Meeting Basic Educational Need in North Cambridge
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Meeting basic educational need in North Cambridge A submission from Chesterton Community College to the February 2017 meeting of the Cambridgeshire Children and Young People’s Committee 19 February 2017 Executive summary This submission responds to the Education Officer’s paper “Review of Secondary Education in Cambridge”, dated 28 February 2017. We ask the Children and Young People’s Committee to make a firm decision to support Recommendation (c) of the paper, the planned new build at Chesterton Community College, on a clearly specified timetable, with completion for September 2019. Chesterton’s overriding priority is to meet the basic need for high-quality secondary education in North Cambridge. The need is illustrated below, using Local Authority figures: Sept 2016 210 pupils Chesterton 355 pupils 80 pupils North Cambridge Academy Pupils 65 pupils Net outflow to schools outside North Cambridge living in 25% Chesterton increase or NCA (91 pupils) catchment 2016-2019 240 pupils Chesterton (assuming expansion) 446 pupils 150 pupils North Cambridge Academy (full) Net outflow to schools Sept 2019 56 pupils outside North Cambridge According to LA data, there will be a 25% increase (91 pupils) in the number of state school pupils living in Chesterton and NCA’s catchments by summer 2019, compared to 2016. Even if Chesterton expands, and North Cambridge Academy is full with 150 Year 7 students, 56 students will still need to find places elsewhere. But those places will not be available. Here are the LA’s stark figures for Year 7 places city-wide (positive numbers indicate a shortfall of places, negative is a surplus): Shortfall of Year 7 places, assuming Chesterton intake of 210 North (incl IVC) South Total Sep-17 -25 -95 -120 Sep-18 32 -25 7 Sep-19 50 -3 47 Sep-20 74 88 162 Sep-21 124 187 311 Sep-22 158 168 326 By Sept 2019 there will be a city-wide shortage of around fifty Year 7 places, and that number rises sharply in the following years. These figures are solid predictions based on existing housing, and not 1 on assumptions about new housing (which would dramatically increase these numbers). The LA paper has more detail, but the conclusion is clear: the LA needs to pull every lever at its disposal, as hard as possible, as soon as possible, to have a chance of meeting this startling level of demand. Returning to Chesterton, parents are very concerned about the possibility that their children may not be able to access a place at the school, and over 1,170 people have signed a petition in support of the new build. Other considerations are these: 1. Social inclusion. Both secondary schools in North Cambridge (Chesterton and North Cambridge Academy) are comprehensive schools with a broad intake. If there is a shortage of places in North Cambridge, disadvantaged students will suffer most. Middle class parents may afford private school, may be willing to drive their children across town, or may mount more effective appeals. 2. Equity for students. All school pupils deserve a school environment they can be proud of. Every other secondary school in Cambridge has enjoyed a major capital investment in recent years. Most recently Bottisham announced a £18m expansion, and the expansion at St Bede’s (initiated at the same time and for the same reasons as Chesterton’s) has gone ahead. Chesterton’s site is ageing, and this expansion provides a welcome opportunity to dramatically re-imagine the school buildings, to the benefit of all pupils. 3. Opportunity and timing. At the specific request of the Local Authority in 2013, Chesterton has worked with the LA architects on detailed plans for a £10m new build that would vastly improve the school site, and would allow Chesterton to increase its PAN by two forms of entry. These plans are well developed but currently on hold. A £10m new build in a densely populated part of Cambridge could take three years to plan and execute. Since we have plans in place, we could hope to complete in Sept 2019 if we got moving now. But you can’t turn a project like this on and off like a tap; and it is no good waiting until the need is desperate before starting to plan. To ensure that the additional places are available in time, a decision must be taken now. 4. North Cambridge Academy. The LA and CMAT (North Cambridge Academy’s parent MAT) are legitimately concerned about the effect of expanding Chesterton when the nearby North Cambridge Academy is currently under-subscribed. We want to see our sister school thrive and flourish, but we do not believe that attempting to limit Chesterton’s intake is the way to achieve that goal. We elaborate in Section 3. 