Schools and learning

How do we plan school places for children in Hertfordshire?

In Hertfordshire, we’re constantly working to ensure that there are enough school places in the County to guarantee there is one for every child when they need it. It’s a difficult balance to strike as we have to consider all these factors:

• Pupil and school achievement
• Parental preference
• Forecasts of pupil numbers
• Cost efficiency

Forecasts of pupil numbers

We have to predict some years in advance the quantity of school places required for a particular school year. To do this, we take account of:

• Historical pupil numbers
• Data about the number of births
• Migration patterns within the County and from other authorities
• New housing developments

We also consider other development proposals where the exact location and type of development are not yet known such as those relating to the Stansted airport expansion and the M11 corridor.

School reorganisations

Currently within Hertfordshire there are a number of areas where there is a high demand for school places whilst in other areas there are a significant number of surplus places. To manage the supply of school places and to work towards raising the achievement of pupils within both the primary and secondary school sectors, we review school place provision in areas where the number of places is significantly higher than required. These reviews, known as area reviews, are based on geographical areas across the County.

During an area review, we take account of parental preferences for schools, demographic trends, predicted pupil numbers and future housing demand. Each review will begin with an initial assessment of the issues facing a school or an area. Identified stakeholders are involved in the review process from a very early stage to develop possible options for re-organisation.

These stakeholders include:
Schools directly and indirectly affected by the review
Chairs of Governors
Staff representatives
Parent Governor representatives
District and county councillors
Members of Parliament
Representatives of faith schools
Local Learning & Skills Council (for secondary school reviews)
Local Further Education colleges (for secondary school reviews)

Once the list of proposed options have been agreed, a public consultation process is undertaken to obtain views and feedback from all stakeholders, especially parents, and anyone else who wishes to comment.

The County Council’s Cabinet will consider the options, taking into account the views obtained from the consultation process and will decide on the proposal to move forward with. The Council will then publish a statutory notice which details the proposal formally. This statutory notice is published in the local newspaper and is displayed in schools in the area and in various public places in the area of the school. People have six weeks in which to make comments on it.
The final decision on whether or not to proceed with implementation of any of the options proposed is made either by the School Organisation Committee (insert hyperlink) if there are objections, or by the Director with authority delegated by Cabinet if there are no objections to the proposal.

New Schools

Primary Schools - When the best option is to open a new primary school, the school will normally have at least two forms of entry (that is at least two classes in each year).

Secondary Schools - To give pupils the best opportunities to achieve and to give them a wide range of curriculum subjects, we seek to provide fewer, larger secondary schools, typically 6 to 10 forms of entry/classes per year.