North West Leicestershire Narrative, Primary and Secondary Forecasts
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North West Leicestershire District Narrative Members Briefing – August 2019 Primary There are 43 primary schools in the NWLDC area, 13 are Academies and 30 are LA maintained schools. There were 7 primary schools in the Castle Donington area whose age range was 4- 10, rather than the traditional 4-11. This changed from September 2017 when these schools retained their year 6 pupils. Secondary Castle Donington Community College became an 11-16 establishment in September 2017. The schools in the Ashby and Coalville area continue to operate on the two- tier education system of high 11-14 and upper 14-18. All secondary schools are Academies. In addition, there is a Studio school located at Stephenson College providing education for students age 14- 18. Post 16 Post 16 education is provided at the Coalville King Edward VII College and Ashby School. The Studio School also offers provision to Post 16 students in this area and the wider area extending beyond the District boundary. Special There is an area Special School, and 2 Units for pupils with Moderate Learning Difficulties one attached to Ibstock Infant school and one to Hugglescote Primary School. 1 Pupil Places - Planned Housing Growth The NWLDC Local Plan is now approved. Significant development sites in Money Hill Ashby, South East Coalville, Lower Bardon and Castle Donington have been approved. All four sites have S106 agreements in place which provide land and funding for the building of new primary schools. The new school in Castle Donington is due to open in Sept 2021. There will also be significant contributions to the secondary sector for the developments. An S106 agreement has also been signed to deliver a new primary school on the Holywell Spring Farm development of 400 homes in Ashby. This development is well 2 underway, and the school is due to open in Sept 2021. The existing primary schools in Ashby have been involved in the decision to make catchment changes which will come into effect when the new school opens, the consultation process to make this change will commence later this year. The process to find an Academy Sponsor to run the new schools in Ashby and Castle Donington will commence at the end of this year, and the new sponsors will be in place for October 2020. Overall a total of 547 additional places have been provided across NWLDC in the last four years, a further 105 places are planned for delivery during 2019/20. Forecasting Primary In the last three years projects have been completed at primary schools in Coalville, Ibstock and Ashby, largely to cope with the impact of pupils from the new housing developments in those areas. S106 funding has contributed towards the cost of these projects. The provision of the new primary school on the Holywell Spring farm site will provide further places in the Ashby area. Feasibility schemes are underway for the expansion of Kegworth Primary School and Castle Donington Orchard to cope with pupils from new housing developments. Building work will be completed in October 2019 to expand the Hugglescote Primary School from 420 to 525 places. There are several schools close to the South Derbyshire border, places like Albert Village and Blackfordby where the forecast numbers include significant out catchment pupils, there are no plans currently to expand these schools. However, there is also significant housing in these areas so the impact on school places will continue to be kept under review. Secondary In the case of Ashby School and Ivanhoe, significant S106 funding is either due or received which will fund the provision of the additional places required. The schools are exploring the options for future expansion. The secondary schools in Coalville will be changing their age range with effect from September 2020. Coalville Newbridge will become an 11-16 school, and Coalville Castle Rock and King Edward VII will merge to become an 11-18 school. For the Coalville and Ibstock Schools the forecast deficit of places is largely attributable to the large development of 3,500 homes in South East Coalville. There is some S106 funding due to provide the additional places required, however given that work on this development has only recently commenced it will be some years before the funding will be received. In the meantime, the pupil’s numbers will be kept under review at the schools concerned to ensure that the additional capacity required is available at the appropriate time. 3 First Time Admissions 2019 NWLDC (as at 21/08/2019) At National Offer Day on 16th April 2019 there were 21 children living in North West Leicestershire District area who had no offer of a school place. Of these 21 children, 16 parents had only stated one school preference on their application form and 10 parents did not put their catchment school on the application form. As at 21/08/2019 there are 1,244 first time admission places available in the District for September 2019. There were 1,086 applications received of which 1,041 were from children living in the District. A total of 1,086 places have been allocated leaving a surplus of 158 places. Ashby Hill Top Primary School and Hugglescote Primary School are amongst the most popular schools in the District. Ashby Hill Top Primary School was oversubscribed by 76 applications and Hugglescote Primary School oversubscribed by 60 applications. The two most under-subscribed schools in the District are Whitwick St John the Baptist CE Primary School and Coalville All Saints CE Primary School, both schools have 20 or more spare places in Reception. Secondary Admissions 2019 At National Offer Day on 1st March 2019 there were 12 children living in the North West Leicestershire District area who had no offer of a school place. Of these 12 children, 11 parents had only stated one preference on their application and 9 parents did not put their catchment school as a preference. Ashby Ivanhoe College and Newbridge High School were the only schools that were oversubscribed on offer date. General analysis of the data shows a combination of increased births and the impact of housing growth contributed to the increase in numbers. All catchment pupils at both schools were able to secure a place. Ibstock Community College was significantly undersubscribed, partly due to an increasing trend for catchment pupils choosing to attend South Charnwood High School and Market Bosworth Academy. Leicestershire Leicestershire County Council has provided an additional 154 new First Time Admission (FTA) places for September 2019 across the County and will be providing a further 1,102 primary places from the 2019/20 Capital programme. There has been a slight decrease in the percentage of applicants obtaining their first preference for September 2019 from 92.8% to 90.3% this year. New Admissions Policy 4 The Leicestershire Admissions Policy is required to comply with the National School Admissions Code, last revised in December 2014. The LA policy applies to all Maintained Schools. Academies are their own admissions authority so have their own policy (some follow the Leicestershire model but others do not). The LA Admissions Policy was revised in 2018 at which time it was amended so that at the point of first time admission and secondary transfers, if there were more requests for in-catchment children than the admission number (AN), the AN would not be exceeded, except in exceptional circumstances. All admitting authorities are awaiting new National Admissions and Appeals Codes, as the current ones are overdue a review (Admission 2014, Appeals 2012). The DfE have indicated no review is likely until after Brexit. Leicestershire will this year be consulting on its admissions policy; criteria and a catchment boundary change affecting Whetstone Badgerbrook Primary School, the Blaby/Countesthorpe area and the Ashby area. The catchment change is to future proof the pressure on Whetstone Badgerbrook Primary School, Countesthorpe Greenfield Primary School and to amend catchment areas in Ashby to include the new primary school. The LA’s consultation will be launched in the Autumn and the changes will come into force for school admissions in Autumn 2021. The policy in general has also been refreshed, for example removing the social and domestic oversubscription criteria and faith criterion to bring our criteria in-line with national trends. All academies as their own admitting authorities must also adhere to running a formal consultation to change their admissions policy and arrangements. Many have consulted and moved away from the LA’s admissions model. However there are issues arising with academies having outdated policies and not having their admissions policy published on the school website. These academies are then challenged to ensure compliance to avoid the risk of a school adjudicator investigation. SEND Provision There is increasing demand for additional SEND places particularly in respect of Communication and Interaction (C&I) and Social Emotional Mental Health (SEMH) Needs. There is also a specific growth around post 16 provision. The most recent forecast of demand anticipates a 22% growth in pupil places required over the next 5 years. To meet the demand for places the LA has implemented the High Needs Block Development Plan, approved by Cabinet 29th March 2019. The plan will enable over the next few years the development of: - • 10 new units for SEMH Primary /Secondary • 5 new units for C & I • Expansion of all 6 existing special schools 5 • Development of a new C & I school in Barwell • Development of 2 SEMH free schools • And, longer term, potentially a new area special school. To deliver the above requires a substantial capital programme (c£30M) and complex changes in the organisation/governance arrangements of schools.