Local schools for local people

The council is determined to work towards providing a place in a good school for every child that needs one.

What has the council been doing to create more secondary school places in the borough?

We opened The Elmgreen School in Norwood this year and the Evelyn Grace Academy in Brixton due to open next year. These two schools will provide an additional 360 places per year, and we are about to start rebuilding and expanding Stockwell Park High School. However, an analysis of pupil numbers shows that we will need more secondary school places in the future. We know that the greatest demand for places is in the centre of the borough.

How is the council going to create more places?

Over the past 18 months we have been working with stakeholders to look at ways to provide more secondary school places. There are two options – we either build another brand new school, or we expand our existing schools so they can take more students. Finding land on which to build a new school is difficult because there is not much available locally. The council has looked into a number of sites, including a site on Brixton Hill, but we are advised they are either too expensive, too small or unsuitable for a properly functioning school.

If you built a new school where would that be?

One remaining option for a new school is the large site occupied by Fenstanton Primary School on Christchurch Road. The primary school needs to be rebuilt anyway, and if that is done on a smaller site nearby we could use the current site for a brand new secondary school.

If we don’t build a new school what will you do instead?

The alternative is to expand existing secondary schools. Most of Lambeth’s schools are currently over-subscribed and popular with parents. The majority of schools are also on compact sites so detailed analysis would be needed to determine the optimum way we could expand to accommodate more places.

Why is the Fenstanton site being recommended?

The following professional advice has been given.

• On cost
  The costs to Lambeth for pursuing a school on the Fenstanton site are estimated to be circa £8-9m. This was considerably more affordable that the cost of other sites. If costs do rise an alternative is to explore the viability of expanding existing schools.
  
• On suitability of the site for a school
  The Fenstanton site is a regular shape and can therefore accommodate both the school and its playgrounds on a single site. This site has space for well designed buildings, social areas, multi-use games areas and an all weather pitch. This would be an excellent community facility as well as a first class school.
  
• On location
  The Fenstanton site is on Christchurch Road, SW2 and is roughly in the centre of the area identified as being in most need of provision for further secondary school places (SW9, SW2 and SW16).
  
  In terms of distance from other secondary schools in the local area it is 900 metres from The Elmgreen School and 300 metres from St Martins-in-the-Field Secondary School, which is a Church of England girl’s school. Given the projected demand for places in Lambeth schools in this geographic area and that existing schools are popular and currently over-subscribed, all three schools could operate successfully.
  
• On the issue of delivery
  The council already owns the Fenstanton site, so there is no need for any compulsory purchase of land. A site will need to be acquired for the relocation of the existing Fenstanton Primary school and this may require CPO. Several site options have been identified for the primary school, including the Territorial Army site on Tulse Hill. Further work is required to ascertain the best site for relocating the primary school. The council has not taken a decision on which site would be the best option for the primary school relocation.

What kind of school would it be?

If the council agrees to pursue a school on the Fenstanton site we will consult with local residents and parents on the best type of school for the community. The school would be built through Lambeth’s Building Schools for the Future programme and will receive additional funding for its construction.

An Academy is one type of school that would be considered as part of the consultation exercise. The admissions policy of the school would be likely to be in line with Lambeth’s admissions policy and would be consulted on at the appropriate time. We would like to give parents a big say in the new school, perhaps by creating a Parent Promoter Group to help run it.