Kingsbury primary school places are set to be cut

A KINGSBURY primary school plans to cut by a third the number of pupils it takes in from 2025 in order to achieve “better financial stability”.

Kingsbury Primary School, Bromage Avenue, Kingsbury, is one of three schools that Warwickshire County Council has earmarked for reduced capacity based on low intake figures and projected future need.

Schools work from a published admission number (PAN) which reflects the number of pupils which can be accommodated in each year group without causing problems.

The plan is to reduce the scope for annual intake at Kingsbury Primary School from 45 to 30 from the start of the academic year 2025-26 - beginning in September 2025.

The county council, the body responsible for the school and for ensuring that all of Warwickshire’s children have a school place, has to hold a six-week public consultation on the matter, something that was signed off by Councillor Kam Kaur (Con, Bilton and Hillside), the portfolio holder for education, on Wednesday.

It was a delegated decision, meaning it was taken at the stroke of a pen rather than in a meeting that was open to the public to attend.

The report accompanying that decision said low intakes had been seen “over the past few years due to parental preference in an area where surplus places are usually available in alternative schools”.

It notes that all but one year of its current year groups - year five - caters for less than 45 children and that a fall in admissions has led to mixed age groups for children aged from five to seven.

It adds: “If agreed, a reduction to the number of places available on entry to 30 will support this organisation to continue long-term reductions of the overall number of classes and teachers that will be required.

“The proposal would assist the school to plan for longterm stability, a consistent structure and a sustainable financial position.

“Governors are concerned that operating with low pupil numbers will be financially unsustainable, reducing the PAN to 30 allows for better financial stability.”

It says that the school and governing body requested the change for those reasons with the local authority’s forecast supporting the PAN reduction for 2025 entry but notes that “there is no proposed reduction in the physical capacity of the school buildings”, meaning “the option remains for the school to increase the PAN in the future should pupil numbers increase in the local area”.

The PANS are set to be halved at the two other schools affected - from 60 to 30 per year at Newburgh Primary School, Kipling Avenue, Warwick, and from 30 to 15 at The Dassett Church of England Primary School, Memorial Road, Fenny Compton.

Those changes are also proposed to kick in from September 2025, subject to the same consultation process.