Proposal for New Secondary School

• Home
• Education and Learning
• Schools
• School Expansion
• Secondary School Expansion
• Proposal for New Secondary School

Kingston Council is proposing to establish a new Eight Form Entry Secondary School on the North Kingston Centre site and we would like to hear your views.

To find out more about the proposal please come along to a public meeting with the Learning and Children’s Services Directorate on Tuesday, 9 February 2010 at 7.00pm at Fern Hill Primary School, Richmond Road, Kingston, KT2 5PE.  Please note there is no parking available at the North Kingston Centre.

Kingston Council is consulting you on a proposal to open a new eight Form Entry Secondary School incorporating the current site of the North Kingston Centre on 1 September 2015. This is the first stage in the formal statutory consultation process which the Local Authority is required to undertake in order to establish a new school. Its purpose is to seek views on the principle of a new school opening on the proposed site and to hear your views on a range of issues relating to the new school which the Local Authority will outline in the competition notice for prospective providers. This consultation does not relate to the design details for the new school which will be the subject of a separate consultation later in the year.

We undertook an informal consultation on the possibility of siting a new school in the north of the Borough between July and September 2009. During that consultation we received 1,882 responses of which 972 (51.6%) strongly agreed or agreed with the proposal to site a new Secondary School at the North Kingston Centre. The results of that informal consultation were considered by Kingston Council’s Executive on 29 September 2009. The Executive agreed to develop a proposal for a new secondary school on the North Kingston Centre site including ways to address the impact on current users of the site.

The new school will be located on the current site of the North Kingston Centre which currently hosts Adult Education and a number of other services. If the proposal is agreed, alternative locations for all displaced services within the Borough will be found for September 2012.

The proposal is subject to an extensive consultation process with all relevant parties which will provide regular opportunities for you to provide your views and help shape the outcome of this proposal. The Local Authority is also required to conduct a school competition process during which time potential providers to run the school will come forward and share their vision, ethos and plans for the school. In addition, the statutory planning process will involve extensive public consultation.

The Local Authority was formally accepted into the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) Programme on 14 December 2009 as part of a joint arrangement with the London Borough of Croydon. The programme will enable every secondary school, Pupil Referral Unit and Special School in Kingston to be either rebuilt or refurbished over the next ten years, at a cost currently estimated to be over £280 million. This will enable the Local Authority to both meet the needs of a growing population of children and young people whilst providing vastly improved educational resources to ensure that all learners can achieve their potential.

The first priority in the initial phase of the joint programme for Kingston is to provide a new secondary school in the north of the Borough at a cost of approximately £30 million. Under this proposal, a new school will deliver eight (240 places) of the additional 16 Forms of Entry (480 places) which are forecast as being required across the Borough by 2018/19. The other eight Forms of Entry will be created by expanding every other Kingston non-selective secondary school by one additional Form of Entry by 2018/19.

The Government’s BSF programme has a very tight timescale. By December 2010, the Local Authority must have concluded the statutory consultation process for the opening of a new school and obtained planning consent for the creation of a school on the proposed site.

The population of Kingston is growing and in particular the number of children and young people living in and requiring a school place in the Borough is increasing. The Local Authority has a statutory duty to provide a school place to all of its children and young people who require one. There are currently 1615 places in each year group in Kingston secondary schools (years 7 to 11, children aged 11 to 16). This will be insufficient to meet future demand for places.

In order to meet the increased demand for school places, the Local Authority must provide an additional 240 places in 2015/16. The following table shows the borough-wide rise in the birth rate and increase in projected demand for Year 7 places over the period 2010/11 to 2018/19 (based on recent autumn 2009 school rolls and forecasts).

Year of entry into Secondary School	Number of live births	Actual/Projected Year R* number for this year group	Projected number of Year 7** places required
2010/11	1914	1512	1549
2011/12	1869	1499	1536
2012/13	1818	1477	1513
2013/14	1787	1478	1514
2014/15	1794	1534	1577
2015/16	1945	1721	1853
2016/17	2036	1811	1966
2017/18	2024	1801	1953
2018/19	2140	1905	2083

*Year R = Reception year, the first year of primary school
**Year 7 = First year of secondary school

The rise in the number of secondary places required in the Borough is driven by a number of key factors:

Providing additional school places to accommodate additional pupils who have entered

Kingston primary schools through ‘bulge classes’ from 2008/09 onwards

• A projected 24.2% rise in the numbers of reception children in Kingston Primary schools between 2007/08 and 2011/12
• New housing developments which have resulted in larger numbers of resident children and young people in the area
• A rise in the popularity of Kingston secondary schools which has resulted in very low levels of surplus capacity, particularly in girls and co-educational schools
• The increasing lack of spare secondary places in neighbouring Local Authority schools due to rising numbers of children and young people in their areas
• The expectation that fewer children in the North Kingston area would attend other Local Authority’s schools when the new school opens.

