ANNEX A School specification for the first two primary schools in Fairfields and Whitehouse Page | E059 November 2015 New school opportunities Milton Keynes Council has the statutory duty to ensure that there are sufficient school places for all children and young people living in Milton Keynes In line with the requirements of section 6A of the Education Act 2011, the council actively promotes a diverse supply of strong schools, including encouraging good schools to expand and, where there is a need for a new school, seeking proposals for a free school The council is excited by the opportunity of working with partners to run the first two primary school sites in the western expansion area of Milton Keynes The sites had been previously secured under former legislation as community schools, which, due to the economic downturn and subsequent delay of the housing development, were postponed to opening in September 2015 and 2016 However, the duty to open the schools as community schools was recently revoked by the Department for Education Michael Bracey, Corporate Director People I am now seeking initial expressions of interest from Academy Trusts, already familiar with or new to the area, who are able to deliver high quality education and establish the schools ready for opening in September 2016, which will be in line with the initial demand from the new housing development Following this written commitment, a full application will be requested to be completed This paper provides a specification of the type of provision the council would like to secure, as well as some background to the development, information about the opportunity sites and a timeline for the process The council contact for these opportunity sites is: Susie Morrissey Programme Lead, Setting and School Sufficiency and Access Email: Susie.morrissey@milton-keynes.gov.uk Telephone: 01908 254643 Mobile: 07525 805194 I look forward to receiving your expressions of interest Michael Bracey Corporate Director, People Page | About the opportunities The council is seeking high quality provision for the first two primary school sites in the western expansion area These are the first two primary schools of a total of four primary schools that are planned to serve the new communities of Fairfields and Whitehouse The first two schools have exactly the same specifications: Expected opening date September 2016 Phase Primary Gender Mixed Age range 2-11 Nursery Capacity for 39 children aged 2-4, at any one time (39 FTE) Children per year group 90 Total capacity 630 + nursery places Wraparound care As the schools will be one of the first facilities for the community, it would be in the interest of the parents to offer wrap around provision Special Educational Needs The school will be expected to be fully inclusive and to educate children with special educational needs when mainstream education is considered appropriate School organisation Whilst expressions of interest from Academy Trusts seeking to operate both sites will not be discounted, it should be noted that the council is seeking to ensure there is choice for parents Given the intention that four primary schools will eventually serve the settlement, the council would prefer the first two sites to be run as standalone primary schools rather than one school across two campus sites Admissions arrangements All proposers must adhere to The School Admissions Code and The School Admission Appeals Code, including determining admissions arrangements, providing relevant information to the local authority relating to admissions and participating in the locally determined Fair Access Protocol The council will collate expressions of interest for a place at the school until such time that admissions arrangements are determined by the new admissions authority Working with the new school, the council is willing (if requested) to process the initial admissions to the school The council also currently offers a free in year admissions service to all local admissions authorities who wish to use it To help with a swift opening, for at least the first two years of operation, the admissions arrangements for the schools should be in line with the admissions arrangements for maintained schools in Milton Keynes, the oversubscription Page | criteria are: A looked after child or previously looked after child A sibling at the school who is expected to be on roll at the school at the time of admission and the place of residence is within catchment of the school The child’s place of residence is within catchment area of the school and there is no sibling on roll at the school There is already a sibling at the school who is expected to be on roll at the school at the time of admission and the place of residence is outside of the catchment area Distance from the school to the place of residence Where oversubscription results in the PAN being reached within one of the five priorities, then sub-prioritisation within priority will take place using distance between the child’s home address and the school’s main entrance, measured in a straight line with those living closest to the school receiving the higher priority In the event of joint oversubscription, having exhausted distance, random allocation will be used as the ultimate tiebreaker For applicants living in flats, the distance will be measured from the school’s main entrance to the front door of the ground floor flat underneath the applicant’s main residence Where two or more pupils live at the same distance the tiebreaker will be random allocation Published Admission