'Oversubscribed' school to get temporary classrooms
Bluecoat Wollaton Academy will not have space for an influx of new pupils without the mobile classrooms, the council says
- Published
Pupils will be taught in temporary classrooms at a "significantly oversubscribed" Nottingham secondary school.
Nottingham City Council says the mobile classrooms needed at Bluecoat Wollaton Academy will be in place for two years, from this September.
The school, in Sutton Passeys Crescent, Wollaton, will enrol more pupils this year.
According to the council, the classrooms will allow the school to take on an extra 300 pupils.
In total, the temporary classrooms will cost £685,000, with money coming from an academy trust and Section 106 funding, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said.
The LDRS said councils typically grant planning permission to developers on the proviso they contribute financially, under a Section 106 agreement, to affordable housing, local education, employment and infrastructure opportunities in a bid to reduce the impact of a scheme.
'Significant place pressure'
In February, £242,022 in Section 106 money was allocated for the scheme and a further £362,978 has been approved as of June.
A further £80,000 will come from the Archway Learning Trust, according to a council document.
The Labour-run authority says it has been working to invest in schools since 2017, including school expansions.
A new 1,200-place school under the Archway Learning Trust, the Bluecoat Trent Academy, opened on a temporary site in September 2021 and will move to a new build on a permanent site in September 2024, the LDRS said.
However, the council said in a document on the decision to approve funding for the Wollaton classrooms, that challenges remain and "significant place pressure is currently set to continue up to 2029".
It added the councils have no powers to direct academies to expand but said it has engaged with them and urged them to work with the authority to address the "increase in demand".
The document reads: “While we have anticipated this increase in demand, the actual pupil numbers have been even higher due to increased inward migration to the city, which has added to the pressure across all year groups."
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