Extra secondary school 'not essential' (From Witney Gazette)

Extra secondary school 'not essential'

7:50am Wednesday 25th January 2012 in Witney By Tom Jennings

A PLANNED third secondary school in Witney on a new 1,000-home housing estate may not be built.

Oxfordshire County Council said expanding the town’s existing secondary schools, Wood Green and Henry Box, was likely to be a better alternative than building a new one on land set aside by developers.

But Wood Green and Henry Box are near or over-capacity and some Witney Town Council members would rather see a new school built.

Plans for the estate on the west of town, which will include a new primary school, a new junction on to the A40 and shops and business, were submitted last week.

The developer, Oxfordshire Land Limited, has agreed to set aside five hectares of the site for five years to build the secondary school.

If it is not built within the allocated time the land will used for community sports pitches and more homes.

Witney councillor David Harvey said: “My instinct is a further secondary school may well be necessary in this area.

“It’s not only 1,000 new homes, there are all the other developments in and around Witney.”

Deputy mayor Jim King said: “The option for another secondary should stay open.

“At the moment, as I understand it, Henry Box and Wood Green are both oversubscribed.”

He said a planned 1,000-home estate in Carterton – which only has one secondary school, Carterton Community College – could also affect Witney schools.

But county council spokesman Owen Morton said: “We have yet to respond formally to the application, but have advised the developer the scale of housing proposed at West Witney can be accommodated by expanding the existing secondary schools.

“However, West Oxfordshire District Council is still developing its core strategy and should this include significant further housing, pupil numbers in Witney may in the longer term grow sufficiently to require a third school.

“As such, the developer has agreed to set aside sufficient space as a precautionary measure.”

Henry Box School’s chairman of governors, Bob Bradley, said: “We’re fully subscribed and there’s limited room to expand on the site. We can’t take many more pupils at the moment, but that would not mean we could not look at building or reorganising.”

Mr Bradley said a Government plan to keep teenagers in education and training until 18 by 2015 could put further pressure on the school’s capacity.

Henry Box’s governors are consulting on seeking academy status.

This would give the school, which had more than 1,300 pupils on its roll in 2010, control over its budget and the ability to set its own admission limits.

Wood Green School was described as “oversubscribed” by Ofsted in 2010 when the school had 1,149 students on the roll.

Head Cynthia Savage said the school was not currently oversubscribed, but added: “Any spare capacity is going to be taken up by youngsters coming up through primary schools.

“The spaces we have got are earmarked for that growth.”

She said the school site had capacity for further expansion.