The growth in the school aged population across Kingston has been particularly evident in the North Kingston area. During 2010, we will undertake separate consultations to permanently expand primary schools in the Kingston Town neighbourhood area by four Forms of Entry, which alone will make up half of the proposed eight forms of entry of the new school.

From 2011/12, Kingston Town Primary Schools, who are likely to be the main feeder schools for the new secondary school, will have capacity for 20 Forms of Entry in each year group (600 pupils). In order for a significant proportion of these pupils to be able to access the new secondary school, it will need to offer a minimum of eight Forms of Entry. The Local Authority believes that providing a school any smaller than this will provide insufficient places for the future demand from local children who will wish to attend the school.

The new school is proposed to have one form of entry more than Kingston’s largest schools. There are many myths about the advantages and disadvantages of smaller and larger schools leading to belief that a school’s size determines its effectiveness. An extensive, independent and highly regarded review of research in this area (Garrett et al 20041) concluded that there is no research which provides strong enough evidence to determine policy about school size. The research found that beliefs that young people’s attainment and behaviour are determined by the size of a school were inconsistent with the evidence and recognised that school effectiveness is determined by a complex range of factors. In addition, Ofsted’s 2009 report on ‘Twelve outstanding secondary schools’2 reflects this research finding that ‘excellence is born of a deep sense of purpose and commitment, courage and ambition, stemming from the leadership of the school’. School size is not considered a determinant of excellence.

Currently large numbers of secondary aged pupils in the North Kingston area attend non-Kingston schools such as Grey Court and Teddington in the London Borough of Richmond. In September 2009, 109 children transferred from North Kingston Primary Schools to Grey Court and 37 transferred to Teddington. This represents five Forms of Entry based on the current number of year 6 pupils in the area, with numbers forecast to increase by 25% by 2017/18. Whilst the links that some families have with Richmond schools may be retained, based on the responses of prospective parents in the informal consultation, it is expected that a large proportion of children in the North Kingston area will wish to attend the new school when it opens.

If approved, the new secondary school in North Kingston will open on 1 September 2015 for 240 year 7 pupils only in order to provide places for increased numbers of children entering secondary school from 2015 onwards. The new school will not admit children into other year groups when it opens but will admit 240 pupils each year (eight Forms of Entry) and is expected to be at capacity for years 7 to 11 by September 2019.

The new school will be a non-selective, wide ability, co-educational school for 11-18 year olds and is intended to predominately serve the local community of North Kingston.

Post-16 provision will be available for all pupils who wish to remain at the school from September 2020 onwards. Available post 16 places will be open to pupils attending other schools.

The school will be located on the North Kingston Centre site which is currently used primarily as an Adult Education Centre. The Local Authority is engaged in local negotiations and will make an application to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator to expand the size of site available to develop a new secondary school in North Kingston. Subject to a satisfactory outcome, it is expected that the entire school including post-16 provision will be able to be accommodated on the site (subject to planning approval).

There are also plans to permanently increase Fern Hill Primary School by one form of entry as part of the Primary Strategy to provide up to an additional 14.5 Forms of Entry from September 2011. This proposal does not affect plans to expand Fern Hill, which is adjacent to the North Kingston site, in order to accommodate the rising primary aged population.

The main external sports facilities, such as school playing fields, will be located away from the main school site. These details are still to be finalised but as outlined in the previous consultation the Hawker Centre remains an option for hosting such facilities given its close proximity to the North Kingston Centre site. It is anticipated that other sports facilities, such as a sports hall and external multi-use all weather pitch will be provided on the main school site.

Post-16 provision will be available for up to 480 pupils providing a place for all on roll who wish to stay on beyond year 11 at the school. Co-located on the North Kingston Centre site, it will offer a broad curriculum with a range of academic and vocational pathways designed to meet the needs of all learners. It will also work closely with other Kingston secondary schools and collaborate specifically with its neighbouring schools, Tiffin Girls and Grey Court in Ham (London Borough of Richmond).

The school will largely serve the north of the Borough which has experienced a considerable increase in the numbers of children and young people living in the area in recent years. It will be a school of choice for parents/carers who have difficulty accessing over-subscribed schools located elsewhere in the Borough and who often have to seek school places in other Local Authority schools. We also anticipate that the school will draw some applications from pupils living in the London Borough of Richmond. Kingston has a strong record of working closely with Richmond and Grey Court School in particular. It is proposed that the new school will work very closely with Grey Court, especially in the first few years of opening with new year 7 groups only.

In bringing forward a proposal for an eight Form Entry school the Local Authority is taking into account a rising school age population in neighbouring Boroughs which could result in fewer places being available in the future for Kingston residents.

The Local Authority is required to hold a school competition to determine who will run a new school. Whoever is successful in bidding to run the school will be expected to work closely in partnership and collaboration with all Kingston secondary schools in ensuring that the needs of all learners in the Borough are met through a diverse range of secondary education provision. We will ensure the new school adheres to fair admission arrangements and other Local Authority policies and procedures which have been designed to benefit the needs of all learners in the Borough.

Potential school providers will be required to outline their proposed admissions policy, including oversubscription criteria, when submitting their bid during the competition stage.

The Local Authority’s preferred specialisms for the new school are humanities and music.

Kingston’s schools share their excellence and no other Kingston school has these specialisms. A music specialism will allow the continuation of the excellent work of the surrounding primary schools and integrate the work of Kingston Music and Arts service to provide excellence and support to the whole borough. Humanities would support system leadership across the borough and help raise standards and progress in English.

The school will be at the heart of its local community and will be expected to offer a comprehensive range of extended services which responds to the needs of both its school population, as well as the wider community. All Kingston’s schools offer extended services and the new school will be open outside of normal school hours in the evenings and at weekends for a range of family, adult learning and leisure activities.

The school will be inclusive and in line with plans for all other non-selective Kingston secondary schools under BSF to meet the needs of children with a range of Special Educational Needs (SEN), it is proposed that the school will have a Specialist Resourced Provision for 10 pupils. This will provide specialist on-site provision for pupils with Behavioural, Emotional and Social Needs (BESN) and enable pupils to have their needs met in a mainstream school.

BSF provides the Local Authority with the opportunity to vastly improve its SEN provision within mainstream secondary schools. Recent improvements in Kingston Primary Schools have meant that many more children and young people with SEN are having their needs appropriately met in a mainstream primary school. Through the development of a new SEN Inclusion Policy and Strategy, the Local Authority is identifying gaps in provision for secondary aged learners and plans that each non-selective secondary school will play a role in meeting the needs of children and young people with SEN.

The estimated capital cost of providing the new school is £30 million. This will be funded under phase one of the Kingston and Croydon Building Schools for the Future Programme. There are no costs associated with acquiring land for the school as this is within the Local Authority’s ownership. The costs of relocating existing provision on the North Kingston Centre site will be met by the Local Authority.

Design proposals for the school are currently being developed and will be shared widely during the pre-planning application consultation phase. Due to the need to have secured planning permission by October 2010, it is necessary for the Local Authority to develop design proposals before the new school provider is known. There may be a number of design details, particularly regarding internal features, which cannot be finalised until the school competition process has been completed.

Extensive work will be carried out in order to minimise the impact of a new secondary school upon the local community by promoting sustainable travel to and from the school. A green travel plan will be produced and measures taken to actively discourage pupils travelling to school by car. It is anticipated that the vast majority of pupils will live within walking and cycling distance of the school and that the new school will reduce the distance that many pupils living in the north of the Borough would otherwise have to travel to school.

If the proposal to locate the new school on the North Kingston Centre site is agreed, the earliest time that building works will commence is in September 2012. There will be further consultation with all services currently located at the Centre regarding options for relocation.

Adult Education classes will therefore continue to be located at the North Kingston Centre until the end of the 2011/12 academic year. From September 2012 Adult Education classes and the Local Studies and Archives Service currently based in North Kingston will be relocated to alternative accommodation elsewhere within the Borough. Adult Learners and users of the Local Studies and Archives Service will be consulted about plans for relocation of existing classes when these are available.

The Local Authority will work in partnership with Richmond and Kingston Accessible Transport to identify suitable alternative premises for its office and vehicle fleet.

It is not expected that the Hawker Centre will be required for post-16 provision, although this is subject to final confirmation that the entire school can be accommodated on the North Kingston Centre site. Should there still be a need to use any part of the Hawker Centre for sixth form provision; this will not be required until September 2020 when the first Year 7 pupils move into Year 12. Any displacement of existing users of the Hawker Centre will be the subject of consultation with users and the identification of alternative premises for services.

New school organisation regulations which came into force in 2007 mean that the Local Authority cannot simply decide to open a new school and choose the type of school which is proposed in North Kingston. These regulations have introduced a competition process which allows a number of prospective providers of new schools to come forward and bid to run the school. A decision regarding the provider of the new school is expected to be reached around November 2010. Whilst the Local Authority is not the default provider of a new school, this does not prevent the Local Authority from submitting its own bid either on its own or in partnership with another group and/or organisation. The Local Authority will consider whether it wishes to submit a bid to run the school following the publication of the competition notice.

Thank you for taking time to read this document.

If you wish to tell us your views on the proposal, please complete our survey:

Your views are important to us and will be reported to Kingston’s Executive on 9 March 2010 who will decide whether to proceed to the competition stage and the final specification for the new school. The timetable below sets out the next steps following this consultation (correct at time of publication).

***subject to a separate statutory planning process with pre-application consultation