Number The initial PAN for the schools will be as follows: R 10 5 5 MK Schools Forum has agreed a principle of financially supporting new provision schools in new housing developments to grow in line with the demand from their intended community When there is a need for the PAN to increase due to population growth (basic need), the funding available for those additional places will also be made available in line with the agreed growth This prevents future admissions issues for families, reduces the impact on other local schools, and helps to ensure the new schools have the capacity to serve new residents as and when they move to the development The Trust will need to be open to the idea of admitting further children in open year groups throughout the course of the academic year Catchment area Initially the schools will need to prioritise children who live in their respective development areas (i.e children who live in Fairfields will need to be prioritised at the primary school in Fairfields and children who live in Whitehouse will need to be prioritised at the primary school in Whitehouse) The catchment area for the schools will need to change as the development grows and the last two primary schools are opened Partnership working with the council Page | The council has a strong working relationship with all schools in the borough It is expected that any provider will cooperate with the council and other schools, by engaging with and providing relevant information as determined by law and information reasonably requested by the council The council offers a number of services that can be purchased Details can be found at: https://s4s.mksp.org.uk/ Additionally, the council’s Social Emotional and Mental Health Specialist Teaching Team are also available for purchasing Partnership working with the community The development has been planned to have a total of four primary schools and one secondary school It is planned that this new community of schools (referred to as ‘The Whitehouse Liaison Group’) will work closely with each other, especially relating to admissions arrangements and community engagement School building The buildings have already been designed and the builders are currently on site The schemes are currently scheduled to be ready in August 2016 Further details about the sites are outlined in: “About the sites”, on page Funding Milton Keynes Council will meet all pre- and post-opening costs associated with establishing the new school, in line with the growth criteria agreed by the Schools Forum, detailed in Item of the Schools Forum agenda on 15 October 2015 Funding – capital The capital schemes have already been developed and are currently being built Approximately £8.5M is budgeted to spend on each of the schemes The source of this funding is a combination of Basic Need, Section 106/ Tariff, council borrowing and council funds A budget allocation will be given to each school for furniture and equipment based on £500 per pupil (£315K per school), and an ICT set up allocation (£30K per school) Funding – revenue MK Schools Forum has agreed to fund the following payments to support the establishment of new school provision Initial new school allowance: A total payment of £145.4K will be paid to each school to cover payments such as salaries and upfront costs prior to the school opening Payments will be made in the two terms prior to opening, £46,850 in the spring term and £98,550 in the summer term Set up allowance (for resources): This is determined by the final size of the school and will be paid on an annual basis over a five year period Given the total size of each of the schools (630 pupils each), this will be a payment of £31.5K pa for five years, totalling £157.5K Place funding: The schools will each be funded for the total number of 90 children in the first year For the years after that, the council will work with the new school to determine anticipated demand based on the latest housing figures on an annual basis Site ownership and tenure Page | The sites are offered on a leasehold basis, with a 125 year lease About the development The western expansion area The ‘Western Expansion Area’ is a 450ha area of land located west of V4 Watling Street, situated between Stony Stratford (to the north), Kiln Farm and Two Mile Ash (to the east), and Crownhill and Grange Farm (to the south) It is a new housing development, which consists of two major sites currently separated by Calverton Lane running through the middle These sites are: Whitehouse (Area 10): 228ha site consisting of 4,400 dwellings and 6.5ha employment land Fairfields (Area 11): 123ha site consisting of 2,200 dwellings and 9ha employment land The western expansion area is currently the largest of the major development sites in Milton Keynes with 6,600 homes to be built (a pupil yield of c.380 pupils per year group) When complete (in around 2030) it will be comparable in size to Buckingham The western expansion area will have primary school sites, Figure 1: Whitehouse and Fairfields school sites Each site has a secondary school site, sport & leisure project name; however, these are not the determined names of facilities, multi-purpose community the schools centres, a library facility, a health centre and large open spaces and play areas Most of the original hedgerows, trees and ponds will be kept and incorporated into the open spaces There will be a high street area including many of the public services, a supermarket and several other shops Page | About the sites The capital schemes for the first two primary sites have been