North Somerset Council

CONSULTATION DRAFT v1

School Organisation Plan

2007 - 2012

Executive Summary

Part 1:

1. Introduction

North Somerset was established as a new unitary authority on 1 April 1996 as a result of Local Government re-organisation. Its boundaries are those of the former Woodspring District Council and it neighbours, Bristol City Council, Bath & North East Somerset Council and Somerset County Council.

2. Setting the Scene in North Somerset

North Somerset covers an area of around 145 square miles and has a population of 195,100 people. The district faces a wide range of development issues that includes the need to provide 20,000 new homes over the next 20 years, which equates to 1,000 dwellings every year. The regeneration of Weston super Mare also needs to be addressed. North Somerset is a generally prosperous area, but deprivation statistics do highlight that there are areas that have severe social and economic problems. It has a growing population with a higher than average proportion of older people and lower than average proportions of working age population and children. Household structures within North Somerset generally mirror the national situation although the number of homeowners is 10% higher than in England as a whole.

3. Planning the provision of schools in North Somerset

The SOP provides a key framework against which decisions can be taken about the overall need to provide additional school places, or to remove surplus places. The key outcomes of the strategies contained within the plan are to improve the lives of children and young people so that they can: Be healthy; Stay safe; Enjoy and achieve; Make a positive contribution; and Achieve economic well-being.

Decisions on school organisation proposals will be taken mostly by the Local Authority or by the Schools Adjudicator. Where decisions can be made by the Local Authority, such decisions will be made by The Executive (where a Statutory Proposal is to be published), or by the Executive Member for Children and Young People’s Services, after taking formal advice from the Children and Young People's Services Scrutiny Panel, the North Somerset Admissions Forum and the Director of Children and Young People's Services.

As at September 2007 North Somerset had 65 primary aged schools, 10 non-selective secondary schools (all with specialist status) and 3 special schools. There are no Academies in North Somerset.

All secondary schools in North Somerset provide access to post-16 provision, either through direct or through partnership arrangements with Weston Sixth Form College.

WesthavenCommunitySpecialSchool and WorleCommunitySchool became Pathfinder schools in the government’s new Trust Schools programme. GordanoSecondary Schooland Churchill Community & 6thFormCollege have published notices to become Foundation schools. It is proposed that changes will take place in the 2007/8 school year.

North Somerset has three Special Schools and currently five Resource Bases attached to mainstream schools (3 primary and 2 secondary). The LA makes every effort to place children in local LA schools, but does recognise that there are a small number of pupils whose needs are so severe and complex that they require provision that is only available in maintained or independent schools outside North Somerset. Four Pupil Referral Units provide teaching and pastoral support for children and young people who are unable to attend a mainstream school and require a more tailored specialist curriculum. In addition tuition is provided to those students who are unable to attend school because of ill health, pregnancy, permanent exclusion or SEN placement breakdown.

Children's Centres are a key aspect of North Somerset's early years, childcare and play strategy. Children's Centre will work closely with ExtendedSchool initiatives so that provision is available for children aged 0 – 19.

The North Somerset Music Service provides instrumental tuition and music support to LA schools within North Somerset.

4. Capital Resources

The extent to which specific policies and school improvement or enlargement projects can be implemented depends on the level of education capital funding available to the LA in a particular financial year. New funding arrangements are to be announced by the Department for ChildrenSchools and Families (DCSF) in the autumn 2007. At the time of writing this plan there were three main Government sources of capital support are:

  • The DCSF Annual Formulaic Allocation
  • The Aided sector capital programme
  • Devolved Formula Capital

Additional sources of funding are also important in taking forward successful school improvement projects. These may include:

  • Developer contributions
  • Capital receipts;
  • One-off Government grants
  • Prudential borrowing

5. Asset Management Planning (AMP)

All Local Education Authorities are required to prepare an Asset Management Plan (AMP) in consultation with maintained schools and the Dioceses. The AMP is used when prioritising decisions about capital spending on school premises in order to:

• Raise standards of educational achievement;

• Achieve best value from the available resources;

• Ensure the efficient and effective management of new and existing capital assets.

The SOP provides the overall framework for decisions about the provision of additional school places, the removal of surplus places or the size and organisational designation of schools. Together these plans enable the Council (and the Dioceses in respect of Aided schools) to determine priorities for capital expenditure. No projects should be progressed unless they meet the requirements and priorities of each plan.

The DCSF are due to launch a new Capital Programme Strategy in the autumn 2007. The criteria for determining Local Authority allocations and priority criteria are currently unpublished but are expected to be radically different from the current arrangements.

The AMP (to be produced by the Corporate Asset Management Team) should contain information on the need for capital investment in school premises under three principle headings: Condition; Suitability; and Sufficiency. The data must be updated on an ongoing basis.

