Wokingham Borough Council leaders have pledged to act ‘as quickly as possible’ to address emerging school place shortages in the town.
Council leaders have recommended creating new school spaces in Shinfield as early as next year. It comes after an executive report highlighted that the borough is facing ‘challenges’ to deliver enough secondary school places.
Shinfield and Arborfield are experiencing a ‘strain’ with demand for school places, as areas that have experienced high levels of new housing.
Both areas that have thousands of homes planned under Wokingham’s recently approved local plan.
In Shinfield, there is an ‘emerging shortfall in provision for all age groups’, which reflects ‘the impact of housebuilding locally’.
Executive member for children’s services councillor Prue Bray said that the council had to move ahead as quickly as possible to resolve this’.
Speaking at a council leaders meeting on Thursday, September 26, Cllr Bray said: “We have a bulge in the number of children, and that bulge is currently working its way through secondary and the last years of primary.”
While some challenges are presented for secondary places, there are ‘considerably fewer’ coming in to the lower levels of primary, creating a surplus.
She further said that the council would act to address parent’s concerns over the performance of a school in Shinfield, Oakbank.
Councillor Vishal Srinivasan, ward member for Shinfield, raised the issue at a recent full council meeting.
A week later, Cllr Bray told executive members that some parents had not been choosing the school, but that this was not contributing to the shortage in that particular ward.
