Planning of School Places

The School Organisation Team is part of the School Organisation, Admissions and Transport Section. The team are responsible for the planning of school places, reduction of surplus places, pupil projections, assessing school capacities and the publication of statutory proposals for school reorganisations.

Building Schools for the Future - Tamworth

The School Organisation Team has provided demographic information and analysis for the Tamworth BSF proposal.   A summary of this work includes graphs and tables of the main findings.

Planning Obligations (Section 106)

Section 106 of the Town & Country Planning Act 1990 allows education authorities to obtain funds from developers of new housing developments where the number of houses being built will require extra school places. The Planning Obligations Policy  provides a standard approach for the calculation of funds across all districts.

Infant Class Size Legislation

It is a statutory requirement that all infant class sizes are limited to a maximum of  30 pupils per one school teacher throughout the school day, except for school assemblies, music, drama and sports lessons.

In the majority of cases, Staffordshire schools have maintained infant class sizes within the legal limit.  However, PLASC returns made during the last 3 years have identified a small number of schools with infant classes of more than 30 pupils.

Schools that are concerned about their ability to meet the infant class size limit should log on to the Staffordshire Learning Net, where further information is available.

Pupil Projections

Schools and other authorised users of the Staffordshire Learning Net can find pupil projections at : http://education.staffordshire.gov.uk/SchoolAdministration/Planningofschoolplaces/

School Organisation Plan

There is no longer a statutory requirement to publish a School Organisation Plan annually. The most recent document, containing pupil numbers and school capacities, was School Organisation Plan 2007-2012. 

District Reviews

The County Council completed its District Review of School Places in July 2008. The Reviews lead to a number of school reorganisations across the County and investment of over £20 million in new schools and buildings. Hundreds of wasteful surplus places were removed and 18 schools were amalgamated, 5 were closed and 3 infant and junior schools were enlarged to become 3 primary schools.

The Reviews were a recommendation in the School Organisation Plan 2003-08, and began in the first of the 8 districts in 2004. The "Process for District Review of School Places" document identified the process that each district review followed.

 (46 KB) Process For District Review of School Places

Last Modified: 18/11/2008 14:08:55
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