Issue - meetings

Chart Wood Special School (St Nicholas and Starhurst Merger Project) Dorking

 

 

Meeting: 28/02/2017 - Cabinet (Item 29)

29 CHART WOOD SCHOOL DORKING, PROPOSED RATIONALISATION ONTO ONE SITE - FORMER STARHURST SCHOOL, DORKING AND FORMER ST NICHOLAS SCHOOL, REDHILL pdf icon PDF 157 KB

Additional documents:

Decision:

RESOLVED:

 

That, subject to the agreement of the detailed financial information for the expansion set out in Part 2 of this agenda, the business case for rebuilding of this school be approved.

 

Reasons for Decisions:

 

This proposal will streamline Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) provision in the south east of Surrey.  It will allow for the more effective use of the available Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) resources.  The aim is to develop outstanding provision with a larger and more sustainable single special school for SEMH in the east quadrant of Surrey.

 

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

 

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Schools, Skills and Educational Achievement informed Cabinet that this report set out the business case for the rebuilding of Chart Wood School on its Dorking site, which would enable the release of the school’s Merstham site for alternative use as a location for a new mainstream 6FE secondary free school and 2FE primary free school.

 

Forecasts of pupil demand in the Reigate and Redhill area were set out in the report and have indicated that this provision was necessary.  Without this site (and the free schools that the Education Funding Agency will build and fund), the County Council would be liable to provide these places from its own capital budget. This would be estimated to cost the Council £26 million, which was far in excess of the cost of the proposed amalgamation scheme.

 

The Cabinet Member informed Members that the Ofsted report for the St Nicholas special school had been ‘Good’ and that the school’s headteacher was an exceptional leader. She also confirmed that the headteacher and school governors had been fully consulted on the amalgamation proposal, as set out in the ‘Consultation’ section of the report.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That, subject to the agreement of the detailed financial information for the expansion set out in Part 2 of this agenda, the business case for rebuilding of this school be approved.

 

Reasons for Decisions:

 

This proposal will streamline Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) provision in the south east of Surrey.  It will allow for the more effective use of the available Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) resources.  The aim is to develop outstanding provision with a larger and more sustainable single special school for SEMH in the east quadrant of Surrey.