Agenda item

Purpose: To brief Members of the actions taken in relation to primary school places in West Berkshire.  . 

The Committee received a briefing on the actions being taken in relation to primary school places in West Berkshire (Agenda Item 5).

Caroline Corcoran presented her report and highlighted the following points:

·                    75% of West Berkshire resident applications were offered their first choice of place.  71% of the total number of applicants were offered their first choice.  It was hoped that this could be improved upon in future years. 

·                    There was an adequate number of places across the District for all West Berkshire pupils, but immediate action was required in Thatcham Park CE Primary School and three schools towards the east of the District to help meet a shortfall of places in those areas in the current year.  It was expected that these pressures would continue and formal consultation would take place in relation to the pupil numbers in these schools in the longer term. 

·                    The School Place Plan had been approved.  This had been enhanced beyond the existing good model for school place planning and took into account best practice.  The Plan identified six areas within West Berkshire which were based on geographical and secondary provision, these were Mortimer, Calcot, Newbury, Thatcham/North Newbury, West and Downs.  An area review had been conducted of Thatcham/North Newbury which had led to changes being made, the next review was scheduled for Newbury.  These reviews helped to forecast numbers for the next seven years. 

·                    Changes to catchment areas were being planned in time for the 2012 admissions round.  The changes to school numbers and catchment areas were necessary to help further meet parental preference.  Initially, efforts were being made to increase the number of places in some schools while avoiding additional costs. 

·                    A prediction model was used for individual schools to help understand demand.  This took into account historical number on roll for seven years, a popularity index (which included parental preference, performance data, waiting lists, local school factors), birth data and information on housing developments and building programmes.  This work produced very accurate forecasting which would continue, but there was a need to publicise the value of this work beyond the Admissions Team. 

Members queried the point at which a decision was made to look at longer term solutions to school places, i.e. building work, beyond the modest increases described.  Caroline Corcoran advised that this was considered, but it depended on the site layout of individual schools and, as already described, the first option was to consider increasing numbers within the existing layout.  This was not an option for schools located in and around Newbury Town Centre because of the nature of the area and this was a reason why an area review of Newbury had been scheduled, along with the annual pressure for places. 

It was added that any capacity in Newbury schools was likely to be affected by the Newbury Racecourse development. 

The impact of a school taking Academy status on school admissions was then discussed.  It was advised that an Academy would act as their own admission authority, but they would need set criteria for admissions.  All admission authorities currently had a catchment area of some form, but an Academy could establish a separate criteria.  However, no indication had been given to date that this was likely.

Applications for a place at an Academy would still be processed through the Local Education Authority as with all schools and a request to attend an Academy would be considered as one of the three preferences available to parents/carers. 

There was a wider need for responsibilities to be made clear between the LEA and schools seeking/taking Academy status. 

Members felt it would be useful to receive a further report once the current round of admissions had completed as an update. 

RESOLVED that a further report would be received once the current round of admissions had come to a close.