New investment in Indian Queens School

On Thursday, I attended a meeting of the Children’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee, which discussed a matter of great significance to my local Parish.

The report concerned the number of children seeking places in Cornwall’s primary schools and reported that “there is only one area within the county where reception intake pressure for September 2012 cannot be managed without provision of additional accommodation.” This was St Enoder Division with the schools under greatest pressure being Indian Queens CP School and Summercourt CP School.

It was acknowledged that applications for reception places for September 2012 significantly exceeded the capacity of the two schools. Put simply, the two schools have a combined PAN (pupil admission numbers) total of 60, but they are almost 80 applications. The report stated the following:

“In terms of deliverability, given site capacity and potential for expansion at the two schools it is recommended that Indian Queens CP is the Preferred Option to meet demand for additional Reception places in the local area.  High level options have therefore been considered to expand/rationalise existing accommodation in order to ensure that Indian Queens CP School is able to accommodate a minimum of 300 pupils in 10 classes from September 2012.

“A temporary interim solution (Elliott classroom) will need to be provided in order to ensure a sufficient number of places are available to accommodate the September 2012 reception intake. A permanent build solution (potentially to enable the school to accommodate 330 pupils in order to ‘future proof’ provision) will then need to be scoped and implemented if the school is to continue to meet the forecast level of demand for places in the local area in the longer-term.”

I welcome this news but acknowledge there is much to sort and I look forward to supporting the headteacher, her team and council staff in coming up with a proper solution for the area, ensuring that all local children get a school place in their local parish in the coming years.