It’s fair to say that for a number of people who attended the meeting tonight on the secondary school strategy, and in particular the proposed school as part of the Arborfield Garrison SDL, the meeting was rather a disappointment. Many people attended expecting to see some kind of definite plan for what is going to happen, but what was presented was very vague and fluffy.
However as both the councillors and officers tried to explain, thanks to the significant changes in schools policy brought in by the current education minister, Michael Gove, the locally elected councillors cannot now build the long promised school themselves, they can only enable the building of an academy school to be run by a third party education provider. As discussed at the meeting tonight under current estimates the council expects to run out of secondary school places for the 2017/2018 academic year, so their strategy is to ensure that new school places are created in time for that year. Their preferred solution is for a new academy school at Arborfield, built in the same way as they have done with the three primary schools built this year, but if that is not available they will negotiate for additional capacity at other schools.
If residents want new secondary school provision before that time, the clear message of the meeting is over to you! The only way to get a school opened prior to 2017 is to form a free school as parents did with the Oakbank school.
Other important points to take away from the meeting is that the council currently does not have the money to build the new school, council officers were talking about building a war chest to finance the school, but this is primarily dependent on getting section 106 money from housing developers across the borough. It was suggested at the meeting that the free school route would have greater access to funding as any potential free school would have direct access to central government funding for the free school programme.
In summary:
- Any new school at Arborfield will be either an Academy or a Free School and will not be run by Wokingham Borough Council.
- The council does not currently have the money to build a school, it is almost entirely dependent on developer contributions.
- There is more money available from central government were a free school to be set up.
- The council has made a commitment to consult on an Academy, but it was pointed out that central government arbitrarily overruled the proposals for the academy primary school put forward in Winnersh.
- It was clearly being pushed that the greatest amount of control over the shape of the school would come from going the free school route, but that this was also the route that required the most work from members of the community.
As a residents group it is clear to us that given the potentially limited money available via the council the best deal for the community, and the best way to shape the school to what the community requires would be via the free school route. But the fundamental thing needed for that is a group of local people with the time and energy to go through the complicated free school process, and the impression at the meeting is that currently we don’t have that, or do we?
Arborfield Secondary School Meeting
It’s fair to say that for a number of people who attended the meeting tonight on the secondary school strategy, and in particular the proposed school as part of the Arborfield Garrison SDL, the meeting was rather a disappointment. Many people attended expecting to see some kind of definite plan for what is going to happen, but what was presented was very vague and fluffy.
However as both the councillors and officers tried to explain, thanks to the significant changes in schools policy brought in by the current education minister, Michael Gove, the locally elected councillors cannot now build the long promised school themselves, they can only enable the building of an academy school to be run by a third party education provider. As discussed at the meeting tonight under current estimates the council expects to run out of secondary school places for the 2017/2018 academic year, so their strategy is to ensure that new school places are created in time for that year. Their preferred solution is for a new academy school at Arborfield, built in the same way as they have done with the three primary schools built this year, but if that is not available they will negotiate for additional capacity at other schools.
If residents want new secondary school provision before that time, the clear message of the meeting is over to you! The only way to get a school opened prior to 2017 is to form a free school as parents did with the Oakbank school.
Other important points to take away from the meeting is that the council currently does not have the money to build the new school, council officers were talking about building a war chest to finance the school, but this is primarily dependent on getting section 106 money from housing developers across the borough. It was suggested at the meeting that the free school route would have greater access to funding as any potential free school would have direct access to central government funding for the free school programme.
In summary:
As a residents group it is clear to us that given the potentially limited money available via the council the best deal for the community, and the best way to shape the school to what the community requires would be via the free school route. But the fundamental thing needed for that is a group of local people with the time and energy to go through the complicated free school process, and the impression at the meeting is that currently we don’t have that, or do we?
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