Council faces dilemma as pupil-places crisis continues

Education officials could find themselves choosing between squeezing children into packed classrooms or using a temporary school building as demand for secondary places grows.

The need for Year 7 places in Rochdale has skyrocketed by more than a third since 2005, leading to borough schools taking on extra pupils – and in some cases extending their buildings to do so.

Extra provision is desperately needed in the borough and trusts have made bids to open two new free schools in the borough under the government’s ‘Wave 13’ application round.

The potential school sites are at Bowlee, in Middleton, and Littleborough Playing Fields.

Trusts are due to find out whether they have been successful in ‘late spring’ – but even if ministers do give the go-ahead, they do not plan for schools to open until September 2021.

Senior officers at Rochdale Council say this would be too late if more than 180 places are needed, as existing schools would not be able to soak up the extra demand.

Even a temporary ‘modular’ building attached to a school site in order to accommodate a ‘bulge’ class would not bridge the gap.

In this scenario, senior officers say they would lobby the Department for Education to open the new school early.

But Fay Davis, pupil place manager at Rochdale council, said this could result in a dilemma for those in charge of education in the borough.

Addressing a Pennines Township Committee, she said: “We are just in a situation where what we need is a new school in 2020 and I’m doing my very best to make that happen.

“But if the DfE came along and said all right you can have a school in 2020 but it will be in modular accommodation until 2022 when it will be built – would we want to do that, or would we want to try to squeeze our children into existing schools?

“That’s a really hard choice.” 

Councillor Janet Emsley, who taught at borough schools including Balderstone and Wardle Academy (formerly High School) over a 37-year career, said temporary buildings were the better option.

She said: “Having been in the situation of being in modular education when I was at school – Oulder Hill was being built as we were being accommodated at Nelson Street (the old technical college) – it’s better to have a school that you know are going to go to, even if it’s a shell that hasn’t yet been made into classrooms.”

She added: “I just think that temporary accommodation is better than no accommodation or trying to cram in.

“At Wardle Academy they had to operate a one-way system on the corridors because the corridors are so narrow. The movement of 400 pupils all at once is pretty horrific if you get in the middle of it and you’re only small. The Year 7s are the ones that suffer most.

“If you have children with any mobility issues it really is hard work. You need to make sure they move at different times because you can’t put them on the corridors, its physically unsafe.”

Speaking after the meeting, Councillor Emsley admitted to ‘reservations’ over portakabin-type accommodation – which she says once contributed to a school she taught being placed in special measures.

She added: “My opinion is simply that if they give us that straw to grasp hold of, then we grasp hold of it. I think any opportunity they offer us to move along that route has to be taken.”

Recalling her school-days experiences she added: “When I was at Oulder Hill as a pupil it was not a bad experience. It was an experience that made us actually feel like we were pioneers, because we were the first ones through.

“We were being told ‘this is a new school, you are the pupils who have to pave the way for the school’s reputation’ – it was a bit of an adventure.”

Commenting on the situation outside of the meeting Councillor Kieran Heakin – the cabinet member for children’s services – said he ‘didn’t have a problem’ with modular – or temporary – accommodation.

He said: “I have seen it in many other authorities, and they are sometimes quite creative solutions – they have taken over an empty mill or an empty business premises. They can be very workable.”

Councillor Heakin added that a new school would begin with just the intake of new Year 7 pupils – 150 children – and build from there each year.  A modular building would not have to cope with five year groups and possibly a sixth form.

He continued: “It’s not unusual, I’ve seen it in other authorities where it has worked very well. It just needs very careful planning and to keep parents informed.”

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter