Pupils given places at 'school that doesn't exist'

Parents are furious about the allocation of school places for their children

Parents are angry their children have been offered places at “a non-school that doesn’t exist”.

Dozens who put nearby Gosforth Academy in Newcastle as their first choice have been allocated places at Great Park Academy which is three miles away and not yet built.

It means 120 children will be taught for at least a year in temporary classrooms on the playing fields of their preferred school.

Hugh Robinson, CEO of Gosforth Group which runs both schools, said it was necessary to create “an environment where we can separate the two schools" in September 2025.

Parent Michelle Jones said they were "all a bit confused as to why our children who only live within half a mile - if that - haven’t got in, but there’s children we know who are travelling up to seven miles who have got in”.

Ms Jones described the temporary structures as a “prison”, adding the new school offered a worse educational provision.

Twelve more temporary structures will be constructed for September's intake of pupils

Development started on the Great Park suburb in 2001, with many children joining Gosforth's First and Middle feeder schools.

Gosforth Group Multi Academy Trust submitted a bid to build Great Park Academy more than 10 years ago.

It was originally scheduled to open in 2020 but, after numerous construction delays, is now due to open in September 2025.

Newcastle City Council said the Department for Education’s initial procurement process to appoint a contractor "was unfortunately unsuccessful" and was only completed last year.

Because of the delay, Gosforth Academy has had to take more pupils and wants to reduce numbers, allocating some of the new intake to the new school.

Construction at the Great Park site started last month and is expected to be finished by summer 2025

Gosforth Academy's admissions criteria list children in feeder schools as having fourth priority for places, with distance from school fifth.

But, with more children in feeder schools than places, pupils have been selected on a lottery basis.

This resulted in some pupils living closer to Gosforth being sent to Great Park, and vice versa.

'In a car park'

Caroline Peter’s eldest son currently attends Gosforth Academy, but her younger son has not been accepted, despite only living 500 metres away.

She said the experience had been “gut-wrenching”.

“I feel very sad that I can’t give him the best educational offering that is available on the doorstep," she said.

"He’s being asked to go to a school behind us - that’s in a carpark - and watch his friends all go into a school that he could have gone to.”

Some parents also say the Great Park school offers fewer GCSE options and other qualifications, resulting in a worse education provision.

The council said it expected the new school to be ready "towards the end of the summer term 2025”.

“Although the delay in opening a new school is disappointing, when Great Park Academy does open it will provide students with the very highest quality learning environment,” a spokesperson said.

Middle-school aged pupils have been at the temporary site for more than two years, and the council said “the temporary accommodation arrangements which have been open since September 2021… are operating successfully”.