Is your primary school expanding?

[golb7]

Have just seen another thread on this and wondered how common this is up and down the land?
So, is your primary school expanding?

What area and by how much?

Was there a consultation or just imposed?

Obviously the pros of expanding a school are that the council solves a place shortage.

But, what are the cons of large primary schools? Some seem to be growing to almost 900 / 1000 places??

not that I know of, it's already a four class intake, the biggest in the borough and has been for at least ten years.

Ours is growing - currently takes 40 per year max, now going to 45 intake. So going from 9 classes to 10 in the school. And yet they closed a school in a nearby village 2 years ago, and the kids from there come to our school. Cheaper for the council, yes, but not so good for the kids from there.

Oh yes, and it amuses me because OFSTED describe it as "larger than average".

Ours is expanding simply by buying new chairs - PAN of 22, 36 children accepted into reception. Guess they are just hoping less children will apply for 2012 !

We are expanding and becoming a forced academy. We are growing from one class intake to two. The whole schools is being redesigned / built for this.

Ours is. Dd1 started in September into a 2 class reception. From 2013, they're going to take an extra class. That will be the year Dd2 starts.

Initially I was a bit disappointed as the school has a large number of pre-fab units already BUT then the headmaster announced that it is at the limit of what they're allowed to have and so it means a new building for the school. We've yet to see the plans for it but I'm hopeful now that it's a good thing - currently both reception classes are in the same classroom.

I think there was some consultation but I've no idea if it was actually a forgone conclusion iykwim.

About 20 schools in our borough are now expanding to have another form of entry.

Some schools are going from 4 form entry to 5.

We fought our expansion every step of the way. And in the end we got better plans than were originally proposed - but we're still expanding.

There are pros and cons to the expansion. After years of fighting and concentrating on the cons, I'm now trying to concentrate on all the pros.

But we certainly had no choice.

DC'rs school took in a bulge class last year (so 90, rather than 60) as otherwise the catchment area for non-siblings would have been less that 200m in radius.

My worry is what happens in 2 years' time, as many of those extra 30 have younger siblings who will be ready for school at that point....I suspect that 2013 entry will be a 'siblings only' year of 60 unless they introduce another bulge class.

We're doubling in size from single form to two form entry - gradual intake increasing from next year - so 2 Year R, the following year 2 Year R and 2 Year 1. So it doesn't directly affect the students currently there - or so the party line goes.

Our main concern is the short-term - several months of building works starting after Easter Break. We've also lost the ability to park on the road the school is on - so DH and I are trying to figure out how we do get them to and from school around our commute to work.

Hey ho...

Secondary schools will have it easier because they'll have a much longer time to prepare.

The problem with primary schools is council's really don't know how many kids will apply for reception - until the application deadline.

Whereas councils can predict the number of secondary school places needed 7 years in advance......

To be fair on councils, many don't have a good idea of numbers for reception each year, especially in urban areas where there is high mobility. When my dd got a reception offer this time last year, all families who applied on time were allocated a place. Our neighbour moved into the area in June and there were places available in a number of primaries in the borough - her dd got a place in an Ofsted judged 'good' school straight away.

By January, more families had moved in (possibly to do with the HB caps forcing them out of pricier areas) and several bulge classes were set up.

No. Ours is a one class intake. Nearby villages with new estates are struggling with temp classrooms though. However, local newspaper recently reported secondary schools are looking at redundancies as expect fall of 300 across county in next couple of years.

Our primary went to 4-form entry this year, so 120 children in a year. DS is currently in Y1.

I'm not desperately pleased about it, but we love the school and the staff are great.

In our school's case it came down to: agree to expand and you can have the cash for new buildings or stay are you are and continue to use all those crumbling prefab classrooms...

They consulted about my dcs school, and it was rejected. (Would have been from 90 per year to 120).

2 years of bulge classes coming up. As the school was new built 10 years ago with 7 classrooms (so one in each year) they are having to put portacabins in. Gawd knows how the exra 30/60 will fit in the hall.

My two closest schools have 30 entry (CofE VA) and 60 entry (community).
However the CofE school has currently 4 bulge classes also of 30 on the site and have spent the last two years campaigning against any more as they are on a tiny site and running out of playground.

The community school has two bulge classes (again, 30 kids in each), and is building a new building. It has large playing areas so would be a more sensible place to put a bulge class and could probably deal with 90 per year with a new building. The borough opened two new primary schools last year, I think with 60 intake, but it's still hugely overcrowded (Lambeth, south London). Traditionally people move out of inner London when their kids hit school age, but with recession and house prices being high and now negative equity, that's not happening - plus some of the highest birth and immigration rates in the country.

Ds will almost certainly end up at whichever of these two schools has a bulge class in Sept 2013 - the CofE school has half its places available to non-qualifying-Christians, but a couple years ago only 10 out of 60 children admitted met the Christian criteria, so if there aren't too many siblings and there is an extra class, he could get in on distance.

They wanted it to increase to a 3 form entry, but it wasn't feasible as the school is set up with two small classrooms, with a shared area between for each year group.

So, In their infinite wisdom, there is a satellite primary being built adjacent to the neighbouring high school, and it will be a part of the high school. There will be a single reception class this year, then another added each year until a full primary of 7 classes is reached in 2019. Public opposition has been quite loud as parking us already a huge problem, but as there would have been no time to go through a full planning application for a whole new school, it had to be attached to an existing school and it went through. Those parents who have been told it will be their nearest school are less than pleased, and I don't know anyone who has actually put it down on the form.

They are trying to sell it as giving automatic entry to the high school to all pupils at the new primary, but as it's not the best high school in the land, it's not much of a USP!

Dd's school was newly built two years ago. It has just been agreed that it will be expanded to build two more classes. I expected it but I'm sad tbh there are a hundred more children there now than when it opened as people have joined because of its growing reputation and a few local schools in special measures. There are already two classes (literacy and numeracy groups) held in the spine of the building so the space is needed but what I suspect will happen is that even more children will join and so the spine will still be used as classroom space anyway.

Yes, from 60-90 3 years ago as a "bulge year" but I think it's now permanent.

I don't mind as I figure most of the two form entry schools were once 1 form entry. There was a consultation. Many other schools in the borough have done the same. The portacabins are fabulous, nice, big, warm and each has its own loo. The staggered lunchtimes, assemblies, school plays are not ideal and may get worse, the hall needs to be enlarged imo but that's my only negative tbh, as others said even with 90 places the school only goes out by about 0.5km.

I'm wondering if I live in the same area as schoolsnightmare!

The school I work in is staying the same. It's an infant school but already 3 form entry so 9 classes, about 20 children over 3 years.

I know of at least two local primaries than have expanded from 2 form entry to 3 form entry this year.

We're in Sheffield btw.

DD's year group has a bulge class which uses up the only "spare" space the school had to shove an extra class in, making the intake 90 instead of 60. There's no facility to take another bulge class till that one has left year 6.

But no matter! They have just announced a consultation on becoming a dual site school, going from 2 form entry to 6 form entry. Nobody is quite sure yet about how this will work, the 2nd site is a 20ish minute walk away from the existing one, so we are assuming they will be treated as seperate schools for admission purposes, but who knows? These additional 4 forms will be available from September next year, apparently.

And as teacherwith2kids says, there are concerns at the current site already about the knock on impact on siblings potentially not being offered places in years to come, as this year without the bulge class the admissions distance for those without siblings would have been ~180m.

We're London/Surrey borders btw.