New secondary school in Bedford could be open for 2027


Chris Morris, chief officer for education, SEND, and school infrastructure, informed the Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday (July 9), that Bedford borough was flagged by the Department for Education (DfE) as an area with a “great need” for secondary school places.
“It wasn’t just highlighted, we [as a council] knew,” he said.
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Hide AdHe explained that the new rules for establishing free schools require fulfilling a genuine need for additional school places.
In 2018, Advantage Schools Trust was awarded a free school in St. Neots, but local authorities later argued that there was no need for more school places in that area at the time.
As a result, the school was left without a location.
“[We told the DfE] we could do with some secondary school places, and asked if there any chance that they could award [this school] to Bedford borough?
“We were delighted that in March of this year the secretary of state for education at the time agreed with that proposal, and agreed to award us St Neots Free School, which is really confusing when you call it that because it’s free school programme in Bedford borough,” he said.
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Hide AdThe council put forward a site it owned in the west of Bedford which is now subject to DfE feasibility investigations.
“Location wise, we know the growth is coming through and it won’t disrupt local schools,” Mr Morris said.
“We are currently working with the DfE towards a 2027 opening. There’s a few hurdles still to go beforehand.”
The committee heard that it will be a five form entry secondary school. That’s 150 pupils per year, which is relatively small for a secondary school,” Mr Morris said.
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Hide Ad“But it’s actually one of the reasons why it was so attractive to us, because it’s probably about the right size of what we need for a new school.
“Obviously, if something significantly changes and we suddenly have loads of children we can’t accommodate then we’ll have a different conversation.
“But our pupil place planning and our five-year plan projections suggests that we should be ok,” he said.
A Department for Education blog says free schools are a type of academy – schools that are run by charities rather than the local authority (council) and cannot be run for financial profit.
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