Inner East and Inner North East

Context This discussion forms part of the public engagement and helps in decision making on how best to meet the expected demand for school places in Leeds. Due to a rising birth rate, movements of families into Leeds and new housing developments, our projections for secondary schools in the Inner East and Inner North East of the city indicate that in this area an additional 300 year 7 places will be needed by 2016 rising to 375 by 2018 across this area. On 26 February 2015 an event was held with some key stakeholders to review the data and information for the area, agree the scope of the problem, and identify a range of possible solutions. Attendees at the event included school governors, headteachers, elected members, parent representatives and officers from team across the council including capacity planning, highways, planning and built environment. We are now seeking a broader public view on the possible solutions identified. Below are the key documents from the event, including consideration of some sites for potential for new schools:

The data excludes any projected demand for the Ruth Gorse Academy. This will be moving to its permanent city centre site in 2016, but is currently based temporarily in Morley. We are also aware of the intent of the Secretary of State for education to open the Temple Learning Academy, a through school based in Halton Moor which will offer 60 reception places from 2015 and 120 secondary places from 2016.  A summary of the suggestions put forward: Please note that proposal affecting current school were not necessarily promoted by the schools themselves, and support of all affected parties for any proposal would need to be secured to progress any options.

1. Expand Roundhay School (Secondary Campus) to create an additional 50 places. The school is currently facing a shortage of accommodation for its existing pupil needs. In 2019 the first of the children in the primary phase at Roundhay School will transfer into year 7, the secondary phase. To maintain the same size of secondary provision the admission number in year 7 would need to drop from its current 250 to 190. Any admission number higher than 190 will result in the secondary cohorts increasing in size. This proposal would see the secondary phase expand to 300 pupils per year group from 2017, addressing at least in part all 3 issues: overall capacity in the area, sufficiency of accommodation, and changes to address primary transition. Roundhay School is our most oversubscribed secondary school in the city, and has an outstanding Ofsted rating. This proposal is now being consulted on separately so that timely action can be taken. Please see above.

2. Open a new 180 place secondary provision on the former Seacroft Hospital Site. Any new secondary provision would be opened as 11-16 provision. On this site it could offer 180 places per year group. If it was a new school it would need to be an Academy and could be opened by 2018. This was the preferred option of the meeting, but it is possible other providers could also express an interest in running this which may be feasible in different time-frames.

A decision on the assembly of the site will need to be made by Executive Board in June of this year. Consultation on the principle of new provision on this site to inform that decision was approved at Executive Board on 22 April and will be live on this site from Monday 11 May- Friday 29 May.

3. Transfer the East SILC – John Jamieson from its existing site to the former Seacroft hospital site so that its land can be used as a new primary school. 

4. Open a new 240 place provision on the former East Leeds Family Learning Centre Site.  Any new secondary provision would be opened as 11-16 provision. On this site it could offer 240 places per year group. If it was a new school it would need to be an Academy and on this site it could be opened by 2018. It is possible other providers could also express an interest in running this which may be feasible in different time-frames. The site is in council ownership and a decision on its use would be subject to appropriate governance. The site is immediately adjacent to the David Young Community Academy, an existing secondary school. The school site has some scope for expansion. There is also a need for additional primary provision in the Seacroft area, and with the existing school next door there is a strong argument to prioritise this for primary and / or SEN use rather than secondary.

5. Use of the Dolly Lane site for secondary provision or SEN provision. Any new secondary provision would be opened as 11-16 provision. On this site it could offer 180 places per year group. If it was a new school it would need to be an Academy.  On this site it could be opened by 2018. It is possible other providers could also express an interest in running this which may be feasible in different time-frames. The site is very close to the existing Co-operative Academy. It is largely surrounded by the hospital and other non-residential uses. There are also potential needs arising from planned new city centre housing, and it could have potential for early years, primary or SEN use as well as secondary.

6. Amalgamate existing Sixth Form provision to free-up space across a range of participating schools.

7. Implement a shift system between Sixth Form pupils and KS3 and 4 so that space can be better shared within one site.

8. Expand other existing high schools, where possible, in this area to create additional secondary places.

9. Create a new through school in Inner North East on a site to be determined.  We welcome your comments on the above suggestions or any other options you feel we should consider. This part of the discussion has been extended to end on 30 April at 5pm, no comments on this post will be approved after this.

13 Comments

  1. How are these consultations being advertised as I came across this Secondary School one looking for something else? Surely the more comments you receive the better, but people need to know about first. Is there any further information and data on the issues and requirements. It refers to Inner East and Inner North East, but where exactly do these areas cover? I assume that there might be more places required in specific areas than others? If this is the case then suggestions 1 ‘Expand Roundhay’ and 8 ‘Expand other secondary schools’ would seem the better options as they will provide more places in all areas as per specific needs. This should also be cheaper as the land is already owned by the Council. Expansion of Roundhay is clearly required as the Council pushed through the linked Primary School with its own catchment area. All children who attend the primary school are guaranteed a place at the Secondary school even though other Secondary schools could be nearer. Therefore, getting a place at the most oversubscribed secondary school in Leeds was made even more difficult. Although I am aware that some schools may not have room to expand or might exacerbate current problems, such as traffic. If a new school needs to be built then looking at the map it seems that Dolly Lane would be a good option. It is near to the border of several current polygons, and thus, would transfer places from several current schools. Looking at the graphs it says more places are required in the Inner East area, which I assume this suggestion would cover. It does say that the co-operative academy is nearby, but why does this not have a polygon? It also says that there is non residential buildings in the area. It does not say if this land is already in Council hands like the East Leeds FLC. If it is not then the FLC would be a cheaper option. The David Young Academy is adjacent, but currently only has 180 places, which is smaller than others.

