Issue - meetings

The Leader welcomed those present to the meeting and outlined the order of business.  He assured the attendees that the meeting would be chaired fairly and in an even-handed and fair manner, providing an opportunity for people to speak and ask questions.

Councillor Binmore, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, gave a presentation setting out the reasons for the amalgamation of New Kings and Sulivan Schools, relating primarily to the issue of spare places.  She noted that the amalgamation will offer real educational benefits to parents and provide parental choice.  Part of the proposed £3.8 million investment in New Kings will secure a state of the art science laboratory.  The rebuilt New Kings will have better facilities including a specialist science suite, multi-sensory facilities, and a wider curriculum for the children, with lower overall running costs. It would be able to deliver a broader specialist science curriculum with its new junior laboratory.  The New Kings site was chosen because it is a solid Victorian building (purpose built) for 2 classes per year.  The Sulivan School condition survey showed that it would require compete rebuilding costing around £6 million.  This higher level of expenditure would deprive other schools of much needed investment.  Therefore, taking into consideration all these factors, the amalgamation of New Kings and Sulivan Schools on the New Kings site make sense.

Councillor Cooney, Cabinet Member for Education, spoke about the proposed Special Needs provision for children at both schools.  She noted that the permanent move to the New Kings School would be particularly positive for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.  The best practice was to speak to individual parents about meeting their child’s needs.  A comprehensive Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) had been carried out and a detailed action plan produced.  The impact would be positive on the children once on the permanent New Kings site as additional resources would be provided, along with specialist intervention teachers.  Economics of scale will release extra funding to invest in the children’s education.

Andrew Christie, Executive Director for Children’s Services, gave a presentation outlining the key reason for proposing to amalgamate New King’s and Sulivan Schools.  He informed the meeting of a minor amendment to the report on page 22 regarding the equalities implications.  He clarified that the Council had sought Counsel’s advice on the matter.  

He outlined the key reasons as follows:-

• Surplus Places

There were currently spare places in almost every year group in both schools, which were within 10 minutes’ walking distance of each other.  Considering the residency of the pupils attending both schools in January 2013, it was demonstrated that almost all pupils live close by the two schools.

• Spare Places In Fulham

The last school census figures (October 2013) showed that classes across the year groups were not full in a number of Fulham’s primary schools, including Sulivan and New King’s. There were 500 spare places currently in the south of the borough, compared to 166 in the north and 289 in the centre of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 145