Creation of new satellite sites from some of Liverpool’s special schools and expansion of maintained schools to address the city’s admission issues are to be confirmed this week.
As part of its proposals to meet the “dramatic increase” in need for school places, Liverpool Council last year proposed wide ranging changes to provisions across the city, including potentially moving pupils 14 miles away which were swiftly rejected. However, a series of new ideas are to be adopted by the council’s cabinet when it meets on Friday.
The authority is expected to move ahead to create Bank View South, a satellite of Bank View High School, at the former Parklands School site, Ganworth Road. Bank View School would remain at its site in Fazakerley, but a new satellite site would open at Parklands for children with complex needs.
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It would be used from the next school year for up to 60 Year 7 pupils, increasing by a year group each year until it has a total of 300 pupils up to Year 11. Educating children at the new site would be more cost effective according to Liverpool Council, potentially saving up to £1.4m in comparison to placing children at schools in the non-maintained or independent sectors.
However, it is anticipated the budget for the site will be increased by half a million pounds to £2.5m owing to what the council described as “construction inflation, the need to relocate New Heights to another part of the site and the need to phase the work over a period of time as the school will be operational.” An additional £250,000 is to be added to the costs of plans for a satellite location for Palmerston School on the former Palmerston site, on Beaconsfield Road. The former school building, which was closed when the new school building opened, would be used for pupils with severe/profound and multiple learning difficulties.
The satellite site will offer a curriculum for students aged 14-19 and an increase in the number of Year 7 pupils on the main site. If the proposals are approved, then both new sites would be operational from September 1, with any building work taking place before the end of the summer term. Headteachers and governing bodies of the existing school would remain in place at the satellite locations.
As part of the school changes, Princes Primary School on Selbourne Street could also move. A former primary school on Colwell Road has been identified as a preferred location, with the council preparing to engage with the school to develop the requirements for the new building and carry out a detailed feasibility to develop outline plans and costings.
A satellite site for Millstead Primary School at a former school site on Naylorsfield Drive in Netherley will also be set up subject to the results of a statutory consultation which ends on Thursday.
Elsewhere, more than £5m is to be released to expand provision at three other city schools. A grant of £1.5m is to be spent to support the expansion of King David High School by 50 pupils over a period of five years, while £4.2m is to be used to complete expansion of Liverpool College and Belvedere Academy agreed by the council’s cabinet in August 2021.
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