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    • We have asked local secondary and primary schools to publicise the blog via school websites and letters home in book bags where appropriate. There is also a link to the blog on the Leeds City Council website and we have promoted via twitter and the Child Friendly Leeds website. It’s important to remember that the stakeholder event and on-line blog are just the first part of a wider discussion and once a preferred option or options are determined, a formal consultation(s) will be held, which would include drop in sessions for parents, carers and residents to ask questions and find out more about the proposal.

      The areas covered can be seen on the map (link above).

      The ‘nearest’ polygons demonstrate the areas where people live who would qualify for ‘nearest’ priority in an admissions policy. This does not guarantee a place would be available but identifies who would be prioritised for a place. The Co-Operative Academy has no polygon identified because it does not currently include the priority ‘nearest’ children to the school in its policy.

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  3. This is a secondary place issue and many of these suggestions are about primary place expansion, which is not going to solve the problem outlined.
    We do not need a through school expansion, new primary provision and the issues outlined in 1. should have been thought through during the original planning phase.
    Options 2 or 4 therefore seem more suitable.

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  4. No mention of the new outer ring road proposals and the thousands of houses that will be built around it. It would seem that a new secondary school would need to be built further out than the Seacroft Hospital site. A possible large expansion to John Smeaton Academy and smaller expansions to existing schools would be a better interim option.
    If I was moving into the area and spending hundreds of thousands on a new home I wouldn’t be want my children to be attending a more modern version of Foxwood school at the East Leeds FLC.

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  5. The capacity problems our great city faces are massive, supply simply cannot cope with demand… To the east of Leeds alone, 19 new housing sites have been identified with the potential for 6,000+ homes, the infrastructure simply isn’t in place to cope with this. It’s not just about secondary school places, in fact the need for primary school places is probably more acute in this area, but it’s also about roads, amenities and other essential services. Progress, growth, development and change are wonderful things, but somebody needs to sit down and look at the bigger picture first!

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  6. A through school is a great idea, this would increase capacity for Primary as well as Secondary, as both have a great need for addition places across the board. The old Thomas Danby College site stands derelict at the moment and i know the issue is about cost of removing the asbestos but im sure the added value of education in this crampt inner city area is worth it.

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  7. Agree with the comments about the new outer ring-road and all the associated housing. A new site to the east of Whinmoor would be most central to the new housing areas. (If this is the case already, please add this to the options above). Would an expansion of John Smeaton cope with the new housing on the old Vickers Barnbow site? Seacroft Hospital seems a long way from most of the new housing, and is in the areas covered by 5 existing secondary schools, plus the new Temple Academy. It should be the aim that all pupils can easily walk or cycle to school, rather than needing to be driven there.

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  8. I would suggest a new high school in the Redhall ( Whinmoor ) area of leeds … it could either be on the existing council owned Redhall Nursery site which I understand was looking to relocate or it could perhaps be sited on fields between Whinmoor and the Wetherby road… this will also allow for the increase in pupil spaces needed due to the large scale housing plans for the area which have already started to be built. It will also increase provision in relation to the link road planned from Colton to the North of Whinmoor. Existing secondary school children in this area tend to be currently split between existing secondary schools the nearest of which is John Smeaton at roughly a 30 to 40 minute walk away. This plan would therefore free up places at John Smeaton which is also near to the proposed route of new link road mentioned above. With good planning these plans could be implemented and effective in under 2 years.

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  9. I and many others agree with Helen Stotts comment above.
    It does not make sense to expand some secondary schools, such as Cardinal Heenan, since they are built for a specific number of staff and puplils. It would have a massive impact on day to day practicalities including assemblies, and mealtimes.
    In addition Cardinal Heenan is located on Tongue Lane which has huge traffic problems which have led to many incidents of road safety problems reported to the police and the council for over 2 .5 years. These are ongoing and worsening and have led to numerous incidents having been reported to the police. The car park at Cardinal Heenan is visibly full during the school day alone and has led to many cars parking even at the entrance of the school on a daily basis making it difficult for drivers and pupils leaving the school. Increasing the number of pupils and therefore staff to this school would no doubt lead to more traffic, more parking problems and most importantly even more problems with road safety for pupils/staff/carers etc at Cardinal Heenan, St Urbans Primary school , Pennyfield’s school , Brandon House Care Home well as Milestone ‘s nursery on Tongue Lane. In conclusion , the community feels expanding any school on Tongue Lane would be detrimental to the safety of the community, particularly to vunerable people especially pupils.

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