Today the Essex council is expected to make its decision on the admission arrangements for entry into Essex schools in 2011 including the proposed shared admission area for Great Berry and Lincewood primary schools. The proposal was supported by the governors of the two schools and by Councillor John Schofield for Langdon Hills. However, during the public consultation a number of objections were voiced by local residents in the proposed shared area and in surrounding areas.
The decision notification posted on the council website says:
“The consultation closed on Friday 12 February with no objections to the arrangements as a whole, although a considerable level of response was received in relation to the specific consultation on a proposed revision to the admission arrangements for Great Berry and Lincewood Primary Schools. The arrangements for these schools and all other community controlled schools are determined as attached.”
The attached copy of the admission arrangements shows only the standard criteria for Great Berry and Lincewood with no shared admission area as previously included. Assuming that these documents will be approved by the cabinet member Stephen Castle, this means that the proposal for the shared admission area will be rejected.
This is a victory for local residents over the school governors, but it will be a hollow victory if it means that no alternative arrangements are made to cater for children from the Great Berry priority admission area. There may be some who put the school down as their first choice and are not allocated a place there. In some past years the school has put on extra classes to cater for the surplus demand. When the surrounding housing estates were new, the demand was very high and extra buildings were constructed to allow three years intake to have an extra class. Currently there is just one year with an extra class so there is scope to have more extra classes for future years if demand is high. However the two other extra classrooms have now been used for a library and an ICT room and the school will be reluctant to use them for extra classes again.
Parents with children to be admitted in 2011 will now have an anxious wait to see how they fare. The demand for places is expected to be at a lower level than previous years but a few may still lose out. If the next few years there is likely to be a small rise in demand due to new housing such as the extension of the estate on the land owned by Tesco next to the railway. Only a further expansion of the Great Berry Primary School can provide a permanent solution to this problem that has dogged the area for the last decade. We will now have to wait to see what plans the schools come up with.
