Ealing Schools Getting Bigger

Increasing demand for places means more classes

Three local Ealing schools will be expanding in a bid to cope with increasing demand.

Ealing Council has approved extra places for Greenwood Primary, Northolt, and Elthorne Park High School, Hanwell.

New building works at Greenwood Primary will allow the school to increase its annual intake from 60 reception pupils to 90, eventually creating an extra 210 places across the school.

It's hoped pressures will be eased in the south of the borough with the investment of £12millionto expand Elthorne Park High School by two forms of entry (60 pupils). This will allow them to admit 240 pupils every year, eventually creating an additional 300 places across the school.

The council has been increasing the number of primary school places since 2008. Nearly 5900 extra places have been created so far with more still needed. There are currently enough high school places in Ealing, but the pressure is expected to increase sharply in 2016 as the extra primary school pupils grow older and start to move up to secondary school.

On current projections, an extra 21 forms of entry, the equivalent of 3150 high school places, will be needed by 2021. The expansion of Elthorne Park High School is part of the council’s response to this pressure. Consideration is also being given to expanding other high schools in the borough and building new high schools to meet demand.

Councillor Binda Rai, cabinet member for children and young people, said: “I am proud of the council’s record in providing enough school places for all of the children who need them and I would like to thank the governing bodies who have worked with us to make this happen.

“We are still expanding primary schools to meet demand, but are now also focussing our attention on making sure that we have sufficient high school places for all of the children that will need them in the future. A sharp increase in high school applications is expected in 2016 so we are taking action now and investing to make sure we are ready.”

The decision was taken by the council’s cabinet on Tuesday, 21 October. All cabinet decisions are subject to call-in for a period of five working days from the date of publication of the minutes of the meeting.

October 22nd 2014