Have your say on revised changes to Biggleswade schools
Date Added: 02/11/2022
We’d like your views on revised proposals for council-maintained schools in the Biggleswade area to change from the three-tier to the two-tier model of education from September 2024.
The proposals are part of the Schools for the Future programme?to change all schools in the Biggleswade area?from three to two-tier from September 2024.?
We are seeking views on the following lower schools becoming primaries:
• Dunton Lower (becoming a split-site primary with Wrestlingworth Lower)
• Wrestlingworth Lower (becoming a split-site primary with Dunton Lower)
• St Andrew’s Lower (East and West)
• Sutton Lower
We are also seeking views on the following middle schools becoming secondary schools:
• Edward Peake Middle School
For more information go to the Schools for the Future website and read the statutory notice.
To have your say fill out our statutory consultation questionnaire. The consultation is open until and including December 7th.
Ask us questions
If you would like to speak with Central Bedfordshire Council officers and ask questions about the proposals, we are hosting some drop-in sessions, both in-person and online. The dates and times are available on the Schools for the Future website.
Academies
There are also proposals for Caldecote Academy, Northill CofE Lower,?Lawnside Academy and Biggleswade Academy to become primaries. Stratton Upper School would become a secondary.?
These academies will be required to undertake their own consultations and submit business cases to the Department for Education (DfE) Regional Director for the East of England seeking approval for the change of age range.?
Revised proposals
The proposals for all schools and academies in the Biggleswade area were revised following your feedback from last summer's?public consultation, plus viability studies and revised data on pupil places and housing growth.
On October 11, 2022, Central Bedfordshire Council’s Executive Committee approved a revised model for the maintained schools and academies in Biggleswade, as set out above, while also confirming the following changes to the original model:? ?
• A new secondary school in the east of Biggleswade will no longer be built
• Edward Peake Middle School will remain on its existing site when changing to a secondary school?
• Lawnside Lower School will remain on its existing site when changing to a primary school?
• Dunton and Wrestlingworth lower schools will remain on their existing sites but join to become a split-site primary school, with children in Reception to Year 2 attending Wrestlingworth and children in Years 3-6 attending Dunton?
• A reduction of school places at Caldecote Academy?
• No requirement to provide new sixth-form locations?
The reason for not building a new school is that it would have too many surplus places. This could lead to low numbers on roll and could mean that a school might not be able to recruit teachers and find difficulty in fulfilling a full curriculum. This can then have a negative effect on children’s education.??
As well as the new pupil growth forecasts, your feedback from the pre-statutory consultation held last year played a large part in the formation of a proposed revised model for education in the Biggleswade area.
And, particularly in the case of Edward Peake Middle School, this will resolve concerns, which were received during the pre-statutory consultation in the summer of 2021, around the school moving out of town to the new secondary school site in the east of Biggleswade.