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Expanding Fearnhill, The Highfield and Knights Templar Schools

The capacity and current number on roll at the four schools is:

School building capacities and 2001/2002 numbers on roll

School	Year 7	Year 8	Year 9	Year 10	Year 11	Year 12	Year 13	Total	Capacity
Fearnhill	148	148	153	151	115	73	61	849	942
The Highfield	151	145	146	148	154	88	56	888	895
Knights Templar	181	176	187	182	170	109	106	1111	1149
Norton	76	69	100	92	103	6	11	457	909
Area total	556	538	586	573	542	276	234	3305	3895

If Norton School closes the area capacity would reduce to 2986.

The actual total number of pupils in the Letchworth and Baldock area has been:

Total pupils on roll

Areas	97/98	98/99	99/00	00/01	01/02
Letchworth	2199	2209	2271	2245	2194
Baldock	1064	1069	1097	1119	1111
Area total	3263	3278	3368	3364	3305

Estimates for future demand are published in the Hertfordshire School Organisation Plan as follows, but changes to admission rules may affect future patterns of demand and estimates.

Pupil estimates from School Organisation Plan

	02/03	03/04	04/05	05/06	Long term average
Letchworth	2394	2443	2456	2477	2351
Baldock	1224	1271	1319	1360	1347
Area total	3618	3714	3775	3837	3698

To meet the demand for places, admission limits to Fearnhill, The Highfield and Knights Templar would be raised.

Proposed admission limits to be published for September 2003

School	Current admission limit	Proposed admission limit
Fearnhill	150	195
The Highfield	150	195
Knights Templar	160	225
Norton	150	0
Total	610	615

As stated above the building capacity without Norton School will be 2986. There is a need for 3700 places to meet the estimated long term average demand. The County Council will therefore provide extra accommodation to expand building capacity by 700 places at the three other schools.

Some internal improvements to specialist spaces and temporary classrooms would be needed for this September, and again for September 2003. We are working with the schools to ensure that further building works are completed by September 2004, when all Norton’s pupils would have transferred.

Building Plans by 2004

School	Building plans
Knights Templar	General classrooms; library expansion; science; technology and external works
Fearnhill	General classrooms; science; technology; and external works
The Highfield	General classrooms; library expansion; science; technology and external works

The County Council and headteachers of these schools are making plans so that should Norton School close the impact of such an expansion in pupil numbers and buildings on all other areas of school life are minimised; and that new pupils are fully integrated into their new schools.