5. Chesterton. Chesterton is an exceptionally good school. The Schools Minister Nick Gibb wrote in Spring 2016 to tell us that Chesterton is one of the top 100 schools in the country. In 2016 we had another record year in our exam results, and the recently-published league tables put us in the top 5% nationally. All subjects are taught by specialist teachers, and the school is abuzz with activity. However, as a standalone academy Chesterton’s finances are vulnerable. Moreover, the effect of repeated disappointment and delay has been hugely destabilising, and takes a real toll on senior leaders. Insofar as the interests of schools (as well as students and parents) come into the equation, the interests of all schools should be considered equitably. 2 1 Meeting basic need The overriding priority of the Local Authority is to provide enough school places to meet the demand from local students. All the evidence is that, unless we take action now, there will be insufficient secondary school places in the city, and in North Cambridge, by 2019/2020 (see the table above). So the need is coming, it is coming soon, and it is very large. If, in 2019, North Cambridge parents find themselves having to compete for places at their local schools, and some are forced to send their children further afield, then there is likely to be great public concern. Parents will legitimately ask why the local authority, and councillors, have failed to make adequate provision. Over 1170 people have signed a petition1 asking “that the County Council’s Children and Young People’s Committee make a clear commitment, with a date, to fund the expansion of Chesterton Community College, and the building investment which supports that expansion.” 1.1 What has happened so far Members of the committee will be aware that the Local Authority approached all Cambridge secondary schools urgently in 2013, asking them to consider how they could expand their intake. Chesterton is full already and, given the imminent demographic changes, we are anxious that we will soon be unable accept all the students from our catchment area who want to study at Chesterton, let alone all first-choice applications. We were therefore very excited about the new-build possibility, and invested great deal of time and energy with the LA architects over nine months to develop detailed plans for an imaginative new build at Chesterton. These plans would allow us to expand by a third, with two new forms of entry. They would also dramatically improve an ageing school site for all pupils. In the middle of 2015 all these plans were put on hold while the Local Authority commissioned a new, independent study of the demographic projections. The consultants reported in May 2016, and the LA then conducted a further review of its own. As the strategy paper says “In each case, the broad outcomes of the review of future demand demonstrated that the growing demand for places would create a shortfall in provision across the City towards the end of the current decade.” For North Cambridge the consultant’s report showed: Without any new housing, by 2030 there will be a 48% increase in secondary student numbers, from 2,500 to 3,700. If the expected new housing is built, there will be an 85% increase by 2030 (4,600 students). The LA strategy paper (para 3.3) presents a startling Chart 1, which shows that from September 2018 there will be more demand for Year 7 places than the City (including Impington Village College) can supply. This shortage increases sharply before settling at around a shortfall of 300 places in 2023. These figures are not speculative, or based on new housing. They are based on students already resident in Cambridge, and attending Cambridge primary schools. 1 http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/chesterton-expansion 3 1.2 Admissions at Chesterton Chesterton is already full, even before the upcoming demographic pressure really bites. Here are the facts on applications to Chesterton for 2016 and 2017: First choice First or second First, second, or third Sept 2016 200 294 375 Sept 2017 214 326 394 Chesterton’s PAN is 180, but since September 2015 we have admitted 205-210 students to meet this demand. (2015 was a “bulge year” for Milton Road.) Even over-admitting in this way, Chesterton is already in the position where we cannot admit all students to make Chesterton their first choice. Despite increasing our intake, we have increased both the number and the proportion of disadvantaged students in our intake. We also typically receive around 100 in-year applications from parents who have recently moved to Cambridge or want to move their child from a local school. Here are the facts on Chesterton’s actual intake, for the last four years, for which robust information is available2: Chesterton Sep-13 Sep-14 Sep-15 Sep-16 Total Year 7 Chesterton intake 176 183 207 209 from within Chesterton catchment 120 128 154 139 from within NCA catchment 46 41 43 31 from outside North Cambridge 10 14 10 39 Year 7 cohort living in Chesterton’s catchment 167 173 194 175 of which % going to Chesterton 71.9% 74.0% 79.4% 79.4% Notice that An increasing percentage of the students leaving Chesterton’s catchment primary schools are choosing to come to Chesterton, now nearly 80%.