Decision details

To determine the Statutory Notice proposing the enlargement of St Keyna Primary School to create more pupil places.

The Cabinet Member agrees that St Keyna Primary School should be enlarged to 420 places from 1 September 2024.

The Local Authority is under a statutory duty to secure that sufficient schools for providing primary and secondary education are available for their area. School places should where possible be provided in popular and successful schools serving the area of need, in order to increase parental choice, contribute to raising educational standards and attainment and to facilitate sustainable methods of travel to school.

Pupil numbers in the Keynsham & Saltford Primary School Planning Area (the Planning Area) are increasing due to higher birth rates and increased population growth in general and from new housing development under construction and planned for the future. Pupil projection figures indicate that in the future there will be insufficient places available in the Planning Area to meet local demand and additional places are projected to be required in Keynsham for Reception admissions in September 2024 onwards.

St Keyna Primary School has an Ofsted rating of Good. The school is popular with parents and is regularly oversubscribed. As at the October 2021 School Census there were 238 pupils on roll.

As the school is a Community school, it applies universal admissions criteria, facilitating access to the school for local children.

The school is located within a residential area allowing for reasonable ease of access on foot or by cycling, via non-hazardous routes i.e. along pavements andpaths.

There is sufficient land available to accommodate the enlargement. As part of the expansion, the adjacent area of education reserve land currently being used informally by the school will beadded permanently to the school to enlarge it.

Other schools in the area have either already been expanded permanently, taken temporary ‘bulge’ classes or are not suitable for expansion as there is insufficient space available.

Latest pupil projection figures for the Planning Area indicate that for Reception admissions in 2024 there will be approximately 335  pupils, in 2025 344 Reception pupils and in 2026 338. Without the St Keyna expansion there will only be 330 Reception places in the Planning Area, meaning there would be a shortfall and some  children would have to be educated elsewhere completely outside of the area. In addition to the number of places projected to be filled, the Council also needs to plan to have approximately a 5% operational surplus available in each area to allow for future pupil movements into an area and in-year admissions. If there were only 330 places, it would mean that there would be no places available to accommodate any future children moving into the area. Pupil numbers in this area are projected to keep increasing over the coming years due to higher birth rates, pupils generated from new housing developments and general populationgrowth.

If sufficient places are not created close to where they are needed this could lead to unsustainable travel to school arrangements for families having to travel longer distances to go outside of the Planning Area in which they live to access a school place for their children elsewhere. In some instances, this could lead to increased costs to the Council as a result of having to fund home to school transport due to the distance being excessive and/or the route exceptionally hazardous. There would also be the negative social impact of children having to travel outside of their local area to go to school.

Providing additional places in the local Planning Area close to where children live will support sustainable methods of travel to school such as walking or cycling, thus helping to reduce carbon emissions.

The new accommodation will be provided in a permanent building, with carbon reduction incorporated into the design and construction to give improved energy efficiency. It will be built to Passivhaus standard, meaning that it will be a sustainable low energy building that will be cost effective torun.

To not enlarge the school and not create any additional places. This option was rejected as pupil projections indicate a future shortfall of primary school places in this area of the Authority if action is not taken to add more places. The Local Authority is under a statutory duty to secure that sufficient schools for providing primary and secondary education are available for their area. These schools should be located in the area of need and will help to promote diversity and increase parental choice.

To enlarge other schools rather than St Keyna Primary. This option was rejected as St Keyna represents the best candidate for expansion in Keynsham due to its good standards, popularity and available space. Also, other schools in the area have either already been expanded or do not lend themselves to expansion due to site constraints.

To build a new 210 place school rather than enlarge the existing school.  This option was rejected as where there is an existing school that can be expanded, as is the case here, this should be done first. Also, one 420 place school is more cost effective to operate than two 210 place schools.