School getting £2m to meet demand on places

If the proposals go ahead, Hexthorpe Primary will grow from being a two-form entry school with 420 pupils to a three form entry school catering for 630 pupils.

Doncaster Council will fund the expansion with £1.9m from the Education Funding Agency and £500,000 from its own capital budget to provide additional classrooms and hall space.

The latest round of admissions to Doncaster primary schools saw no spare reception places in the Balby area with some parents having to send their children outside the district.

The development of the nearby Bombardier site for housing could eventually amount to a further 700 homes leading to additional pressure on school places.

Hexthorpe Primary’s governors have already backed the idea but the fact the school will grow by more than a quarter means that the proposal will be the subject of a wider consultation.

Doncaster Council will wait to see the responses from the public consultation before taking a final decision on whether to go ahead with the expansion plans.

The pressure on Doncaster school places is largely the result of an increasing birth rate which was in excess of 4,000 in the 1980s before falling by around 1,000 in the 1990s. It has now returned consistently above the 3,700 level.

Armthorpe, Campsmount, Don Valley, Hall Cross, Hatfield, Hungerhill and Ridgewood have all been identified as “hot spots” alongside Balby.

The council is expecting to need to provide around 1,500 additional places in the next five years at a cost of £10.4m.

Doncaster is just one of many parts of Yorkshire facing a shortfall on school places.

Leeds could need a further 4,000 places by 2016 on current projections. Allerton Bywater, Asquith, Morley St Francis Catholic, East Ardsley and Robin Hood primary schools in Leeds are all due to expand.