Agenda No 5
AGENDA MANAGEMENT SHEET
Name of Committee Cabinet
Date of Committee 11 March 2010
Report Title Changes to Secondary School Priority Areas in Nuneaton and Hartshill
Summary This paper seeks to inform Members of the response to the consultation with stakeholders and approval to the proposed changes to secondary school priority areas in Nuneaton and Hartshill.
For further information Mark Gore please contact: Head of Service – Transforming Education
Tel: 01926 742588 markgore@warwickshire.gov.uk
Would the recommended No decision be contrary to the Budget and Policy Framework? [please identify relevant plan/budget provision]
Background papers School Organisation Framework Document 2005/10 Cabinet papers 06.11.08; 27.11.08; 09.07.09 Report to Portfolio Holder Decision Making, CYPF 04.12.2009 Consultation document and responses Report to Nuneaton Bedworth Area Committee 10.3.10
CONSULTATION ALREADY UNDERTAKEN: Details to be specified
Other Committees X Nuneaton & Bedworth Area Committee 10.03.10
Local Member(s) X All councillors in the Nuneaton and Bedworth area plus Cllr Colin Hayfield (Arley) and Cllr Carol Fox (Hartshill) Cllr Tandy “I can’t comment as I have to declare a prejudicial interest as a Governor at The George Eliot School”
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Other Elected Members X CYP&F O&S Chair and Vice-Chair for information: Cllr John Ross Cllr Carolyn Robbins
CYP&F O&S Spokespersons for information: Cllr Jerry Roodhouse (on behalf of Cllr Balaam) Cllr Tim Naylor Cllr Carolyn Robbins
Cabinet Member X Cllr Izzi Seccombe
Other Cabinet Members consulted
Chief Executive ………………………………………………………..
Legal X Fay Ford “comments incorporated into the report”
Finance X David Clarke, Strategic Director of Resources “no comments”
Other Strategic Directors ………………………………………………………..
District Councils X The Chief Executive of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council and the Borough Councillors have all received copies of the consultation document.
Health Authority ………………………………………………………..
Police ………………………………………………………..
Other Bodies/Individuals X All stakeholders.
FINAL DECISION YES
SUGGESTED NEXT STEPS: Details to be specified
Further consideration by ……………………………………………………….. this Committee
To Council ………………………………………………………..
To Cabinet ………………………………………………………..
To an O & S Committee ………………………………………………………..
To an Area Committee ………………………………………………………..
Further Consultation ………………………………………………………..
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Cabinet – 11 March 2010
Changes to Secondary School Priority Areas in Nuneaton and Hartshill
Report of the Strategic Director for Children, Young People and Families
Recommendations
(1) That Cabinet considers the response to the consultation with stakeholders, and
(2) That Cabinet approves the proposed changes to secondary school priority areas in Nuneaton and Hartshill with effect from September 2011 admissions and subject to the outcome of statutory notices confirming the closure of Manor Park School and Alderman Smith School and the Secretary of State’s approval of an Academy on the Alderman Smith site.
1. Purpose
1.1 At the meeting on 4 December 2009, the Portfolio Holder for Children, Young People and Families agreed to formal consultation on the proposal to make a change to secondary school priority areas in Nuneaton and Hartshill.
1.2 Formal consultations with stakeholders were conducted from 4 January to 1 March 2010.
1.3 This report includes information about the responses to the consultation and seeks approval of the proposals with effect from September 2011 admissions. The view of the Area Committee will be made known to Cabinet and other admission authorities making proposals when they meet to consider these matters.
2. Introduction
2.1 The County Council is currently working with North Warwickshire and Hinckley College on a proposal to open an Academy in Nuneaton. The Academy proposal is linked to the closure of both Manor Park and Alderman Smith Schools and the proposal to build the Academy on the Alderman Smith site. Cabinet agreed on 26 November 2009 to the closure of Alderman Smith School and Manor Park School with effect from 31 August 2010 subject to Statutory Notices and conditional on the Secretary of State giving approval to the opening of the new Academy with effect from 1 September 2010.