developed at the same time with the same architects, education consultants and contractors building the schools Both schemes started on site in the summer of 2015, with the anticipated completion of August 2016 The sites are offered on a leasehold basis, with a 125 year lease Fairfields Primary School Apollo Avenue Fairfields MILTON KEYNES MK11 4BA The new primary provision at Fairfields is located off the V4 Watling Street within the western expansion area Access has been created off the V4 Watling Street to serve the school site and new housing development Figure 2: Fairfields Primary School being provided by Barratts / David Wilson Homes The new school development sits on an area of 2.250ha and will comprise of a 630 place primary school with a 39 place nursery with associated external playing field, hard play areas and car parking for staff and visitors The layout of the site has made the most of the topography of the land and existing trees and hedgerows Externally, the building will comprise of an interesting mix of brick and render with coloured cladding on the front faỗade, complete with a landscaped plaza which will lead parents, pupils and visitors to the main entrance Internally, pupils will have direct access to a large, bright breakout space from their classrooms and easy access outside to external hard and soft play areas The location plan is shown below Figure Fairfields Primary School location plan Page | Whitehouse Primary School Vaynol Close Whitehouse MILTON KEYNES MK8 1AG The new primary provision at Whitehouse is located off the V4 Watling Street within the western expansion area A new roundabout has been built off the V4 Watling Street to provide Figure 4: Whitehouse Primary School access along a newly constructed road to the school site which also includes new housing development from Bovis Homes, Taylor Wimpy and Abbey New Homes, with further developers still to be announced The new school development sits on an area of 2.13ha and will comprise of a 630 place primary school with a 39 place nursery with associated external playing field, sports pitches and car parking for staff and visitors The layout of the site has made the most of existing hedgerows, trees and a pond which will become part of a new habitat area for the pupils to explore Externally, the building will comprise of an interesting mix of brick and render with coloured cladding on the front faỗade, complete with a landscaped ‘plaza’ which will lead parents, pupils and visitors to the main entrance Internally, pupils will have direct access to a large, bright breakout space from their classrooms and also access outside to their own hard and soft play areas The location plan is shown below Figure Whitehouse Primary School location plan Page | Making an application The DfE’s guidance on establishing a new school: free school presumption, outlines the requirements for the process, which has also been summarised in the following document: A good local school for every child The proposed timeline for this process is outlined below Action Date Advertise opportunities 16 November 2015 Expressions of interest December 2015 A letter addressed to Michael Bracey, Corporate Director People, outlining the school(s) of interest and a commitment from the Trust to open the school(s) on September 2016 This should include confirmation that the Trust is an approved sponsor and registered with the Department for Education The letter must be received no later than midday, and should be sent to: sufficiencyandaccess@milton-keynes.gov.uk Any new proposer, not currently approved by the Department for Education, will need to go through the approval process (before submitting an application) and should contact the Department as soon as possible Inform EOI candidates of progression to complete a full application form By December 2015 Completed applications to be returned by midday to: sufficiencyandaccess@milton-keynes.gov.uk 29 January 2016 Applications to be reviewed by council officers (the council may request to meet with proposing Academy Trusts during this period) February 2016 Delegated Decision by Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Children and School Improvement Due to the restriction imposed by the Department for Education, that any local authority recommendation cannot be made public until the decision of the Secretary of State is made final, this decision will be made in private March 2016 Applications to be referred to Department for Education Tbc The Regional Schools Commissioner will make a decision on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education Tbc The Regional Schools Commissioner will notify the preferred provider Tbc Milton Keynes Council to advise unsuccessful organisations Tbc Statutory consultation (required under section 10 of the Academies Act 2010) Tbc Identified academy trust to enter into a funding agreement with the Secretary of State Tbc School opens September 2016 Page | Page | 10 ... field, hard play areas and car parking for staff and visitors The layout of the site has made the most of the topography of the land and existing trees and hedgerows Externally, the building will... | The sites are offered on a leasehold basis, with a 125 year lease About the development The western expansion area The ‘Western Expansion Area’ is a 450ha area of land located west of V4 Watling... providing relevant information to the local authority relating to admissions and participating in the locally determined Fair Access Protocol The council will collate expressions of interest for a