Decision details

To consider the report of the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services seeking approval to expand the age range of Weston Park Infant School to form an all through Primary School and the closure of Weston Park Junior School.

Weston Park Infant and Weston Park Junior Schools have conducted six weeks of pre-statutory consultation (17^th April – 29^th May 2012) and six weeks of statutory consultation (11^th June – 23^rd July 2012) on proposals to expand the age range of the Infant School and to close the Junior School to form an all through Primary School on the existing school site.  After the largely positive response to the pre-statutory consultation and minimal response to the statutory consultation; the Council are now required to make a decision on the proposal.

Having complied with Rule 15 of the Council’s Access to Information Procedure Rules:

(i)  To note the outcome of pre-statutory and statutory consultation, as shown in appendix 1.

(ii)  To approve the proposals, put forward by the Governing Body of Weston Park Infant School, to change the age range of Weston Park Infant School from 4-7 year olds to 4-11 year olds and expand Weston Park Infant school from a 270 place infant school to a 750 place all through primary school.  These proposals are linked to recommendation (iii).

(iii)  To approve the proposal, put forward by the Governing Body of Weston Park Junior School, for the discontinuance of Weston Park Junior school from 1 January 2013.  This proposal is linked to recommendation (ii).

(iv)  To note the change to the admissions arrangements for the school, which will see the PAN for year R remain at 90, whilst the PAN for year 3 will be 120, to accommodate children from Weston Shore Infant.  The net capacity of the new primary would thus be larger than the current combined net capacity of the existing infant and junior schools.

(v)  To delegate authority to the Director of Children’s Services and Learning, following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services to do anything necessary to give effect to the recommendations in this report.

1. This report is presented as a general exception item in accordance with Rule 15 of the Access to Information Procedure Rules of Part 4 of the Council's Constitution.  Amendments to the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to information) (England) Regulations 2012 require 28 days notice to be given prior to determining all Key Decisions. This new requirement was published by government mid August and comes into effect on 10^th September 2012.  It has not been possible to meet the requirement of 28 days notice between publication of the new Regulations and the scheduled meeting of Cabinet and it is not reasonable or practicable in the circumstances to defer all key decision items to a future meeting.
2. The infant school is currently has an outstanding ofsted rating whilst the junior school has had a satisfactory ofsted grading for a number of years.  It is hoped that the formal merger of the infant and junior would help to raise standards across all key stages.
3. There is currently one head teacher working across both schools, who would become the Head teacher for the new primary school.  This would provide staff and pupils with more stability.
4. The schools are located on the same site and in adjacent buildings.  If the schools became one, it would make the operation and maintenance of the site and buildings more efficient.
5. The alteration to the admissions arrangements and net capacity of the school are required to ensure that pupils from Weston Shore Infant, the majority of which feed into Weston Park Junior School, continue to have access to local key stage 2 places.
6.   The infant and junior schools could remain as separate entities but this could result in the junior school remaining at a satisfactory level.  This would do little to improve the outcomes of key stage 2 pupils and since the motivation behind this proposal is to improve standards, maintaining the status quo is not considered to be a suitable option.
7. The option of closing the infant school and expanding the age range of the junior school was not considered because the infant is the better performing of the two.

Under the regulations Cabinet may either:

1. Reject the proposals
2. Approve the proposals
3. Approve the proposals with a modification (e.g. the implementation date)
4. approve the proposals subject to them meeting a specific condition