Plan to tackle shortage of school places

A council could spend £3.3m to create 54 new school places at two schools.

North Northamptonshire Council is considering the idea in response to a shortage of places for 11-year-olds.

Officials said work on expanding the two schools would have to start this month.

Both Wrenn School in Wellingborough and Wollaston School have agreed to the expansion.

The council said it had predicted a "significant deficit of Year 7 places across North Northamptonshire in September".

The expansion plan would involve spending £1.7m on creating 16 extra places next month at Wollaston School.

First opened in 1958 in the village of Wollaston, four miles (6.4km) from Wellingborough, the school has about 1,400 pupils aged from 11 to 18.

Another eight permanent places would be created during the next academic year.

Wrenn has 1,300 pupils and is split across three sites. The building on London Road opened in 1911 as the Wellingborough County High School for girls, while the Doddington Road site was built in 1930 as the Grammar School for boys.

This project is likely to start next month, to be ready by September 2025.

The expansions would be funded by so-called Section 106 payments, made by developers to mitigate a housing development's wider impact, and by the Department for Education.

The Conservative council's executive will discuss the scheme on 15 August.

Scott Edwards, the Conservative executive member for education, said: "The proposal addresses a resolution in solving the significant deficit of Year 7 places across North Northamptonshire.

"The increase of in-year applications has been impacting on all schools for several years now and this has reduced the available capacity to accommodate bulge and accept in year placements.

"This can only be good news if agreed."

Officials have told councillors that, even with the expansion project, the area would not reach the 5% surplus in school places recommended by the government.

They have predicted that the council could have a shortfall of places again if the number of late applications continued at the current pace.

The same meeting would also discuss a plan to build a new special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) unit in Rushden.

The £2,328,800 project would involve creating four classrooms at Whitefriars Primary School in the town by September 2025.

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