non-teaching purposes
re-modelling and re-furbishing existing school buildings and rooms
At this stage we are not considering building any brand new schools because:
the extra places are required in 2011 and 2012 and we do not have the required time to plan and build new school buildings
at present we do not have the funding required to build new schools. Adding places to existing schools is a more cost effective solution
The schools listed in this consultation booklet have been selected on the basis that they have suitable indoor and outdoor space, which could accommodate extra pupils and buildings, as well as being in areas of the city that have been identified as needing extra school places.
For those schools where additional buildings may be required, the city council will do its utmost to ensure that there is little or no encroachment onto existing playgrounds or playing fields.
In November 2009, the city council received £1m from the Department for Education’s Emergency Basic Need Safety Valve grant. This funding was distributed to the council after we said we were experiencing a large increase in pupils applying for a school place. This grant will be used to help fund the Primary School Review: Phase 2.
The city council receives other money from central Government in relation to school buildings. Funding for 2011/12 will not be announced until the end of the year, and is obviously subject to change bearing in mind the current economic situation. If funding continues at current levels, over £9m per year could be available to help fund the Primary School Review: Phase 2.
At this stage it is difficult to say exactly how much it would cost to add the 355 year R places in 2011 and 2012. The Department for Education suggests that adding one new school place costs around £11,000 per pupil. Using this as a guide it would cost approximately £4m to add places and 2011 and 2012. If this number of places were added to each year group we estimate this would cost around £28m over a period of eight years. Please note that at this stage these are estimates only and the final cost of the projects may change.
We know that extra school places will need to be added by September 2011. The consultation on these proposals runs from 14 September 2010 to 26 October 2010. After this we will collate the responses we have received and produce Statutory Proposals to add extra primary school places. In January 2011 these will be published at all the schools included in the proposals, in the Daily Echo and at www.southampton.gov.uk/primaryreview. A four to six week consultation period will follow. The final stage would be to get Cabinet approval to implement the proposals that have been agreed. We hope this could happen by March 2011.
Once the changes have been agreed they will be phased in over a number of years to ensure that the correct number of school places are added at the right time. If we made all the changes at the same time there would be too many new places in the city with not enough children to fill them. We also have to make sure none of the existing schools loses pupils because too many places are available elsewhere in the city. Some of the extra places will be added in 2011 and others in 2012. For those proposals which include infant and junior schools, the junior school places will be added three years after those at the infant school. We are proposing that the size of each year group would expand year-on-year (i.e. YR in 2011, Y1 in 2012 etc) until all year groups have expanded.
While we are confident that these proposals would add the correct number of school places, we have put forward options which will be implemented in stages. This means that if there is a change in the number of places that are needed, the plans can be altered.
There are currently no plans to open or close any schools in the city.
Southampton City Council
