Posted: Sat 16th Sep 2017

Welsh-medium school plans take next step with consultation given go ahead

Wrexham.com for people living in or visiting the Wrexham area
This article is old - Published: Saturday, Sep 16th, 2017

Plans to create a new Welsh-medium school have moved a step closer to becoming a reality, with a consultation on the subject set to launch in weeks.

Members of Wrexham Council’s Executive Board unanimously backed proposals to consult on opening a new Welsh-medium primary school to cater for for 210 pupils.

If the consultation is successful the school would be based at the old Hafod Y Wern school in Caia Park, initially accommodating 15 places for nursery and 15 places for reception classes from September 2019.

Eventually the school would move to the site of Borras infant school, with the pupils in the process of merging into the same building as the juniors.

The annual admission would remain at 15 pupils per year group while the ‘seed school’ remains at Hafod Y Wern.

Speaking at this week’s meeting, lead member for education, Cllr Phil Wynn said: “We recognise there are immediate pressures for provision of Welsh-medium primary school provision within the county, particularly in in the town centre.

“Therefore we have to be creative in our thinking as to how we can address in the issue. Within the Strategic Outline Plan we do indicate we want to fund the delivery of a Welsh primary school in the Borras area.

“The creative thinking is once Borras infants and juniors are on the same footprint, that will free up the infant school that we can utilise as 2-10 on a pupil intake on a permanent basis.

“That is down the line. We still need to have dialogue with Welsh Government to secure funding and there is a planning process we need to go through to address the various issues to grant consent. While this is the aspiration, we cannot guarantee that it is deliverable, but I feel confident that we can.”

However questions were asked on the timescale for the new school, with Cllr Gwenfair Jones stating: “I really welcome the news that we are going to open another Welsh school and will be starting soon. My worry is that it will be another 12 months, why can’t we aim for September 2018 and not 2019.”

The meeting was told due to the consultation and statutory periods required, it would be difficult with school admissions for 2018 having already underway and the lack of guarantee that the school would be open by next year.

Cllr Carrie Harper posed a series of questions to the lead member, largely focusing on the intake numbers and on the final location of the new primary school.

She said: “How is the admission policy going to work? Have you considered the fact if you if put seed school in Caia, you might create a demand there and will children in Caia then get priority for the seed school and potentially the permanent school in Borras?

“It is likely that is what we’re going to see is an increase in demand in the immediate area and then does this address issues in Bro Alun and Plas Coch?”

Cllr Harper added: “On the consultation it is going to be difficult to consulate when you’re stating that the permanent primary school says it is in Borras or a location yet determined. It is pretty open ended and difficult to respond to.

“You’d be expecting a commitment for parents to send their children to a seed school in Caia without any commitment where the school will be located.”

Cllr Wynn said: “We can’t pre judge that Borras will happen, that is our aspirations, and I am pretty confident that we we can deliver it. But if Hafod Y Wern was to be populated from nursery right through year six, if we were taking the 30 intake then by year three we are at capacity and we would not be able to take any other students.

“We have to plan for what we know, which is a 15 intake. But we have aspirations that with Borras it will flip to a 30 intake as and when it is open.

“I don’t want to pre-judge the consultation and I will welcome all the responses that will come in. If we are looking for admission in 2019, we need to get Hafod Y Were after consultation into admissions booklet for parents to consider as a site.”

Contact officer Dafydd Ifans added: “It is a two stage consultation process and the first stage we want to start this month. During the initial consultation we will have some clarity about the 21st century schools bid, which will then allow us to provide more detail around what you’re asking and more clarity on numbers and the final destination of the school will be much clearer..

“We want to try get this off the ground as soon as possible. We will have more clarity as the decision about 21st century schools comes back, which will feed into this.”

He added: “We will come back to members with a proposal for a statutory notices, which will be very clear as to where the school will be situated in the long run and what the intake will be.”

The consultation is scheduled to to take place between 26th September and 7th November.



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