Borough weighs up options for primary places
Council consults on new school or expansions to add capacity
Plans to open a new school in Maidenhead or expand a number of primary schools in the town are being considered by the council as it looks to provide more places for students, writes George Roberts.
The Royal Borough has launched a consultation on four potential proposals to expand the number of spaces available for primary school children in the area.
The first proposal is to open a new school at the former Forest Bridge School site in Chiltern Road, which was vacated when it moved to Braywick Park.
It would offer 30 places per year group.
The other three proposals include expanding primary schools in northern, south-west and central Maidenhead – in some cases doubling their intakes.
The consultation documents state: “Our latest set of pupil projections for reception school places suggests that demand will rise again over the next few years.
“This appears to be driven by movement into the area, including into new housing, rather than any underlying growth in the birth rate.
“This also means that the growth in demand is mainly in those areas where substantial new housing has already been built, or is expected to be built shortly.”
The northern proposal involves expanding both St Luke’s Primary and St Mary’s Catholic School from 45 to 60 places a year.
The south-west proposal is to expand Lowbrook Academy to 60 places a year, and the central proposal is to double the capacity of Larchfield Primary from 30 to 60 places per year group.
Pat Lattimer, chair of governers at Larchfield, said: “We welcome this exciting opportunity to expand our school and improve our facilities.”
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She added: “The plan would be to build a brand new school right here in the heart of Larchfield. If this project goes ahead it will be beneficial to our children and their children in the future, but also challenging in the shorter term.”
Claire Robinson, St Mary’s chair of governors, was also supportive of the proposals. She said: “We are enthusiastic about the opportunity of sharing our passion for education with more children, within new facilities which have many educational advantages".
Cllr Simon Werner (Lib Dem, Pinkneys Green), leader of the opposition, agreed that new school places were needed but stressed that expansions must be done in the right way.
He said: “We have got a growing population and schools need to be expanded, but I would like to make sure as many residents know about it and respond to the consultation as possible.
“The impacts won’t just be on the children, but also for the residents around the schools. I know that in some cases getting the transport issues sorted out around the school is part of the conversation.
“It has got to be the residents, the schools and the highways staff working together, rather than the council just trying to impose solutions.”
Cllr Stuart Carroll (Con, Boyn Hill), cabinet member for children's services, said: “As a cabinet we confirmed in December that in order to ensure that there are sufficient primary school places for residents, development work would need to start immediately.
“The consultation outlines the options open to the Royal Borough following extensive master planning of all school sites.
“Each option has its strengths and challenges as set out in the feasibility studies and this consultation is designed to identify those where there is strong support to find working solutions for the school places.
“At a later stage, detailed designs will be undertaken so any scheme meets the wide range of conditions for success and that includes highways.
“It is vital we plan ahead to ensure every single child has a school place and hence why we have taken this proactive approach and are consulting early to get all views”.
The council’s consultation will run until midday on Friday, April 23.
To view the consultation, visit surveys.achievingforchildren .org.uk/s/MaidenheadPrimary/