Thousands more Staffordshire school places need to be found
Thousands of extra primary school places need to be created in Staffordshire in the next two years because of a continuing baby boom in the county.
Pupil rolls are expected to swell by 5,000 children by 2014/15. Council bosses are now planning to set aside £500,000 to allow schools to create extra classes. Schools will be able to apply for a slice of the funding.
Council leader Councillor Philip Atkins said today: "The bottom line is we have to plan ahead as there is such a short timeline between an increase in births and extra school places being needed.
"There has been an increase in births this year and we are told there will be next year – whether that is down to the Olympics or something else, I don't know.
"When birth rates go up we have a maximum of four to five years to prepare for the inevitability of those children reaching school age."
A report on the situation will be presented to headteachers and governors at the Staffordshire Schools' Forum next week.
Hundreds of school places are eventually expected to be provided by a new school in Stafford, but it is not expected to open until 2015/16. It will cater for soldiers' families as 1,200 troops are due to transfer to MOD Stafford by 2015.
