 School partly opens to meet growing demand
A new primary school in North Wokingham will take on its first pupils from Key Stage 2 (Years 3, 4, 5 and 6) only next month.
We’re partly opening St Cecilia’s Church of England Primary off Queen’s Road for the spring term on Monday, 9 January.
This will meet growing demand in the juniors age group, due largely to the numbers of families moving to the area, and take pressure off existing schools.
St Cecilia’s has capacity for 90 juniors and will be run by the Keys Academy Trust, which has been given access to the building with a full tenancy to follow. No date is set for a full opening, which would see capacity increase to 210, as demand is still lower than expected in younger age groups.
St Cecilia’s didn’t open this September because only a very small number of applicants named it as their first preference. Opening wouldn’t have been viable and would have affected capacity at other primaries but we’re monitoring this closely.
The complex also includes a community space and we’re considering possible uses for this. We’ll keep you posted as soon as there’s any more news.
Battling to build strong communities for the future
The new school is part of the infrastructure, funded largely by housing developers, that accompanies the homes coming to the North Wokingham major development to meet requirements set by the Government.
We don't have much of a say in how many new houses we've got to take, but we do everything we can to ensure they're well served and at no cost to our own finances as we deal with unprecedented budgetary pressures.
Looking ahead, we're lobbying for changes that would see us take a lower, fairer share of housing in future and we've just secured an audience with Government ministers to discuss this in more detail.
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