CONSULTATIONS start today on plans to increase the size of three schools, and to give local families higher priority at a further two.
If all five proposals go ahead, then Steeton Primary School and Ilkley’s All Saints’ CE Primary School would each take on an extra 15 pupils a year, while Poplars Farm Primary School in the Bolton area would double the amount of children it admits each year - up to 60 from 30.
Governors at Sandal Primary School in Baildon have asked that a “priority area” be created around the school so local children have a better chance of getting a space.
The fifth consultation will be on the admission policy from 2019 for the renamed Silsden Primary School - which will open in September when Aire View Infants and Hothfield Junior Schools merge. The proposals will help ensure local families have priority for school places.
All Saints’ Primary and Steeton Primary both currently have a capacity of 315 students. If they expand then this will increase to 420 students.
Poplars Farm Primary has a capacity of 210 pupils, which will increase to 420 if the consultation is improved.
The council says providing school places in that area has been “particularly challenging” because of a local rise in the population of young people and several new housing developments.
Studies have been carried out to find out the best ways of expanding the buildings of the three primaries.
Changes to the Sandal Primary School priority area aim to fix a quirk of the admissions system that means some local children don’t get places at the school, and then have to travel past it to go to ones further afield.
Councillor Imran Khan, the Council’s executive member for Education, Employment and Skills, said: “These proposed new places are in addition to the 8,500 extra school places already provided. We are committed to providing places where they are needed across the district.”
The consultations run until December 16 and can be viewed at bradford.gov.uk/consultations/current-consultations/consultation-and-engagement/
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