‘Provision of SChool places in plymPton

This Council expresses its concern that some Plympton children who are approaching five years of age have not been allocated a primary school place in Plympton despite living in Plympton.

This Council notes that the former Cabinet Member for Children and Young People and her department failed to notify Plympton councillors of this grave situation.

Council calls on the new Cabinet Member for children and young people to urgently address the provision of an additional form of entry at one of the Plympton primary schools.’

(a)

children were required to attend schools where the mode of travel would be two buses or a taxi;  

(b)

the situation would worsen with the development of Sherford next year; 

(c) 

ward councillors had not been advised of the issues at the Plympton schools;

(d)

a decision had been taken to expand Woodford School but that the expansion plans had not yet been made available to ward councillors;

(e)

the Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Public Health acknowledged the stress caused to parents but advised that, through the schools’ admissions process, they had been encouraged to nominate three schools and not all had chosen to do that.  Not all parents had submitted their form by the deadline.  The Council followed the published admissions criteria but all the schools in Plympton were oversubscribed.  The children were currently on waiting lists for the school of their preference.  She emphasised that, on paper, there was a school place for every rising five.  However, the Plympton schools, having accepted children from outside of Plympton, now had an obligation to receive their siblings, which reduced capacity for children living in Plympton;

(f)

the former Cabinet Member for Children and Young People was not present to defend herself;

(g)

the current capital programme provided for two new schools at Honicknowle and Derriford.