Have your say on plans to amalgamate Potton Lower and Potton Middles schools to create a primary school.
Date Added: 07/03/2022
A statutory consultation has begun regards a proposal to amalgamate Potton Lower and Potton Middle schools to create a primary school with effect from 1 September 2023.
This would involve extending Potton Lower School’s age range (to include children from Reception age to year 6), and closing Potton Middle School, though both permanent school buildings would be retained in order to provide the accommodation required for the transition to two-tier education.
We’re consulting on proposed changes to Potton Lower and Potton Middle schools and you can provide your feedback on these proposals up to Friday 8th April 2022.
Read the full statutory notice here.
Where we are now
Potton Lower and Potton Middle?
This statutory consultation to amalgamate Potton Lower and Potton Middle schools to create primary school, is part of the Schools for the Future programme in Biggleswade and the surrounding area, which is expected to grow, with up to 3,351 new homes to be built by 2035. This would mean an estimated 2,613 additional school places will be needed by 2035.
The schools and the council consulted in 2021 on changes to local schools in order to meet this demand in 2021. Following the closure of the first stage of consultation, the proposals for the schools and academies within Biggleswade and the surrounding area have been revised, with the council is moving ahead with proposals for Potton at this time.
The rationale for the earlier change at the two Potton schools, ahead of the other schools within this area, is in direct response to nearby schools in other areas who have already altered their age range.
Unfortunately, this has resulted in Potton Middle School experiencing reduced pupil numbers in Years 7 and 8 and it’s important that this is addressed now by amalgamating the two schools.
Other schools in the Biggleswade area?
In February 2022, Central Bedfordshire Council’s Executive Committee approved changes to the principles and policies of the Schools for the Future programme. These changes outline how the Schools for the Future programme will move forward and will provide greater clarity for schools and parents and support a fair and equitable approach across the whole of Central Bedfordshire. Read what this means.?
In February 2022 the Council also agreed?to receive a further report on the model and timescale for the Biggleswade cluster of school’s transition to a two-tier system of education,?taking into account?the revised pupil growth forecast, outcome of the consultation, feasibility studies and the viability of proposals against the budget.??
This is after feedback from the consultation in 2021 highlighted that there were mixed levels of support for the other individual school proposals in Biggleswade and the surrounding area.
What happens next?
Potton Lower and Potton Middle
The feedback from the statutory consultation will be reviewed after April 8th and, in a public Executive Committee meeting, councillors will be asked to consider the collective feedback and either agree or reject the proposed changes.
If agreed, then designs will need to be developed and planning applications made and approved for any building works to begin.
Find more information on the proposals and the Schools for the Future programme.