Secondary school priority areas Nuneaton&Hartshill.doc 3 of 7 2.2 A school priority area is a geographical area defined on rational grounds by the school’s admission authority. Where a school is oversubscribed, the admission policy will ensure that children living in the priority area are given places before other applicants with the exception of children in care. There is no guarantee that all pupils living within a school’s priority area will be admitted, but parents will have a strong expectation that places will generally be available at their priority school.
3. The Proposal
3.1 It is proposed to make changes to the priority areas for Higham Lane School and Etone School. In addition the Governing Bodies of Hartshill School and The George Eliot School, who are their own admission authority, have agreed to consider making parallel changes to their priority areas. Both Hartshill School and The George Eliot School asked the County Council to include their proposals in the Authority’s consultation. Permission was also secured to include information on the planned priority area for the Academy.
3.2 One of the major drivers for the review of priority areas is to ensure that the numbers of children within each area match up with the capacities of the priority schools. With the planned closures of Alderman Smith and Manor Park and a creation of a new Academy on the Alderman Smith site there would be one fewer school and insufficient space for all of the children who live in the priority areas of Manor Park and Alderman Smith to attend the Academy. It is therefore necessary to review the current priority areas. Details of the proposals, with maps of each area, is set out in the consultation documents attached as Appendix A to this report.
3.3 Given the reasons behind the proposal they would be need to be subject to the outcome of statutory notices confirming the closure of Manor Park School and Alderman Smith School and the Secretary of State’s approval of an Academy on the Alderman Smith site
3.4 One of the issues arising from the implementation of the proposals is whether or not to facilitate the transition to the new priority areas by extending any current sibling priority entitlements to families remaining resident in their current homes to younger siblings. While such ‘transitional arrangements’ helps avoid families having to send children to more than one school, they have the potential disadvantage of watering down the impact of any priority area changes.
4. Consultation
4.1 Informal discussions took place with all of the secondary schools in Nuneaton and Hartshill on possible options for change in the Autumn of 2009.
4.2 Formal consultations took place throughout January and February 2010. Consultation documents were distributed to the local MPs, the Diocesan Authorities, the Borough Council, all schools in the area, all Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough and County Councillors, the Learning and Skills Council, Trade Unions and Professional Associations and Neighbouring Local
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4.3 A public notice was published in the local newspapers on 7 January 2010 and the consultation documents have been available to download from the Warwickshire website from the beginning of the year. Copies of the consultation documents have been available for collection from local schools and libraries throughout Nuneaton and Bedworth and North Warwickshire.
4.4 A total of 14 responses to the consultation had been received at the time of drafting this report. A summary of the responses with comments is set out below. Copies of all responses have been placed in the Members’ Group Rooms.
Proposals for the Etone and George Eliot priority areas
4.5 12 responses have been received from Whitestone residents. They are concerned that although they currently have children at Etone School, if the proposal goes through, they will no longer be in the priority area for the school when it is time for their younger children to move to secondary school.
Comment The over-subscription criteria for admission to community secondary schools is as shown below. These criteria do allow for some priority to be given to children from outside the school’s priority area with a sibling link.
1. The children in the care of, or provided with accommodation by, a Local Authority. 2. Children living in the priority area who have a brother or sister at the school at the time of admission. 3. Other pupils living in the priority area. 4. Children living outside the priority area who will have a brother or sister at the school at the time of admission. 5. Other children living outside the priority area.
4.6 A number of Whitestone residents have expressed concern about the quality of provision offered by the George Eliot School.
