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Primary school offer day was important for many reasons. Firstly, it was the first national offer day for primary school places and, secondly, it was probably the first time the impacts of a rising population were acutely felt. Nationally, we have seen a rise in birth rates, which this year has put pressure on the number of primary school places available. Staffordshire and it's 400 plus schools has followed this trend. Across the county we have seen a rise of 11% and in some areas, such as Stafford and Burton-upon-Trent, the population has risen by a quarter over the past 10 years. This pressure on school places has meant Staffordshire CC has had to think creatively to ensure parents are offered a good choice of primary schools. Realising the magnitude of the problem early on, we put forward a comprehensive set of plans that would increase capacity in a number of ways. These initial plans went beyond simply building a new school. They instead detailed a whole raft of measures to ensure enough capacity in the areas that needed them. We received £81m from the Government's basic need allocation up to 2017 to increase capacity across the county. In Burton, we invested £20m to work with schools and increase their intake. A large part of this early on was increasing capacity in existing schools by adding classrooms and increasing admissions. One school, Christchurch Infants, was converted into a primary school with a capacity of 315 and completely rebuilt on the same site. Of course, we have also built new schools. We recently opened the first basic need primary school to be built in the county for 25 years and will be opening another new school in the autumn. Both of these schools will have capacity for 420 pupils, both have been built in Burton. Capacity has already been added to other areas of the county, either by making better use of existing accommodation or through new building. In 2015 around 1,000 service personnel will be relocated to Stafford through the Borona Project, bringing with them around 300 primary aged children. Primary and secondary school capacity will need to be increased and work is well underway with local schools, the borough council and the wider community to ensure there are enough places. Ultimately, we feel we are in a very strong position to meet increasing demand. This is borne out by the fact that 92% of parents this year were allocated their first choice primary school, above the national average and in line with last year. Our work isn't finished yet. As the population is set to rise again over the next 10 years, we are drawing up more plans to ensure schools in Staffordshire have enough capacity to cope with increasing demand and parents still have a choice when it comes to their child's education. Ben Adams is cabinet member for learning and skills at Staffordshire CC

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How Staffordshire is dealing with school places pressure

By Ben Adams | 25 April 2014

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