A decision to expand a Cowes primary school has been branded ‘selfish’ by parents who claim the move will take money away from other schools in the area.
Lanesend Primary School — which was recently featured in a BBC2 documentary about gender neutral teaching, called ‘No More Boys and Girls,’ — held a meeting last Thursday (February 7) to discuss its expansion plans.
Plans to increase capacity
The school hopes to create another 66 places, attracting extra per-pupil funding by increasing its capacity to 504 children, and build more classrooms.
Last week, headteacher Caroline Sice told OnTheWight,
“We are currently above our capacity of 420, with 441 children on roll as at today and as an academy we have a percentage limit to go over our capacity. We are reaching this, so need to apply for a significant change to our funding agreement.”
Plans under fire
However, the plans have come under fire as there are more than 200 surplus primary school places in the Cowes area.
Cowes Primary has reduced its numbers to a single-class entry, effective from September, to ‘alleviate the financial pressure on local schools.’
Parent: Other schools will suffer
A parent, whose children attend Cowes Primary School, said the plans would have a negative impact on other schools in the area.
The parent, who asked to remain anonymous, said:
“The school just does not care about the bigger picture here. Other schools will suffer as a result.
“There simply is not enough pupils to go around. Any school planning to increase its admissions is going against the whole Island place planning and no matter which school it is, it will impact on other schools and their budgets.
“Lanesend’s proposals will only benefit their school at the detriment of all others.”
Governors: Classrooms not large enough
However, Lanesend chair of governors Karen Herbert-Duff said the school had a waiting list, and they did not want to turn any families away.
She said,
“Only eight out of our 21 classrooms are large enough to accommodate classes of 30 children and, consequently, our class sizes need to be smaller.
“To ensure the financial viability of the school this would be 24 children in 3 classes for each year group. Small classes also benefit our children and our teachers.
“We receive the same funding as any other school and this is based on student numbers. If children move from another school during the year, we do not get the funding until the following year.”
Following the public meeting, the school also met with parents last night (Wednesday) to answer questions.
Union: “Illogical in austere times”
Joint secretary of the Isle of Wight branch of the National Education Union, Peter Shreeve, said:
“Locally we have a surfeit. We have many empty places, as a direct result of national government policy interference, which has encouraged new schools to exist.
“An expansion of empty places is financially undesirable — they ultimately cost money. Illogical in austere times — a surplus of 230 primary places has been reported in the Cowes area.”
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may be been made by OnTheWight. Ed
Image: graficmedia under CC BY 2.0
