Recommendation to the Secretary of State on the Future Governance of the Primary School in Fairfields and Whitehouse_Annex A

The council is excited by the opportunity of working with partners to run the first two primary school sites in the western expansion area of Milton Keynes.. About the opportunities The

School specification for the first two primary

schools in Fairfields and Whitehouse

ANNEX A

New school opportunities

Milton Keynes Council has the statutory duty to ensure that there are sufficient school places for all children and young people living in Milton Keynes In line with the requirements of section 6A of the Education Act 2011, the council actively promotes a diverse supply of strong schools, including encouraging good schools to expand and, where there is a need for a new school, seeking proposals for a free school

The council is excited by the opportunity of working with partners to run the first two primary school sites in the western expansion area of Milton Keynes The sites had been previously secured under former legislation as community schools, which, due to the economic downturn and subsequent delay of the housing development, were postponed to opening in September 2015 and 2016 However, the duty to open the schools as community schools was recently revoked by the Department for Education

I am now seeking initial expressions of interest from Academy Trusts, already familiar with or new to the area, who are able to deliver high quality education and establish the schools ready for opening in September 2016, which will be in line with the initial demand from the new housing development Following this written commitment, a full application will be requested to be completed

This paper provides a specification of the type of provision the council would like to secure, as well as some background to the development, information about the opportunity sites and a timeline for the process The council contact for these opportunity sites is:

Susie Morrissey

Programme Lead, Setting and School Sufficiency and Access

Telephone: 01908 254643

I look forward to receiving your expressions of interest

Michael Bracey

Corporate Director, People

Michael Bracey,

Corporate Director People

About the opportunities

The council is seeking high quality provision for the first two primary school sites in the western expansion area These are the first two primary schools of a total of four primary schools that are planned to serve the new communities of Fairfields and Whitehouse The first two schools have exactly the same specifications:

the interest of the parents to offer wrap around provision

Special Educational

Needs

The school will be expected to be fully inclusive and to educate children with special educational needs when mainstream education is considered appropriate

sites will not be discounted, it should be noted that the council is seeking to ensure there is choice for parents Given the intention that four primary schools will eventually serve the settlement, the council would prefer the first two sites

to be run as standalone primary schools rather than one school across two campus sites

Admissions

arrangements

All proposers must adhere to The School Admissions Code and The School Admission Appeals Code, including determining admissions arrangements, providing relevant information to the local authority relating to admissions and participating in the locally determined Fair Access Protocol

The council will collate expressions of interest for a place at the school until such time that admissions arrangements are determined by the new admissions authority Working with the new school, the council is willing (if requested) to

criteria are:

1 A looked after child or previously looked after child

2 A sibling at the school who is expected to be on roll at the school at the time of admission and the place of residence is within catchment of the school

3 The child’s place of residence is within catchment area of the school and there is no sibling on roll at the school

4 There is already a sibling at the school who is expected to be on roll at the school at the time of admission and the place of residence is outside of the catchment area

5 Distance from the school to the place of residence Where oversubscription results in the PAN being reached within one of the five priorities, then sub-prioritisation within priority will take place using distance between the child’s home address and the school’s main entrance, measured in

a straight line with those living closest to the school receiving the higher priority In the event of joint oversubscription, having exhausted distance, random allocation will be used as the ultimate tiebreaker For applicants living

in flats, the distance will be measured from the school’s main entrance to the front door of the ground floor flat underneath the applicant’s main residence Where two or more pupils live at the same distance the tiebreaker will be random allocation

Published Admission

Number

The initial PAN for the schools will be as follows:

MK Schools Forum has agreed a principle of financially supporting new provision schools in new housing developments to grow in line with the demand from their intended community When there is a need for the PAN to increase due to population growth (basic need), the funding available for those additional places will also be made available in line with the agreed growth This prevents future admissions issues for families, reduces the impact on other local schools, and helps to ensure the new schools have the capacity to serve new residents as and when they move to the development The Trust will need

to be open to the idea of admitting further children in open year groups throughout the course of the academic year

development areas (i.e children who live in Fairfields will need to be prioritised

at the primary school in Fairfields and children who live in Whitehouse will need

to be prioritised at the primary school in Whitehouse)

The catchment area for the schools will need to change as the development grows and the last two primary schools are opened

Partnership working

with the council

The council has a strong working relationship with all schools in the borough It

is expected that any provider will cooperate with the council and other schools,

by engaging with and providing relevant information as determined by law and

information reasonably requested by the council

The council offers a number of services that can be purchased Details can be

and Mental Health Specialist Teaching Team are also available for purchasing

Partnership working

with the community

The development has been planned to have a total of four primary schools and one secondary school It is planned that this new community of schools (referred to as ‘The Whitehouse Liaison Group’) will work closely with each other, especially relating to admissions arrangements and community engagement

The schemes are currently scheduled to be ready in August 2016 Further details about the sites are outlined in: “About the sites”, on page 7

establishing the new school, in line with the growth criteria agreed by the

2015

Approximately £8.5M is budgeted to spend on each of the schemes The source

of this funding is a combination of Basic Need, Section 106/ Tariff, council borrowing and council funds

