THE NEW year will mean a new school for Wokingham children, as a primary school opens earlier than planned.
St Cecila’s Church of England Primary is part of the new Matthewsgreen development and had been due to open in September next year, but Wokingham Borough Council is bringing it forward to Monday, January 9.
It is a partial opening, and will take up to 90 Key Stage 2 students – those in Years 3, 4, 5, and 6. It will be run by the Keys Academy Trust
The council said it is help meet demand for the juniors’ age group, which has come about due to the large number of families moving into the borough.
Pupils will come from existing schools as well as new entrants.
The premises have passed a pre-registration inspection by Ofsted while the Department for Education has agreed the decision is necessary.
No decision is made on a full opening, which would see capacity increase to 210 including infants’ places, as demand remains lower than expected in other age groups.
The council announced in March, following completion of the building, that the school would not open at the start of this academic year because only a very small number of applicants named it as their first preference. Opening would not have been viable and would have affected capacity at other primaries.
The Keys Academy Trust held a series of open evenings during the summer to welcome prospective parents, with a chance to meet the headteacher, Richard Thomas.
Cllr Prue Bray, executive member for children’s services, said: “We recognise that opening a school in the middle of an academic year is highly unusual, as did the Department for Education, but they agreed this was necessary to relieve pressure on a highly specific type and number of school places.
“We’re very pleased that this is going ahead, so that these children can enjoy the high standard of education they deserve, but would like to assure residents that there is still no need to fully open the school because there still isn’t the demand at this point.
“Our aim remains to offer all local children the opportunity to be educated in the area where they live and we’d like to thank Ofsted, the Keys Academy Trust and the Department for Education for their help in enabling us to continue working our very hardest towards that.
“We look forward to announcing a full opening at St Cecilia’s when the time is right and are confident that the trust will build on the solid track record it has established running eight other highly successful and popular schools in this borough.”
St Cecilia’s was funded by developers building about 2,100 homes in the North Wokingham major new community, part of the council’s current Local Plan to meet Government housing requirements. The authority is campaigning to reform the system and secure a fairer quota for the borough in future.
The council recognises that the trust has done all it can to promote the school and attract interest, and it will continue to be included in the borough’s admissions guide and online application portal.
Developers also funded the adjacent neighbourhood centre, which includes a Your Co-op food store that opened in February, and for which part of the school and community centre car park is now open.
