Free School Presumption consultation - Ledsham Road

The Free School Presumption process is the main route by which local authorities establish new schools in order to meet the need for additional places, both in terms of basic need and the need for diverse provision within their areas. The Council is responsible for the specification of the new school.

The outcome of the consultation will help to form the school specification.

The Council will prepare a specification which is detailed enough to enable proposers to understand the needs identified by the Council and submit the strongest proposal possible.

The school specification will include, but not limited to, details such as:

• character/ethos of school;
• phase and age range (nursery)
• opening date;
• pupil capacity;
• proposed Published Admission Number(s) (PAN), number of forms of entry on opening, and expected rate of growth;
• proposed admission arrangements, including catchment area if applicable;
• where relevant, any requirement to include a special unit or resourced provision

for pupils with special educational needs;

• details of any desired community use of the school and/or a preference for any shared facilities
• Before and After School Clubs / wrap around care

The Council will be working on the detailed design of the school over the coming months. The details of the school building design and layout and other matters, such as the details of sustainable construction and school travel plan, will be submitted for planning approval at a later date. This design work is separate from the current consultation.

Once the school specification has been formalised, the Council will begin the competition in which Department for Education Approved academy sponsors will be able to bid directly to the Council to run and manage the new school.

The Council will assess bids using the DfE framework, submitting an assessment of each proposer to the Secretary of State, including scoring given for each one. This will allow the Regional Schools Director (on behalf of Secretary of State) to decide the most suitable proposer. The Council will recommend a preferred sponsor, however it will be the Regional Schools Director (on behalf of the Secretary of State) to make final decision.

The successful Trust appointed to run the new school will undertake a formal consultation.

The new school is located centrally on the development of Ledsahm Road. Circled on the map below.

The below shows the Council’s proposed catchment area for the new school. This will be a shared area, in parts, with Sutton Green Primary and Capenhurst CE Primary. The catchment has been extended to natural boundaries and does not indicate in any way that further housing is expected in these areas.

Admissions arrangements, including catchment area will be drafted by the successful trust and will be reviewed by the Department for Education before the statutory section 10 consultation commences.

Strategic housing developments forecast annual build rates, to which we apply forecast annual pupils expected. The actual dwellings that are occupied and the children that arise from them can fluctuate. The Council continually monitors children moving into new housing.

Larger developments can take many years to build out, and can be driven by a number of factors.. Building a school in stages assists in managing the places needed at the time, whilst ensuring the sustainability of existing schools.

Below is the expected build rate and pupil forecast for the Ledsham Garden Village Development.

The new school is intended to serve the residents from the new development at Ledsham Garden Village. A development of this size requires additional community infrastructure to ensure sustainability.

We will ask all prospective trusts who wish to run the school to demonstrate how they will ensure cohesion and good relations with existing schools in the area.

Forecasts demonstrate a shortfall of primary places in the planning area during the current forecasting period, which coincides with the opening date of the school.

In national planning policy terms, sufficient choice of school places to meet the needs of existing and new communities is important, and widening the choice in education is supported. Within larger scale sites there is support for an appropriate mix of uses including education, to minimise the number and length of journeys needed. The provision of a primary school along with other facilities such as the local centre, community building, formal and informal recreational space within the development is expected to help reduce the need to travel off the site, particularly in the peak morning period. The school is in an accessible location providing residents a reasonable walking distance to the school. The provision of a primary school has been integral to the design of the Ledsham Road development from the outset of the masterplanning for the development.

We expect the school to be open by the earliest, September 2026. We secured additional funding from the developers to accommodate pupils in the interim period, for which additional provision has been provided at Sutton Green primary school.

All 3 - 4 year olds will receive a minimum of 15 hours of funded early year entitlement across 38 weeks of the year (school term time).

We will specify that the provider offers a minimum of 30 hours across 38 weeks of the year (school term time).

The pre-school classbase will accommodate a maximum of 26 children at one time.

If eligible, working families may receive 30 hours funded early year entitlement across 38 weeks of the year (school term time).

For further information about eligibility please visit:

SEN Resourced provision is where places are reserved at a mainstream school for pupils with a specific type of SEN, taught mainly within mainstream classes, but requiring a base and some specialist facilities around the school. Pupils are on the roll of the host mainstream school with the base managed and staffed by the host school. The benefit of this is that it embodies an inclusive ethos and directly engages mainstream schools as key partners in the delivery of specialist provision.

There are also well-established models around the Country where pupils are catered for in SEN “Satellite Provision”, operated by Specialist Schools on Mainstream School sites. This model can provide the best of both worlds in terms of curriculum access, social integration, and specialist support. The Special School is named on a child’s EHC Plan, and the provision is managed and staffed by the Special School.

Form of Entry (FE): Defines the size of a school and refers to the number of children entering Reception. A 1 Form Entry school accommodates 210 pupils and admits 30 children per year.

Published Admission Number (PAN): The agreed number of pupils a school will admit into reception.

School Capacity: The agreed number of pupils a school can accommodate based on building size.

Education Health and Care Plan: An education, health and care (EHC) plan is for children and young people aged up to 25 who need more support than is available through special educational needs support. EHC plans identify educational, health and social needs and set out the additional support to meet those needs.