More school places for Roundhay to be approved

Senior councillors are expected to give the nod to an additional 250 secondary school places being created in the Roundhay area for 2017.

At a meeting of Leeds City Council’s executive board next Wednesday (23 September) members are expected to approve proposals to increase the capacity of the popular Roundhay School from 1250 to 1500 pupils in Years 7 to 11 from September 2017. This will include an initial increase in the Year 7 cohort size from 250 to 300.

Leeds City Council is currently working with schools, residents and partners across the city in areas identified as needing additional places to ensure they can meet their commitment to providing excellent learning places for children and young people in Leeds. Since 2009 Leeds City Council has had an ongoing programme of primary school expansions in place, and now the rising demographic is beginning to impact on secondary schools across the city, especially in the inner north east and inner east areas of the city.

Councillor Lucinda Yeadon, executive board member for children’s services said:

“Leeds is a successful, dynamic and growing city, which has made it an attractive proposition for families to move to. This rapid growth in the population has resulted in a much higher demand for primary school places and this will start to impact on secondary school places from September 2017.

“Our aim is for Leeds to be a child friendly city so we are especially ambitious to offer every child a place at one of their preferred schools. A great deal of work has already taken place to identify and deliver extra capacity around school places, and we continue to work with schools, residents and partners, to find innovative and appropriate solutions to meet this demand.”

Roundhay School is a through school and takes children from 4 to 18 years old. The executive board will be considering proposals to increase the Year 7 cohort size from 250 to 300 following a consultation earlier in the year. In 2019 the first of the children from the primary phase at Roundhay School will transfer into Year 7 - the secondary phase. Therefore the proposed change means the number of additional pupils admitted to the school in Year 7 will be 300 in 2017 and 2018, but will reduce to 240 in 2019 to take into account the pupils already on roll moving into the secondary phase in that year.