Future of Schooling in Grove and Wantage

Today I attended the County Council's Cabinet Member decision on the future of primary and secondary school provision in Grove and Wantage. I went along to speak as local member and to give some of the background history of the previous consultation when the first decision was made to locate a stand alone secondary school in Grove. This was supposed to come on stream as soon as the Grove Airfield development went ahead. However, as we all know now, this has taken much longer than expected, and indeed other housing developments have been given planning permission in the meantime which has added to the pressures on school places in the area. 

Today, it was agreed that the strategy to provide a secondary school for Grove still continues, but of course, we await further news about the proposals for the airfield and when the developers plan to go ahead. A tentative date has been set on 4th December for the Vale's planning committee to consider this.  I am still awaiting confirmation of this however.

The uncertainty for the Grove Church of England primary school in North Drive has also been addressed today, when the Cabinet member decided to approve the expansion of the school capacity on the current site. Previously, the plans had been to move the current school onto the new airfield development, but with the timing of this still unknown, it was deemed logical now to allow the school to remain where they are, especially as the Monks Farm development has  come into the frame.

The public consultation earlier in the year only received 36 responses, all online, which was actually quite disappointing.  However, 22 of those responses stated a preference for a standalone academy secondary school, as opposed to an extension of King Alfred's.  The head of King Alfred's came along to the meeting today to express his concern about how the school can expect to plan for the future, given the fact that the school currently provides 310 places per year group and that number is growing.

I am sure that this is not the end of the story and the saga will continue.  Since those early days over twenty years ago when I campaigned after losing our school bus from Grove to Wantage, I have continually fought for Grove to have our own stand alone secondary school.  I was delighted when this aim then became Cabinet policy at Oxfordshire County Council.  Today the commitment has been confirmed and I shall keep my watchful eye on the brief and update on any further news.