Context
Leeds City Council has a legal duty to ensure the provision of sufficient school places in the city, and due to a rising birth rate and new housing developments, has established an ongoing city-wide school expansion programme to meet increased demand for school places. Kirkstall / Burley / Hawksworth are areas where there is an increased demand for primary age places. Projection data from various sources identifies that an additional 30-45 reception places (equivalent to up to 1-1.5 forms of entry) may be needed across the area from September 2016.
As part of the process for identifying options and reviewing school place provision in the Kirkstall / Burley / Hawksworth areas, a Stakeholder Engagement Event using Outcome Based Accountability (OBA) methodology was held on 17 March 2015. The aim was to bring key stakeholders together to discuss the issues and generate ideas and solutions. Attendees at the event included school governors, head teachers, elected members, and parents, together with officers from teams across the council including Capacity Planning & Sufficiency, Highways, Planning and Built Environment.
A summary of the suggestions put forward
Please note that these suggestions may not have been put forward by representatives of the stated school and therefore may not represent that school’s governing body view. In addition, there are also a number of practical barriers to some of the options put forward, including traffic and highways matters. Where sites or land use is suggested, this land may not be available or in Leeds City Council ownership and would therefore need further investigation.
1. Burley Park Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) – move the unit to an alternative site and use the current site for school provision or a separate ASC (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) for Key Stage 1 or 2 children. There are currently no plans to relocate the PRU.
2. Consider adding nursery provision at Burley St Matthias C of E Primary School.
3. Utilise the site of the former West Park Centre could be used for primary provision. Although the West Park Centre is owned by Leeds City Council, it is not currently available for school use. Further investigations would need to take place to determine whether this site could be used or school provision.
4. Consider the Beckett Park site for primary provision with the following options:
- Move Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School to the Beckett Park site and expand Beecroft Primary School across the current Beecroft and Sacred Heart sites.
- Re-open Beckett Park as a primary school
- Use the site as part of a through school (4-18 years) with an existing high school, offering the primary provision on this site.
5. All schools in the area could take it in turns to take a temporary increase each year – rather than expanding one school permanently. This would allow for any drop in the birth rate where a reduction in demand for primary places occurs.
6. Expand Burley St Matthias C of E Primary School to 1.5 forms of entry (45 places in reception).
7. Expand Beecroft Primary School to 2 forms of entry (60 places in reception) and also include provision for ASC provision (Autistic Spectrum Disorder)
8. Create a mobile/satellite school in the Kirkstall Abbey area that can be moved to where it is needed.
9. Investigate St Anne’s Mill near to Kirkstall Leisure Centre, to determine whether this could be an option for a new school site.
10. Expand Kirkstall St. Stephen’s C o f E Primary School.
We would welcome your comments on the above suggestions or any other options you feel we should consider.
Here is the presentation from the event: Kirkstall Burley Hawksworth presentation
Leeds School Place Planning 