Draft Local Plan - Supplementary Consultation

School response to Solihull Draft Local Plan Supplementary Consultation
* What St George and St Teresa School wants to do is almost an exact clone of the larger scale plans of Arden School
o St George and St Teresa School want to expand and relocate its existing provision to Site 9 in the Draft Local Plan. This would result in a 2FE Catholic school
o The School has undertaken a comprehensive options appraisal and moving to the new site 9 is clearly the preferred option
o St George and St Teresa School have been in continuous contact with Arden School for a number of years and know we would be supported by Arden for this relocation onto site 9
o The school has the support of key local stakeholders (Councillors and politicians)
o The new shared facilities would provide excellent opportunities for learning for the children of Solihull
* Justification for the relocation and expansion of St George and St Teresa School
o The school is working with and will continue to work with the Catholic Diocese throughout this process
o The expansion of the school would ensure the proportionality of Catholic provision in Solihull, East of the M42
o The best Solihull Primary School in recent years if measured by results has consistently St George and St Teresa Catholic Primary School
o We have assessed the future demand of for the school and we expect as is typical that entry into the school will be oversubscribed again this year
o The Published Admission Number (PAN) capacity for the school show the school as consistently oversubscribed. This is likely to increase substantially in line with the anticipated growth illustrated in the Draft Local Plan
o St George and St Teresa school's catchment is and will remain slightly larger that the boundaries of Bentley Heath, Knowle and Dorridge (for example, Hockley Heath is in our catchment area which includes part of the Blythe Valley new housing) and will typically pull children from the Solihull areas East of M42. This aspect is typical for many schools in Solihull as the Solihull School Organisation Plan recognised. The Solihull School Organisation Plan recognise many schools in Solihull attract significant numbers of pupils from outside the Solihull boundary . This is not the case with St George and St Teresa.
* Other points
o Expansion of Primary School places East of the M42 in the Borough has exclusively been in the state sector for many years now
o It would make absolute sense to expand St George and St Teresa Catholic Primary School and so providing first class Primary School provision in this part of Solihull
o Potentially releasing the current St George and St Teresa site, as it in the call for sites, could release pressure point e.g. for traffic etc surrounding Dorridge school and other adjacent areas