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Greenshaw High School

Update on the new school

Greenshaw seeks funding to build a new secondary school

Greenshaw High School has applied to the Department of Education for funding to build additional secondary school provision to help meet the urgent need for more school places in the Borough of Sutton.

Sutton Council predicts that around 20 additional forms of entry will be required in local secondary schools by 2017 and up to 26 by 2020. Work is underway to expand a number of local secondary schools in the next couple of years, but that will leave the need for 10 to 16 forms of entry * – which can only be provided by building one or two new secondary schools in this area.

Greenshaw is a high-performing, successful and popular local school, with the proven skills and capacity to support and develop other schools. Greenshaw has been approved by the Department for Education (DfE) to be the sponsor of both primary and secondary schools and has the backing of all local secondary schools to be sponsor of a new secondary school in Sutton.

Whilst Sutton Council has attracted significant funding from central government that it is using to help provide the new school places that are required in both primary and secondary schools, the Council has not currently secured sufficient money to provide all the places that will be needed. *

Urgent action is required to try to attract more funding and start work on providing the additional secondary school places that will be required for September 2017.

Having carefully considered the situation, Greenshaw has concluded that the best way to maximise the chances of Sutton achieving the new secondary school places that are required is for us to apply to the DfE for ‘Free School’ funding.

The funding to build a Free School comes directly from the Department for Education, and not from the funding allocated to the local Council – once the school is open it is run and funded exactly the same way as any other academy school. If successful, the application for Free School funding will bring additional capital money to the Borough in addition to any money allocated to the Council to meet the needs it has identified.

The new school would be a non-selective mixed comprehensive school for local children; it would be separate from Greenshaw High School with its own funding, but under the ‘umbrella’ of the Greenshaw Trust.

* See the ‘School Place Planning Update’ report for Sutton Council Children, Family and Education Committee, 18 September 2014 : http://sutton.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=451&MId=3621&Ver=4

The full statement can be downloaded here.