Cindy Matthews: What Are Your Views On Secondary School Options to Meet Growing Demand in Swindon?

Swindon Borough Council has agreed on the 12th June to consult over future options to meet the growing demand for more secondary school places in future years. According to Council projections, by 2018 at the latest, Swindon will be short of pupil places in its secondary schools. These projections are based on the Wichelstowe development in South Swindon continuing to expand, as well as new housing developments at Commonhead, Tadpole Farm and to the East of Swindon.

Swindon Borough Council has agreed on the 12th June to consult over future options to meet the growing demand for more secondary school places in future years. According to Council projections, by 2018 at the latest, Swindon will be short of pupil places in its secondary schools. These projections are based on the Wichelstowe development in South Swindon continuing to expand, as well as new housing developments at Commonhead, Tadpole Farm and to the East of Swindon.

Swindon Borough Council has a statutory responsibility to ensure that all school pupils can have a school place in a Swindon secondary school.

The Council have two main options to address this future secondary school places demand.

  1. Build 2 or 3 new schools to meet the demand. This is the most expensive option for Council Tax payers and could result in spare capacity in some of Swindon’s secondary schools, but has the advantage that young people would be more likely to have a secondary school closer to where they live, particularly for those school pupils living in new housing developments.
     
  2. Build 1 new school at most and predominantly expand existing secondary schools to meet the growing secondary school places demand. This is the least expensive option for the Council but will mean there will be little or no spare capacity in local schools. For many children their secondary schools may be further away from where they live, particularly for those in the new developments. There would also be several "mega schools" with up to 10 forms of entry for each year group in some Swindon secondary schools.

For more information, click on http://ww5.swindon.gov.uk/moderngov/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=49017

What do you think the Council should do?

Councillor Cindy Matthews, Labour's Shadow Lead for Education, would like to hear your views.  You can email Cindy on cindy@www.southswindonlabour.co.uk or find additional contact details on her Labour People page, you can also send your feedback via our contact form.