The Net Capacity Assessment (NCA) of a mainstream school is a measure of the effective number of pupil places. These assessments are carried out according to the DCSF methodology and are updated following building changes.

Building priorities for the primary and secondary sectors are explained in more detail in appendices 2 and 3. Building priorities for special schools are explained in more detail in appendix 4.

All schools use their AMP data to draw up their own Building Development Plans (BDPs), which: Identify the key issues for building and site improvement; Consider and evaluate options to resolve identified issues; Indicate a broad timescale for each project; Identify costs and potential sources of funding; and Identify how the resolution of the issue will contribute to raising pupil achievement.

Schools have responsibility for revenue repairs and maintenance. Tit is expected that such items will have appropriate priority in school Building Development Plans and the spending of Devolved Formula Capital.

For Community and Voluntary Controlled schools, the Council has a responsibility to monitor schools projects and premises-related expenditure. For Aided schools, the responsibility for repair, maintenance and capital works rests with the governing body.

There has been a significant reduction in temporary accommodation on school

sites in North Somerset recently.

Part 2: Operational Principles and Procedures

6. School Organisation Principles

Effective school planning will:

  • Add diversity and choice
  • Provide the right numbers of school places in the right locations
  • Minimise the numbers of surplus places in some schools
  • Resolve overcrowding at some schools
  • Support schools in providing quality, inclusive and improving education that is financially viable in suitable sound and sustainable accommodation and achieves the highest possible standards
  • Give value for money
  • Allow schools to expand and change their provision to meet new government initiatives
  • Only progress projects that support the aims and priorities contained within this plan.

The following principles are applied when reviewing the type of provision in North Somerset:

  • Expansion of Schools - when reviewing demand the LA will act in the interests of all schools and all parents in the community to provide Best Value school places
  • New housing developments – the Council will seek the establishment of new or expanded schools/family learning bases from housing developers. The Council will also consider the repositioning of schools to new sites within towns where local demand requires a relocation
  • Surplus places – the Council will aspire to having between 5 – 7 % of surplus places across all schools in North Somerset
  • An amalgamation will be considered where a business case for change supports the alteration in organisation structure. Triggers for change are: a large surplus of places; a school is deemed to be financially unviable; a school is causing continued concern in terms of levels of achievement; curriculum needs can no longer be met within the financial resources available to a school; and for both successful and failing schools, where the Headteacher of an infant or junior school sharing or on adjoining sites leaves his/her post
  • School Closure – the Local Authority will not normally consider schools for closure unless standards are low, surplus places are in excess of 25% and all measures taken to improve the teaching and other facilities available to children and their families have failed
  • Specialist Schools –North Somerset supports the extended provision in specified curriculum areas at secondary schools
  • Collaboration and Federation – North Somerset will encourage schools to work together and to share their expertise so that standards are raised and all pupils and families benefit from the drive for change and new innovative working arrangements
  • Primary Schools – All new schools for the primary age in North Somerset (school or building) will be all through primary schools. Unless set in a rural location (where a 105 – place school may be appropriate), all new schools will be at least one (210 places overall) or two forms of entry (420 places overall)
  • Size of small schools - The smallest primary school will normally accommodate up to 105 pupils
  • Secondary Schools – The aim of the authority is for every secondary (and primary) school to be a high performing school. The core principles for existing and new secondary provisions are:
  • the local school should be the natural and easy choice for parents providing high standards of care and achievement;
  • strong, cohesive communities benefit from a secondary school at their heart;
  • denominational secondary schools should be accessible to those parents who wish to exercise this choice
  • to provide the best education for the 11-16 population, secondary schools should serve no fewer then 6 forms of entry or no more than 10 forms of entry.
  • School clusters - A group of schools may work or be placed together for any defined purpose
  • Schools will be expected to investigate opportunities for opening their facilities to the wider community with the potential for income generation.
  • We will be innovative in seeking provision for 0 – 19 education

7. School Capacity and Admissions Levels

The capacity of a school is the number of places available for pupils at that

school based on its learning resources and workspaces. Capacity is calculated

by using the Net Capacity Assessment (NCA) formula issued by the DCSF. As

well as giving the capacity of a school, the NCA formula provides an Indicated

Admission Level (IAN). This figure is the minimum number of pupils to be

admitted if there are more applications for a school than places available.

Admission Numbers are reviewed annually as part of all admission authority

intake arrangement consultations. The LA is responsible for setting Admission

Numbers for Community and Voluntary Controlled schools. Governors are

responsible for setting admission arrangements at Voluntary Aided and

Foundation/Trust schools.

The pupil projections for all North Somerset schools (2007 – 2012) are listed in appendix 1.

