School to appeal after being denied expansion

A SCHOOL has appealed against a decision to refuse it permission to increase its roll.

The Heights Primary School in Caversham Heights applied to Reading Borough Council in July 2023 to increase its pupil numbers from 350 to 420.

Councillors rejected the application, saying it would negatively impact other schools in the area.

However, the Bellevue Place Education Trust, which has run the school since December 2023, has now appealed to the Planning Inspectorate to review this decision.

The trust says that the current cap of 25 pupils per class was not financially sustainable and was depriving the school of £25,000 per class in income.

It says: “The Heights is one of Reading’s best schools and has waiting lists for every year group.

“Budget challenges have driven this application, along with our state-of-the-art facilities being able to accommodate 30 pupils per class, with no extra investment necessary to expand this provision.

“Since the school was established in 2014, and became full in 2021, we have found that 25 pupils per class does not provide the school with financial
sustainability.

“The rising costs of staffing and premises, coupled with squeezed budgets, does not allow the Heights to thrive financially and the loss of £25,000 per class in income has become significant.”

The trust says that expanding the school would allow it to reduce waiting lists for every year level.

The increase in pupil numbers would require no extra facilities for the school as it is already equipped to cater for 30 children per class. The trust says: “We feel that the increase in capacity is a change that can be easily accommodated for the long-term financial security of the school.

“This will bring the Heights in line with the class size capacity for every other local state school.

“In addition, and just as importantly, it will extend the excellent education offer to 10 more local families per year group in the Caversham Heights area.

“The school has waiting lists for every year group, it has been judged outstanding by Ofsted twice and it has been named one of the best schools in Reading by local press.

“The only barrier to increasing the class size is a condition in our planning permission.

“We are appealing the planning committee’s decision not to increase our capacity of the site from 350 to 420 pupils.

“We look forward to our appeal being considered for this proposed increase.” The school was started in 2014 by Karen Edwards, the founding headteacher, and was intended to address a shortage of school places in the area.

It initially occupied temporary accommodation in Westfield Road Park before being granted planning permission in 2018 to build its permanent site at Mapledurham playing fields on the provision the number of pupils would be capped at 350.

In October, the school received an “exceptional” rating from Ofsted following an inspection.

In its refusal of the application, the council said that there wasn’t a “clear and evident” need for more pupil places in the borough and in fact the projections showed there was likely to be a surplus of primary spaces over the following five years.

Final comments on the appeal by the trust and the council are due by July 7.