Schools to be given more money after pressure grows on places

A rapid increase in the city's birthrate means that, by the 2011/12 academic year, 6,170 reception class places will be needed compared to 5,329 in the 2005/6 school year.

Although some areas can cope with the increase in the number of schoolchildren, further expansion is needed in the south and south-west of the city, as well as in Netherthorpe, Meersbrook, Southey Green and Mosborough.

An extra 240 reception places need to be provided across these six areas, above current plans, by 2011. To pay for the expansion of primary schools, Sheffield Council has received a grant of 13.8m from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) which has to be spent by August next year.

The expansion plans are set to be agreed at a council Cabinet committee meeting which takes place today.

A report written by Sheffield Council's education officers, which is to go before that meeting, says steady decline of the birth rate in Sheffield was reversed in 2002/3 and it has been rising ever since, from 5,715 births in 2002/3 to 6,665 in 2007/8.

The first places to highlight a discrepancy between the demand for primary school places and the number of places available were Burngreave and Fir Vale, where the expansion of schools is already under way.

The plans set to be agreed at today's meeting involve expanding Walkley Primary School from 40 places a year to 60, and Westways Primary School from 60 places a year to 90.

In Meersbrook, Mundella Primary School would have 60 places in each year rather than 40, and Carfield Primary would have an additional 15 places, taking it up to 90 pupils in each school year.

In the south of Sheffield, the plans involve expanding Abbey Lane and Lowedges primary schools to 90 places and 60 places per year respectively.

Longley Primary School would be temporarily expanded from 60 places to 90, and Mosborough Primary School would have 60 places in each school year rather than 45.

In the south-west of the city, Abbeydale Primary School and Lowfield Primary School would both be expanded to 60 places per year from 45, and Greystones Primary would have 90 places per year group rather than 60, for a period of three years.

In total, the plans would allow for an extra 255 school places.

The report to go before today's meeting says: "In addition, further options will be explored for delivering primary education, in the event of further growth and the impossibility of expansion or refurbishment.

"Options such as more radical co-locations with other services, for example teaching older primary school year groups on secondary school sites, or extending the school day with a "shift" system provide examples of models employed in other countries."

If the plans are agreed by the Cabinet committee today, stakeholders in all six areas will be consulted before July and the statutory proposals will be published in September.

New plans would be developed by December and the new school buildings would be constructed between January and September next year, ready for the new reception classes to start school.

The report adds: "A consultation document will be sent to parents and carers of each child attending schools proposed for the expansion. The headteacher and governors of each school will also be sent the document.

"The overall aim of this programme is to ensure that access to quality primary school provision is available to all children of primary school age across Sheffield."