Agenda and minutes

Venue: Havering Town Hall, Main Road, Romford

Contact: Richard Cursons 01708 432430  Email: richard.cursons@oneSource.co.uk

Note: Special meeting 

Items
No. Item

32.

CALL-IN OF CABINET DECISION CONCERNING OUTLINE PROPOSALS TO ADDRESS EARLY YEARS, PRIMARY, SECONDARY AND SEN RISING ROLLS - PHASE III AND IV EXPANSION PROGRAMME pdf icon PDF 97 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

 

Prior to the meeting starting the Chairman advised Members that although Parsonage Farm School was shown in part of the report the expansion of Parsonage Farm School had already previously been agreed in an earlier phase and the granting of planning permission was to be considered by the Regulatory Services Committee.

 

Councillor Darvill commented that the reason for the call-in was to allow the public to see how the Council was less able now to determine how pupil numbers were now allocated. The public still believed that authorities were the best placed people to make decisions regarding future school provision but were perhaps unaware of the outside controls that they faced.

 

Over 700 responses had been received to the consultation regarding the provision of school places and the public had overwhelmingly expressed confidence in the local authority carrying out this duty.

 

Councillor Darvill commented that the Council now needed to encourage free schools into the area, although not in favour of free schools, parents needed to commit to the idea of free schools which could prove difficult if parents were unsure of what the free school offered.

 

Councillor Darvill also commented that the Council should be approaching existing secondary schools including academies to discuss expansion and the potential for all-through provision.

 

Evidence elsewhere in the country showed that children performed well at all-through schools.

 

All the schools selected for expansion were performing well and were popular schools which would lead to an increase in pupil numbers and therefore an increase in vehicles at schools.

 

Havering already had very high car ownership rates and existing congestion throughout the borough with cross borough travel on the increase.

 

Councillor Durant commented that free schools could be built where the investors wanted to build which was not necessarily where they were needed.

 

Councillor Durant suggested that the Board needed to carefully consider the effect of four form of entry on schools in the future as it was important not to create a large number of super-size schools.

 

Members were advised by officers that there was no evidence to suggest attainment levels decreased in larger schools; with increased funding larger schools could offer greater opportunities.

 

The Council’s Assistant Director of Learning and Achievement highlighted a list of schools that had already expanded and those that were forecast to expand in future years. Members were advised that there still existed a strong demand for school places in the Romford area. Discussions had taken place with secondary schools, with regard to all-through provision, which were on-going and quite encouraging although in a recent survey parents had been less keen on all-through provision and work was needed with parents to explain the benefits of such schools. The Council had a good working relationship with the Regional Schools Commissioner who oversaw the introduction of free schools and had helped introduce existing free schools provided by Oasis Community Learning and REAch2.

 

Members were advised that expansion in secondary schools was quite a challenging task as more facilities were required. Feasibility  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.