Comment Members will be aware that George Eliot Community School was one of the schools to fall within The National Challenge. The Local Authority worked closely with North Warwickshire and Hinckley and College to look at structural change for the school resulting in the closure of the community school in August 2010 and the opening of The George Eliot School, a National Challenge Trust School with effect from 1September 2010. As a National Challenge Trust School, The George Eliot School has been able to access additional funding to support an improvement in standards within the school. A new Headteacher took up the leadership of the school and he, along with the support of the North Warwickshire and Hinckley College and the School
Secondary school priority areas Nuneaton&Hartshill.doc 5 of 7 Improvement Partner, have devised strategies to support a significant improvement in standards at the school. The Local Authority has been impressed by progress made since September 2009 and has no reason to doubt that educational attainment at the school will improve significantly.
Removal of Ash Green/Alderman Smith Shared area
4.7 There has been support for the proposals from the Headteacher at Ash Green school. The removal of shared priority areas is fully supported and is seen as being a sensible way of ensuring the financial and social capacity for school improvement. The school feels that the proposed priority area is sensible in terms of community proximity to the school, ease of access and sense of place and ownership.
Hartshill Priority Area
4.8 Hartshill Parish Council have written in expressing their general support for the proposals and have asked that Hartshill be considered as a sample school under the Building Schools for the Future programme.
Warwickshire submitted its Readiness to Deliver Submission re entry to the Building schools for the Future programme at the end of January. We hope to hear when we will be able to enter the programme within the next few months.
We propose to implement the Building Schools for the Future programme in 5 phases. Nuneaton and Hartshill will be covered by the first phase. The decision is yet to be made as to which will be the sample schools.
4.9 The Headteacher and Governing Body of Higham Lane School understand the reasons behind the proposals and support the proposed changes.
4.10 The Nuneaton and Bedworth Area Committee is due to consider the matter at its meeting on 10 March 2010 and the outcome of that meeting will be reported verbally to Cabinet.
4.11 As the admission authority for their school, the Governing Body of Hartshill School and The George Eliot will also be considering the outcome of the consultation and feedback from these meetings will also be reported verbally to Cabinet.
5. Summary
5.1 The proposal to close both Manor Park and Alderman Smith schools and to open an Academy in Nuneaton will require a change to secondary school priority areas within the area.
5.2 Agreed changes to the priority areas will not come into effect until admissions in September 2011 and would be subject to the outcome of statutory notices confirming the closure of Manor Park School and Alderman Smith School and the Secretary of State’s approval of an Academy on the Alderman Smith site
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5.3 There are proposed changes to the priority areas for:
Higham Lane School Etone School The George Eliot School Hartshill School
5.4 The consultation has prompted 14 responses
MARION DAVIS Strategic Director for Children, Young People and Families
Saltisford Office Park Ansell Way Warwick
25 February 2010
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Changes to Secondary School Priority Areas in Nuneaton and Hartshill
Consultation Paper
January 2010
The Proposal
1.1 This document sets out proposed changes to priority areas for the secondary schools in Nuneaton which would take effect for admission to secondary schools in September 2011, if the proposal to establish an Academy in Nuneaton to replace Alderman Smith School and Manor Park School is agreed by the Secretary of State, Children, Schools and Families.
1.2 The County Council is responsible for admissions to Etone and Higham Lane schools. The Governors are responsible for admissions to The George Eliot School and to Hartshill School.
The County Council is consulting on arrangements for the schools for which it is responsible and on behalf of the Governors of The George Eliot School.
The County Council has been authorised to include the priority area for the proposed Academy within this document.
1.3 These proposals will not affect the current admission arrangements for St Thomas More Catholic School.
1.4 This document sets out the background to the proposed change and the details of the proposals. No decision has been made by the County Council or by the Governors of the relevant schools, except to begin consultation.
1.5 We would like to hear your views. If you have any comments please send these in writing by email to:
The Transforming Education Team Children Young People and Families Saltisford Office Park Ansell Way Warwick CV34 4UL
up to 1 March 2010.
Copies of the document can be downloaded from the County Council’s website www.warwickshire.gov.uk or can be obtained from primary and secondary schools in Nuneaton.
