School adding bulge class after half term

[RueDeWakening]

Apparently there are still kids in my (London) borough with no reception place allocated. A school near us has agreed to add a bulge class after October half term to allow some of them to start.

I can't believe it's still going on! They've already added 7 bulge classes for this year, this makes 8.

The birth rate/demand is higher for at least the next two years.

There are no plans to open an additional school (which is what is really needed).

What on earth are they planning to do next September, and the one after that?! All the schools are basically packed to the rafters, many of them have "temporary" classrooms in the playground and similar.

I suspect that most are somehow hoping that the children apply for schools in another LA!
The answer is new build but a 1 form entry primary school is going to cost circa £3M assuming that you can find the space for the school and with the best will in the world it would not be finished by next September.
The only realistic thing that LAs can do is look for schools that have space for a couple of mobiles and use them, whilst they plan and build new schools.

There's a predicted shortfall of 70,000 reception places (yes that's seventy thousand) in London over the next 4 years (rising birth rate, property boom etc) so this is going to be happening more and more.

Some boroughs were really caught out this year - 500+ shortfall after allocations.

What borough are you in?

Sutton...