A budget allocation will be given to each school for furniture and equipment based on £500 per pupil (£315K per school), and an ICT set up allocation (£30K per school)

establishment of new school provision

Initial new school allowance: A total payment of £145.4K will be paid to each school to cover payments such as salaries and upfront costs prior to the school opening Payments will be made in the two terms prior to opening, £46,850 in the spring term and £98,550 in the summer term

Set up allowance (for resources): This is determined by the final size of the school and will be paid on an annual basis over a five year period Given the total size of each of the schools (630 pupils each), this will be a payment of

£31.5K pa for five years, totalling £157.5K

Place funding: The schools will each be funded for the total number of 90 children in the first year For the years after that, the council will work with the new school to determine anticipated demand based on the latest housing

About the development

The western expansion area

The ‘Western Expansion Area’ is a 450ha

area of land located west of V4 Watling

Street, situated between Stony Stratford

(to the north), Kiln Farm and Two Mile

Ash (to the east), and Crownhill and

Grange Farm (to the south) It is a new

housing development, which consists of

two major sites currently separated by

Calverton Lane running through the

middle These sites are:

 Whitehouse (Area 10): 228ha site

consisting of 4,400 dwellings and

6.5ha employment land

 Fairfields (Area 11): 123ha site

consisting of 2,200 dwellings and 9ha

employment land

The western expansion area is currently

the largest of the major development

sites in Milton Keynes with 6,600 homes

to be built (a pupil yield of c.380 pupils

per year group) When complete (in

around 2030) it will be comparable in size

to Buckingham The western expansion

area will have 4 primary school sites, 1

secondary school site, sport & leisure

centres, a library facility, a health centre

and large open spaces and play areas Most of the original hedgerows, trees and ponds will be kept and incorporated into the open spaces There will be a high street area including many of the public services, a

supermarket and several other shops

Figure 1: Whitehouse and Fairfields school sites Each site has a

project name; however, these are not the determined names of the schools

About the sites

The capital schemes for the first two primary sites have been developed at the same time with the same architects, education consultants and contractors building the schools Both schemes started on site in the summer of 2015, with the anticipated completion of August 2016 The sites are offered on a leasehold basis, with a 125 year lease

Fairfields Primary School

Apollo Avenue

Fairfields

MILTON KEYNES

MK11 4BA

The new primary provision at Fairfields is

located off the V4 Watling Street within the

western expansion area Access has been

created off the V4 Watling Street to serve the

school site and new housing development

being provided by Barratts / David Wilson

Homes The new school development sits on an area of 2.250ha and will comprise of a 630 place primary school with a 39 place nursery with associated external playing field, hard play areas and car parking for staff and visitors The layout of the site has made the most of the topography of the land and existing trees and hedgerows Externally, the building will comprise of an interesting mix of brick and render with coloured cladding on the front façade, complete with a landscaped ‘plaza’ which will lead parents, pupils and visitors to the main entrance Internally, pupils will have direct access to a large, bright breakout space from their classrooms and easy access outside to external hard and soft play areas The location plan is shown below

Figure 2: Fairfields Primary School

Whitehouse Primary School

Vaynol Close

Whitehouse

MILTON KEYNES

MK8 1AG

The new primary provision at Whitehouse is

located off the V4 Watling Street within the

western expansion area A new roundabout has

been built off the V4 Watling Street to provide

access along a newly constructed road to the

school site which also includes new housing development from Bovis Homes, Taylor Wimpy and Abbey New Homes, with further developers still to be announced The new school development sits on an area of 2.13ha and will comprise of a 630 place primary school with a 39 place nursery with associated external playing field, sports pitches and car parking for staff and visitors The layout of the site has made the most

of existing hedgerows, trees and a pond which will become part of a new habitat area for the pupils to explore Externally, the building will comprise of an interesting mix of brick and render with coloured cladding on the front façade, complete with a landscaped ‘plaza’ which will lead parents, pupils and visitors

to the main entrance Internally, pupils will have direct access to a large, bright breakout space from their classrooms and also access outside to their own hard and soft play areas The location plan is shown below

Figure 4: Whitehouse Primary School

Figure 5 Whitehouse Primary School location plan

Making an application

child

The proposed timeline for this process is outlined below

Expressions of interest

A letter addressed to Michael Bracey, Corporate Director People, outlining the

school(s) of interest and a commitment from the Trust to open the school(s) on 1

September 2016 This should include confirmation that the Trust is an approved

sponsor and registered with the Department for Education The letter must be

received no later than midday, and should be sent to:

sufficiencyandaccess@milton-keynes.gov.uk

Any new proposer, not currently approved by the Department for Education, will

need to go through the approval process (before submitting an application) and

should contact the Department as soon as possible

4 December 2015

Completed applications to be returned by midday to:

sufficiencyandaccess@milton-keynes.gov.uk

29 January 2016

Applications to be reviewed by council officers (the council may request to meet

with proposing Academy Trusts during this period)

February 2016

Delegated Decision by Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Children and School

Improvement Due to the restriction imposed by the Department for Education,

that any local authority recommendation cannot be made public until the

decision of the Secretary of State is made final, this decision will be made in

private

1 March 2016

The Regional Schools Commissioner will make a decision on behalf of the

Secretary of State for Education

Tbc

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