8. Primary Places

The number of places in North Somerset schools is currently sufficient for the total number of pupils on roll (as at September 2006) of 14,675 overall. The projected demand across the next 5 years remains relatively stable with the estimated numbers for September 2012 being 15,269 school places within an overall net capacity of 15,833.

There is minimal cross boundary movement of primary aged pupils either in or out of North Somerset. Pupil numbers continue to increase in the towns of Weston-super-Mare and Portishead. The Local Authority has reviewed the numbers of school places in Clevedon where in some schools surplus places were in excess of 25%. Pupil demand for primary school places in the Backwell and Churchill North clusters are in decline. Some re-modelling and re-designation of accommodation have led to reductions in some school Admission Numbers. Pupil places in Long Ashton will be kept under review, especially if the proposed additional 9,000 homes South of Bristol (Ashton Vale) are realised. A review of the level of primary provision in Nailsea maybe needed to ensure that school place provision meets projected demand.

The Local Authority is working with schools and Governing Bodies to tackle the issue of falling school rolls in rural and some urban primary schools.

In terms of the physical and organisational structure for primary education, it is intended that:

  • Consideration of the inclusion of a pre-school is always included in discussions concerning the provision at new or remodelled schools
  • That new or remodelled schools will normally conform to a range of sizes that relate to ‘forms of entry’ wherever possible. These will normally be based around average class sizes of 30 and be of a 105, 210, 315 or 420 place primary school structure (excluding early years provision)
  • That all paired infant, first and junior schools will be expected to work together collaboratively with a view that, should a business case for change be made showing that an amalgamation is in the interests of the school community (and with funding permitting), they will become all-through primary schools
  • That schools should offer single aged and/or mixed aged class teaching as appropriate and necessary
  • That Governing Bodies at schools with fewer than 90 pupils should, as a minimum requirement, have loose, collaborate co-operation arrangements in place with other schools. Where appropriate these arrangements could lead to a Hard Federation with other local schools
  • The LA aims to have available across the authority a surplus of places in the region of 5 to 7% of the total places available.

9. Secondary Places

The April 2007 census figure showed there to be 11, 548 (11 – 15) and 1,408 (16+)pupils on roll, a total of 12,956 pupils. Although it is anticipated that, due to building expansions and new capacity re-assessments, the net capacities of secondary schools will increase by over 1,000 places by the start of the 2007/8 school year, predictions for 2012 show that the local Authority will fall short of the Audit Commissions guidelines of a 5 to 7% surplus to provide for parental preferences. In addition, the current capacities are insufficient to enable the increase in pupil population anticipated from residential expansions to be accommodated within the physical capacities of our current schools (predicted demand of 13,073 places by 2012).

North Somerset does not offer denominational secondary education. The majority of pupils whose parents seek a denominational secondary education attend either St Bede's Catholic VA School or St. Mary Redcliffe and Temple CE VA School, both of which are in Bristol. The Local Authority is legally obliged to consider the religious beliefs and convictions of parents/the child when allocating school places and to provide support to low-income families attending secondary schools with a religious character where they live over 2 and up to 15 miles from their nearest denominational school.

There is a more significant cross boundary movement of pupils within the secondary sector than within the primary sector. Whilst a new imported of pupils, in September 2007 22%of the intake to Chew Valley School (maintained by Bath & North East Somerset) will be residents of North Somerset (Chew Valley Admission Number: 196, intake from North Somerset: 43).

Significant residential developments within Weston-super-Mare have had a considerable impact on the number of children seeking places at the four secondary schools that serve the town. The impact of the Weston Vision on the town of Weston super Mare will mean that proposals to establish extended provision and/or a fifth secondary school in Weston-super-Mare are probable. All proposals will be the subject of informal and formal consultation once the Weston Vision plans are published in the autumn 2007.

The needs of the Portishead resident population will be served by the enlargement of GordanoSchool from a 1650 to an 1800 place school. .

A review of the areas of prime responsibility of some secondary schools was completed in 2003 with changes made to arrangements introduced for the September 2005 intake. The LA continually reviews its admission arrangements and further reviews are likely during the period of this plan.

In terms of the physical and organisational structure for secondary education, it is intended that:

  • Consideration of the inclusion of 6th Form provision is always included in discussions concerning the provision at new or remodelled schools.
  • That new or remodelled schools will normally conform to a 900, 1200 or 1500- place secondary school structure plus 6th form and that, where practicable and necessary, facilities will be available within the school building for Extended School, Youth Service and local community use.
  • Any new school should add to opportunities for diversity and choice across the region. This may include consideration to 3 – 19 provision.

10. Post-16 Provision

All secondary schools in North Somerset offer 6th form provision, either as part of their school provision or in partnership with WestonCollege.

11. Special Educational Need (SEN)

In North Somerset the needs of most pupils with Special Educational Needs are met effectively in mainstream schools.