Parents and interested parties are invited to a public meeting next month (August) to see how they can be involved in the development of the planned new secondary school in the south of the Wokingham Borough.
Earlier this year Wokingham Borough Council’s decision-making executive agreed a Secondary School Provision Strategy, which included a recommendation to open a new secondary school in Arborfield by 2015 or 2016.
The aim of the meeting at The FBC Centre (Finchampstead Baptist Church) on Wednesday August 7, between 7pm and 9pm, is for parents and others with an interest to hear about the proposals and see how they could help drive the planning of the new school.
More secondary school places are needed across the Wokingham Borough to meet the needs of a growing local population, and to accommodate new families moving into the Strategic Development Locations (SDLs) as they are built in the years ahead.
This rise in the number of children and young people is already being felt in the borough’s primary schools. The council’s Primary School Strategy is on track to create 120 new places from this September.
There is no immediate shortage of secondary school places in the Wokingham Borough, but additional year seven places will start to be needed from 2016 onwards.
At the heart of the secondary provision strategy is the new school at Arborfield, to serve the new SDL communities.
The new secondary school at Arborfield would also enable more students of families living in established communities in this part of the borough to have a school nearer to them, and one they could walk to. It would also free up places in other secondaries across the borough who currently take students from the south, so the existing schools can serve the rising numbers of children and young people, including those generated by the north and south Wokingham SDLs.
Cllr Charlotte Haitham Taylor, executive member for children’s services, said: “In the same way as we talked and engaged with parents, the community and local groups right at the start of our Primary School Strategy we want to do the same for the secondary one.
“Parents, local groups and the community must be at the heart of how these plans are shaped and driven forward.”
The FBC Centre is at Gorse Ride North, Finchampstead, RG40 4ES. To book a place at the meeting, please email [email protected] or call (0118) 974 6105.
Further details will be available at the meeting, but a copy of the Secondary School Strategy can also be downloaded from the council’s website at www.wokingham.gov.uk/schools/organisation
Updates and news about the strategy will also be regularly posted on the council’s Wokingham Borough schools Facebook page.