analysis
We need a new national building strategy
Secondary school pupil numbers are set to rise significantly and attention urgently needs to be paid to the quality and availability of secondary school classrooms across the United Kingdom says a new report from Scape. The procurement organisation’s key points and proposals for tackling the crisis are set out below
Scape Chief Executive Mark Robinson
report, which found that 366,000 extra primary school places were required in England by 2020. The latest projection figures show that while growth in primary school pupil numbers has begun to level off in England, the secondary school population is set to see a significant spike as these children move into secondary education. With 15% of English secondary schools
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already at or exceeding capacity, swift action needs to be taken to ensure we can accommodate the additional 400,000 pupils set to enter the secondary school system by 2020/21. In this period, up to 13,337 classrooms will need to be provided in England – the equivalent of 381 new schools, across nine regions to accommodate these additional pupils. In Scotland, the latest projection figures show the country will see a 6% increase in secondary school pupils, equating to the need for 527 new classrooms, while Wales and Northern Ireland would each need more than 300 new secondary school classrooms to accommodate students moving through the academic system. In total, the full extent of the challenge is that there will be an extra 435,646 secondary pupils in the UK by 2020/21, which will require up to 14,522 new classrooms to be built. Scape Chief Executive Mark Robinson
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educationdab.co.uk
he research for The Secondary Schools Places Challenge follows Scape’s 2016 School Places Challenge
commented: “With 14,522 secondary school classrooms required across the UK by 2020, time is of the essence to get these built. The Government must view this situation as a priority. Local authorities should be given the freedom and resources to build additional classrooms where demand will be reaching high levels by 2020, which the existing school systems simply cannot cope with. We must therefore focus on solutions which will allow us to create additional school places, either through new schools or extensions, more quickly and resourcefully, without compromising on quality. Offsite technology is no longer a trade-off. Pre-designed solutions do not compromise on quality. Combining state- of-the-art modular techniques with innovative thinking, we can address the issue. For example, integrating both primary and secondary schools to make the most of the space available could dramatically reduce the school places shortage the UK currently faces. “Theresa May’s pledge to build 100
new free schools, both primary and secondary, every year is a positive step forward, but unfortunately it is a drop in the ocean compared to what we need to do to meet rapidly rising secondary school pupil numbers. “It can take a considerable amount of
time to secure planning permission for a new school and given the timescales currently in play, we will likely start to see more schools maximising their current estate – looking more towards extensions as a solution as opposed to building a completely new school. Offsite manufacturing is an obvious way in which building new classrooms, either as extensions or new schools, can be done with clear timescales for delivery, flexibility where necessary and certainty of cost. Fran Cox, Operational Director Sunesis,
commented: “For us to truly grasp the opportunity presented by offsite technologies, as a country, we must work to increase manufacturing capability to meet demand. Having worked within a local authority as a member of Bedfordshire
Council’s education commissioning team and now at Sunesis, it is absolutely clear to me that collaboration between Local Government, the Department of Education and the private sector is vital. Having a joined-up approach to modular between public and private sectors and Local and Central Government would allow school building to become far more efficient and ultimately help significantly reduce the number of classrooms required.”
England Every region in England will experience at least an 11% growth in secondary school pupil numbers by 2020/21, as they make the transition from primary to secondary school. London will see the biggest increase however, with the capital set to experience a 15.5% rise in secondary school pupils in the next three years. This means the region would need to build more than 2,500 classrooms, the equivalent of 73 schools, to maintain capacity. The West Midlands and the East of
England will see secondary school numbers increase by more than 47,000, which equates to just under 1,600 new classrooms. In the North East, which will see the smallest increase in pupil growth in England (11%), 527 new classrooms will be required. Outside of London, Manchester will see
the biggest percentage increase in secondary school pupils (35%) by 2020, which could require more than 300 new classrooms, which is the equivalent of nine new secondary schools. Constituencies in the South East will
also experience significant growth by 2020/21, in areas including Slough, Reading, Bracknell and Southampton. Slough and Reading exhibit the highest pupil growth in the South East (25%), with 99 new secondary school classrooms required in Slough, and 63 in Reading. The other local authorities featured in the top 10 include Leicester, Peterborough and Central Bedfordshire.
Scotland Scotland is expected to see secondary school pupil numbers increase by almost
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