St Keyna Primary School expansion consultation

Name, address and category of school proposed for expansion

St Keyna Primary School
Monmouth Road
Keynsham
Bristol
BS31 2JP

Category of school: Community

Name and contact details of Local Authority publishing the proposals

Bath and North East Somerset Council
People and Communities Department
Schools Capital and Organisation Team
Lewis House
Manvers Street
Bath
BA1 1JG

Email: SCOT@bathnes.gov.uk

Telephone: 01225 47 70 00

Description of the proposal

We are proposing to enlarge the premises of St Keyna Primary School to create a larger school. Before we can make this change, we are required to publish a statutory notice detailing this proposal and explaining how you can submit comments about the plans.

The school currently has a Planned Admission Number (PAN) of 30 and a net capacity of 240 places for children in Reception to Year 6. This is made up of 210 permanent places and 30 temporary ‘bulge class’ places, currently in Year 5.

We are proposing to expand the school by 210 permanent places. The enlarged school would have a PAN of 60 and offer a total of 420 permanent places.

As part of this enlargement, the adjacent area of education reserve land currently being used informally by the school will be added permanently to the school site to enlarge it. The enlargement building works required would be subject to a separate public consultation as part of the planning application process.

Select a topic below to find out more about the plan and our reasons for proposing this expansion.

Evidence of demand

Pupil numbers in Keynsham are increasing, due to higher birth rates and increased population growth from new housing developments both currently under construction and planned for the future.

Pupil projections indicate that, in the future, there will be insufficient places available in the area to meet local demand and additional places are projected to be required in Keynsham for Reception admissions from 2024 onwards.

St Keyna Primary School has an OFSTED rating of Good. The school is popular with parents and is regularly oversubscribed. As at the October 2021 School Census, there were 238 pupils on roll.

Objectives of the proposal

To increase educational standards and parental choice

We have a statutory duty to ensure that there are sufficient schools and places available in the area to meet demand. Where possible, these places should be provided in popular and successful schools serving the area of need in order to:

• increase parental choice
• contribute to raising educational standards and attainment
• ensure accessibility to support sustainable methods of travel to school such as walking or cycling

There is a projected future shortfall of primary school places in the area. Creating an additional 210 permanent places at St Keyna Primary School will help to ensure that there are sufficient, good quality, accessible places available in a popular school, to meet the needs of the local community.

Effect on other schools in the area

The proposed expansion of St Keyna Primary School is not expected to have any impact on other schools in the area. The extra places created are projected to be required in addition to the school places currently available in the area, in order to provide sufficient places to accommodate all pupils projected for Keynsham in the future.

Project costs and how we will achieve value for money

Capital costs for the enlargement building works are estimated to be approximately £5m, to be met from Education Basic Need Capital Grant and Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).

The new accommodation will be provided in a permanent building, with carbon reduction incorporated into the design and construction to give improved energy efficiency.

It will be built to Passivhaus standard, meaning that it will be a sustainable low energy building that will be cost effective to run. There will also be a new multi-use games court and grass football pitch.

Implementation plan

The proposed completion date of the enlargement of St Keyna Primary School is 1 September 2024.

Have your say

You can comment on this proposal for four weeks from 3 March 2022 to 8am on Thursday 31 March 2022.

Before you comment

When you comment you will also need to tell us:

• your full name
• the first half of your postcode (for example, BS31)
• your relationship to the school (for example, parent or carer, or member of staff)

It should take around 5 minutes to complete the form, and we are unable to enter into any correspondence regarding any responses submitted.

WarningThis consultation has now closed. Please read on to find out what happens next.

What happens next?

On 28 April 2022 we decided to enlarge St Keyna Primary school to 420 places from 1 September 2024.

The reasons for the decision are:

• We are under a statutory duty to ensure that sufficient schools for providing primary and secondary education are available for our area. School places should, where possible, be provided in popular and successful schools serving the area of need, in order to increase parental choice, contribute to raising educational standards, and attainment and to facilitate sustainable methods of travel to school.
• Pupil numbers in the Keynsham & Saltford Primary School planning area are increasing due to higher birth rates and increased population growth in general, and from new housing development under construction and planned for the future. Pupil projection figures indicate that in the future there will be insufficient places available in the planning area to meet local demand and additional places are projected to be required in Keynsham for Reception admissions in September 2024 onwards.
• St Keyna Primary School has an Ofsted rating of Good. The school is popular with parents and is regularly oversubscribed. At the October 2021 School Census there were 238 pupils on roll.
• As the school is a community school, it applies universal admissions criteria, facilitating access to the school for local children.
• The school is located within a residential area allowing for reasonable ease of access on foot or by cycling, via non-hazardous routes (for example, along pavements and paths).
• There is sufficient land available to accommodate the enlargement. As part of the expansion, the adjacent area of education reserve land currently being used informally by the school will be added permanently to the school site to enlarge it.
• Other schools in the area have either already been expanded permanently, taken temporary ‘bulge’ classes, or are not suitable for expansion as there is insufficient space available.
• Latest pupil projection figures for the planning area indicate that there will be approximately 335 pupils for Reception admissions in 2024, 344 in 2025, and 338 in 2026 . Without the St Keyna expansion there will only be 330 Reception places in the planning area, meaning there would be a shortfall and some children would have to be educated elsewhere completely outside of the area. In addition to the number of places projected to be filled, we also need to plan to have approximately a 5% operational surplus available in each area to allow for future pupil movements into an area and in-year admissions. If there were only 330 places, it would mean that there would be no places available to accommodate any future children moving into the area. Pupil numbers in this area are projected to keep increasing over the coming years due to higher birth rates, pupils generated from new housing developments, and general population growth.
• If sufficient places are not created close to where they are needed this could lead to unsustainable travel to school arrangements for families, with them having to travel longer distances to go outside of the planning area in which they live to access a school place for their children elsewhere. In some instances, this could lead to increased costs for us as a result of having to fund home to school transport due to the distance being excessive and/or the route exceptionally hazardous. There would also be the negative social impact of children having to travel outside of their local area to go to school.
• Providing additional places in the local planning area close to where children live will support sustainable methods of travel to school such as walking or cycling, helping to reduce carbon emissions.
• The new accommodation will be provided in a permanent building, with carbon reduction incorporated into the design and construction to give improved energy efficiency. It will be built to Passivhaus standard, meaning that it will be a sustainable low energy building that will be cost effective to run.