Review of Primary Education Provision across Worthing Borough

Summary of proposals

West Sussex County Council intent to discontinue with effect from 31 August 2024

Lyndhurst Infant School, Lyndhurst Road, Worthing, BN11 2DG and

Significantly change the character of Chesswood Junior School to allow the opening of an all-through primary school on the Chesswood Road site for 60 Published Admission Number (PAN) Key Stage 1 pupils and 120 PAN Key Stage 2 pupils, together with a 21 place Special Support Centre, with effect from 1 September 2024.

Introduction

West Sussex County Council (WSCC) has a statutory duty to provide sufficient school places for all children but also take action to reduce places where there are too many. We have considered projected pupil numbers, demographic data and planned housing developments and believe we should plan for up to 36 forms of entry or 1,080 places per year group across the borough's primary schools.

Need for change

The Worthing area show that currently the area has an excess of four forms of entry based on the number of places that we believe are required to meet local demand into the future whilst also maintaining a 5% margin to, as far as possible, provide for parental preference.

Reducing the number of surplus places will help all schools come closer to achieving full classes and therefore reduce their financial risks, ensuring that they have the resources they require to meet the needs of their children.

The proposal

Create a 2FE Key Stage 1 (60 children in each year group) primary school on the Chesswood Road site growing to a 4FE Key Stage 2 provision (120 children in each year group) to accommodate children who would currently attend Chesswood Junior and Lyndhurst Infant Schools. We would no longer require the use of the Lyndhurst site and therefore it is proposed to discontinue the use of Lyndhurst Infant School with effect from 31 August 2024.

In addition we will create a new 21 place Primary Specialist Support Centre for Social Communication Needs, on the Chesswood Road site, incorporating the 9 places currently available at Lyndhurst Infant school.

Decision already approved

As part of the Cabinet Member decision LS08(22/23) (opens in new window) delegated authority was given to the Assistant Director (Education and Skills), in consultation with the Cabinet Member, to determine, following an analysis of the outcomes of the public consultation, whether the reduction in PAN at the above schools should proceed and to confirm the revised numbers to meet the statutory deadline of 31st January 2023 for implementation in September 2024.

Reduce pupil admission numbers at the following schools starting from September 2024.

a. Durrington Infant School to a PAN of 60

b. Durrington Junior School* to a PAN of 60

c. Field Place Infant School to a PAN of 90

d. Thomas À Becket Infant School to a PAN of 150

e. Thomas À Becket Junior School* to a PAN of 160

f. Whytemead Primary School to a PAN of 30

* PANS for the schools indicated will be effective from 2027.

Statutory Notices

The public consultation is a two-stage process, initially an informal consultation took place over a six week period (28 November 2022 - 20 January 2023) At the end of this period, and following analysis of the comments received, the Cabinet Member for Learning and Skills, Nigel Jupp, took the decision to publish statutory notices. We are now entering the formal statutory notice period which will run for a further four week period from 20 April 2023 - 18 May 2023. We anticipate the final decision to enable the changes to become effective from 31 August 2023 to be taken in June 2023. As indicated in the decision report LS14 (22/23) (opens in new window) .This decision has been delegated to the Assistant Director (Education and Skills) to determine whether the changes should proceed following consideration of any representations received during this statutory proposal period.

Representations

If you would like to make a representation in response to the statutory notice then please email the School Consultation team at schoolconsultations@westsussex.gov.uk

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