Four schools set for expansion by September

After widespread public consultation, four Royal Borough first and primary schools look set to be expanded to take in more pupils from September this year.

The additional buildings - to help meet the significant rising demand for schools places in the borough - will provide 30 extra primary places per year group in Maidenhead, 15 extra per year group in Datchet/Wraysbury and 15 extra first school places per year group in Windsor.

The schools earmarked for expansion are:
Maidenhead
• St Edmund Campion Catholic Primary - increasing from 45 to 60 places
• Holyport CE Primary - from 45 to 60 places
Windsor
• Oakfield First - from 45 to 60 places
Wraysbury
• Wraysbury Primary - from 45 to 60 places.

Each of the four schemes will now be prepared for separate planning applications in the spring. At that stage there will be opportunities for further public consultation as part of the planning process and if they are approved the building work will start during the school summer holidays.

Proposed expansion at Datchet St Mary's CE Primary will not go ahead. There was little community support for the proposal which would have led to mixed year teaching and, because of the size of the site, would have meant finding new playing fields for the school elsewhere.

Cllr Eileen Quick, Cabinet Member for Children's Services, thanked everyone who had taken part in both the informal and formal consultations. She said: "We have had very constructive comments from the four schools involved, all of which will be able to offer much-needed additional places for local children from September. We also listened to people in Datchet who told us that, for very good reasons, an expansion would not be welcome, so we have decided not to go ahead.

"The growing need for additional first and primary school places in local schools for local children means we must move quickly to ensure the plans are in place for the start of the new academic year in September. Because the council is providing new buildings, the expansions will not result in increased class sizes. All four schools will grow from 45 to 60 pupils in each year group, which will mean an end to mixed year teaching. This will be very popular with parents."

The demand for additional school places is a result of the growing national birth rate. This trend is reflected locally with more than 1,600 children of reception class age predicted by 2013 - 300 more than in 2006. There are currently 817 reception places available in Maidenhead's 24 primary schools, 495 in Windsor's 14 first schools and 75 in Wraysbury as well as 136 in Ascot. In due course the Royal Borough will be consulting local residents on further primary school expansion.

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