Issue - meetings

That, subject to the agreement of the detailed financial information for the expansion set out in item 16 in Part 2 of this agenda, the business case for the provision of an additional 360 primary places plus 52 nursery places in Ewell be approved.

Reasons for Decisions:

The proposal supports the Authority’s statutory obligation to provide sufficient school places relative to demand.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by either the Council Overview Board or the Education and Skills Scrutiny Board]

The Cabinet Member for Schools, Skills and Educational Achievement said that this business case for the approval of expansion of Danetree Junior School from a 4 Form of Entry junior (480 places) to a 4 Form of Entry primary (840 places) creating an additional 360 primary places, plus those places at Guildford County School meant that the County Council was creating a total of 460 additional school places today.

The project would include a new two-storey building that would provide a new nursery and six new infant classrooms. She said that this expansion formed part of an area re-organisation of primary schools within Ewell that sought to deliver 630 additional primary places across three schools and would help meet the basic need requirements in the Ewell and NW Epsom primary planning areas from September 2017. She also said that there would be a maintained 52 place nursery for children aged 2 to 4 years on the Danetree school site.

As the school was an Academy, part of the Glyn Learning Foundation, it conducted the consultation for the expansion which subsequently the Governing Body approved in principle. This decision had now been ratified by the Secretary of State via the Regional Schools’ Commissioner and therefore, the Cabinet Member commended its expansion to Cabinet.

RESOLVED:

That, subject to the agreement of the detailed financial information for the expansion set out in item 16 in Part 2 of this agenda, the business case for the provision of an additional 360 primary places plus 52 nursery places in Ewell be approved.

Reasons for Decisions:

The proposal supports the Authority’s statutory obligation to provide sufficient school places relative to demand.