Exciting plans for a massive £24 million investment into the King Edward VII School campus in Melton have been unveiled.

The site is to benefit from the largest ever investment into a school campus in Leicestershire. A brand new school for up to 800 11-16-year-olds, a separate Post-16 Centre for students from all the secondary schools in the area, even better community sports facilities and some new housing are all planned for the campus.

King Edward VII is one of the partner schools in the pioneering £45 million reorganisation of education in Melton Mowbray and the Vale of Belvoir. This aims to raise standards of attainment and achievement by pupils, building on current school excellence.

There is much to look forward to at King Edward VII School which is working hard with the County Council to ensure pupils reach the highest standards possible, boost King Edward VII’s appeal to prospective pupils and their parents and create a state-of-the-art new school building.

County Council Leader, David Parsons, said: “These are terrifically exciting times for everyone at King Edward VII and all those involved in the reorganisation of education in Melton Mowbray and the Vale of Belvoir.

“The fact this is the largest ever investment into a school campus in Leicestershire shows the determination of the County Council and its partner schools to work together to create the very best learning and teaching environment possible.”

Principal at King Edward VII, Chris Williams, said: “I hope as many people as possible can give their views about the plans for the campus.

“We want to hear your views to make sure the campus provides the best deal for all. This includes pupils and students at the new school and Post-16 Centre, sports teams and members of the local public.”

Construction work is due to start on the new school and Post-16 Centre in July, 2009 and they are both due to open for the autumn term, 2011.

 

Leicestershire County Council is consulting on proposals to change the catchment areas for admissions to the three secondary schools in Melton Mowbray from September 2009

 

 

 

The proposals agreed by the Council to transform the schools in Melton Mowbray and the Vale of Belvoir will see:

 

The map shown opposite illustrates the current catchment areas for the four secondary schools in the area. This shows, particularly for the Melton schools the evolution of the catchment areas over time, to a point where they now are fragmented to the degree that they do not adequately represent their communities. There is therefore a case for these catchment areas to be changed.

 

It is necessary to change the current catchment areas to provide better arrangements and to ensure that in the future the best possible choice is provided for your child to attend any of the three secondary schools in Melton.

It is important to understand why we have catchment areas. They are not a legal requirement, but they are part of the local authority’s admissions policy. Parents and carers are still free to express a preference for their child to attend any school. Living in a certain catchment area does not therefore restrict your choice, nor does it guarantee a place at the catchment school. However catchment areas are necessary to provide a means of managing admissions to schools where they may become oversubscribed. To have one catchment area for the three Melton secondary schools gives a broader choice for parents and pupils.

 

The County Council proposes that, there should be a single catchment area to serve the three secondary schools in Melton Mowbray, that is to say; John Ferneley, King Edward VII, and Long Field schools. The single catchment area will encompass the outer boundaries for the current secondary catchments, and is illustrated by a thick red line on the map on the previous page. The proposal to consult on this arrangement has been drawn up together with schools, and is supported by the respective governing bodies of each, in particular the Long Field High school which as a foundation school is directly responsible for managing its own admissions.

A number of other possible catchment area solutions have been considered, based on maintaining individual catchment areas for each secondary school, but requiring a significant change to their current catchment boundaries. Consideration has also been given to retaining the current catchment areas as they are. In practice these other possibilities may have some benefits but overall would not provide as good a solution as having a single catchment area.

The Belvoir High School in Bottesford, because of its location, is excluded from the proposals for a single catchment and will continue to maintain its existing catchment area to serve the Vale community.

The proposals do not affect the catchment areas for any primary schools in either Melton or the Vale.

 

The proposals, if approved after consultation, will apply to pupil admissions from September 2009. This would mean that when you are invited to express your preferences for your child’s school in the autumn this year, for 2009 admissions, any new arrangements would apply.

 

It is important that the arrangements to manage school admissions are kept clear, easy to follow and straightforward, and similar to those applied to other Leicestershire schools to ensure all pupils are treated equally.

The County Council’s policy and procedures for admissions to Leicestershire schools are set out in the document Admissions to Mainstream Schools (Community and Voluntary Controlled). Section 7 of the policy sets out eight criteria to be considered in the management of parental preferences, and prioritising admissions to schools. These criteria allow for consideration of a number of factors including; pupils in public care, pupils who live in catchment (in this case the proposed single Melton catchment), pupils who have an older brother or sister attending the preferred school at the same time, those who have a serious medical condition or social/domestic needs, those having attended feeder primary schools (in this case the current feeder primary to secondary school links would still apply), and the distance pupils live from the school. Where there are too many requests for a particular school the criteria are used, in the order they appear, to decide which children will be allocated a place.

It is not proposed that there should be any changes to the current local authority’s admissions policy or special arrangements for the secondary schools within Melton.

Similarly no changes are proposed to the existing schools transport policy. Free transport is provided if the school is the catchment school or a nearer school and the distance from home to school is more than three miles. A summary of the present schools transport policy is available in the publication ‘Your Guide to Secondary Education in Leicestershire’ and via the website here.

 

You may find out more information about the proposals and how they might apply to your child, in the Your Questions Answered section of the website. If you would like to talk to someone about admissions processes, please feel welcome to contact the Access and Welfare Service (School Admissions Team) on 0116 305 6684.

 

All views and opinions will be taken into account. The responses to the consultation will be presented to the County Council Cabinet on 8th April 2008, to enable a decision on the way forward to be taken. Any decision taken will need to be endorsed by the governing body of the Long Field School. The decision taken will be communicated to schools and published on the website in due course.

 

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