Following the analysis of official figures by BBC News, which suggest that the number of children starting primary school exceeds the number of spaces in secondary schools, secondary schools will need to make a further 16,284 vacancies available by 2023.

The analysis covers a total of 134 areas in England and clearly shows that secondary schools in some areas are in more need of spaces than others with Surrey, Birmingham, City of Bristol, Leeds and Lewisham requiring more than half of the 16,284 spaces of themselves. You can see the full analysis at the end of this article.

Indeed, pupils transitioning from primary school to secondary school this year are already experiencing the impact of the rising pupil population in secondary schools with reports suggesting that one in six pupils missed out on their first choice of secondary school.

But whilst the DfE claim that LAs had plans for 52,000 more secondary school places by 2018 and is putting £7bn aside to help secondary schools to create more vacancies, it seems that this may not be enough for areas that are foreseeing the biggest increases.

Linda Kemeny, Surrey County Council’s Cabinet Member for Schools and Learning, explains: “We need to create more than 11,000 extra school places over the next five years but, because demand is not being matched by extra funding from the government, it is leaving us with a shortfall of £30m in each of the next two years alone.”

In response to this report a DfE spokeswoman has commented: “Delivering good quality school places is a top priority for this government and the latest figures show that the system continues to work. The government has already committed £7bn for school places, which along with our investment in 500 new free schools we expect to deliver 600,000 new places by 2021.

“Our reforms and our academy programme are raising standards for all children with 1.4 million more pupils in good or outstanding schools than in 2010. We will continue to invest and work hard to ensure every child has an excellent education that allows them to reach their full potential.”

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Lucy Mister
Hamilton House Mailings Ltd