Consultation Launched On Expansion Plans For Two Schools
West Sussex County Council, together with the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton, have launched a consultation on proposals to expand two Catholic Primary Schools in West Sussex - St Joseph's in Haywards Heath and St Richard's, Chichester.
The schools are well established with a good track record of educational attainment. St Joseph's has a good Ofsted rating, and St Richard's is classified as outstanding. Demand for Catholic primary schooling has been growing in both areas, and the schools are no longer large enough to cater for the rising number of children baptised in the area.
It is now proposed to expand the schools by 15 places per year of age each - creating a 420 place school at St Joseph's and a 315 place school at St Richard's. This is in addition to the recent proposal to expand Bolnore Village Primary School in Haywards Heath where significant housing is due to be built over the coming years.
Expanding these schools should alleviate pressure on neighbouring community schools and schools with a different denominational basis.
It is the intention for the building project to start in 2012 with a view to increasing the Published Admission Number with effect from 2013.
The cost of the work is estimated to be around £2.5m for the two projects.
Due to the nature of these particular expansions, being by more than 30 places and more than 25 per cent of the school capacity, a full statutory public consultation is required.
It is a two stage process - initially a public consultation takes place over four weeks of term time and then the Cabinet Member for Education and Schools, Peter Griffiths, will decide whether to publish statutory notices in local newspapers and comments can be made over a further four weeks.
If Peter decides to proceed, the statutory notices are expected to be published in April 2012 and a final decision taken in May.
Peter said: "The County Council has been closely monitoring the number of children in schools in the Haywards Heath and Chichester localities and in particular considering the rising demand for Catholic primary school places in the area.
"Working with the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton, funds have been identified to cater for these children which should reduce pressures on numbers at neighbouring schools".
"The County Council is proposing to expand St Joseph's Primary School from a school with 45 children in each year group to 60 children, and St Richard's Primary School from 30 children in each year group to 45 children.
"People's views will be important to us in deciding if this is an appropriate response and I would encourage people to respond to the consultation."