2. Background to the Review
2.1 What is a priority area?
Parents have the right to express a preference for any school. A place will be allocated if it is available and the school is not full in that year group. However, if the school is oversubscribed, i.e. there are more people seeking places at the school than there are places available, admission authorities have to have arrangements for dealing with oversubscription and for allocating places.
One of the ways of doing this in Warwickshire is to give each school a defined geographical area so that parents who live in that area will have priority for admission to that school. This is known as ‘the priority area’.
It is important to say that living in a priority area for a particular school does not mean that your children have to attend that school. Nor does it mean that you are guaranteed a place in that school. It does mean however that if the school is oversubscribed children living in the area will have priority for admission to the school.
2.2 Why are you proposing changes to the priority area?
There are four reasons:
Firstly if the proposal to replace Manor Park and Alderman Smith schools with an Academy is approved, there will be one fewer school in Nuneaton.
The County Council has taken the decision, to close Manor Park and Alderman Smith schools subject to statutory consultation and the agreement of the Secretary of State to establish an Academy. It is expected he will take that decision in March 2010.
Secondly, we want to make sure that we have a reasonably close match between the number of children in a priority area and the number of places in the priority area school.
This is not an exact match because many parents will choose to seek places in schools other than the priority area schools. However the Council try to ensure that there are enough places for all the children who want one (although there can be no guarantee).
Thirdly there are three areas which are ‘shared’ between more than one school. This is not equitable because parents in these areas have priority for admission to more than one school, whereas most parents have priority for admission to only one school.
Finally there are three areas of the town which do not currently fall within the priority area for any school. We want to include them in a priority area for a school to reduce any future uncertainty.
3. Current Arrangements
3.1 The current priority areas are shown on the two maps below.
Map 1 shows the parts of North Warwickshire which are currently in the priority areas for Nuneaton secondary schools.
Map 2 shows the priority areas in the urban area of Nuneaton.
Map 1. Existing Rural Priority Areas as of October 2009.
KEY Alderman Smith School Ash Green School Hartshill School Coleshill School
Map 2. Current Nuneaton Town Priority Areas
KEY Hartshill Alderman Smith Manor Park Etone Higham Lane George Eliot
4. Proposed Changes.
4.1 The proposed priority areas for each of the schools in Nuneaton and Hartshill are set out in detail and shown on the maps below.
In brief the changes are as follows:
o The area which currently is in a priority area shared between Etone and The George Eliot schools, broadly the Whitestone area will become part of the priority area of The George Eliot School. The priority area for the George Eliot School will expand to include the current Manor Park priority area south of Heath End Road.
o The area which currently is in a priority area shared between Manor Park and Hartshill schools, broadly the Camp Hill area will remain part of the priority area for Hartshill School.
o The area which currently is in a priority area shared between Etone School and Manor Park School, will become part of the Etone School priority area. The priority area for Etone School will also include the existing Manor Park area East of Canal and Stretton Baskerville North of Railway Line.
o It is proposed that Higham Lane School retains its current priority area plus the Caldecote region and an area of the existing Etone Schools priority area north of Midland Road and Corporation Street.
o An area currently part of the Manor Park priority area which is north of the railway line and bounded by Queen Elizabeth Road and Tuttle Hill may be subject to proposals brought forward by Hartshill School.
5. What happens next?
5.1 Consultation on these proposals is for an 8 week period up to 1 March 2010. Admissions authorities are required by the School Admissions regulations to determine their arrangements by 15 April. Further details of dates are given on the Warwickshire County Council website. (www.warwickshire.gov.uk)
6. We want to know your views.
6.1 The County Council would like to hear your thoughts on the proposal. If you have any comments you would like to make, please send them either in writing or by email to:
The Transforming Education Team Children Young People and Families Saltisford Office Park Ansell Way Warwick CV34 4UL
up to 1 March 2010.