A PUBLIC consultation has been launched into a major new secondary school in Worcester, but its location remains a mystery.
Worcestershire County Council has started seeking the views of residents after approving a 600-place school, expected to cost around £35million, back in February.
However, the exact location of the school in Worcester is still unknown, meaning residents do not know where the school is that they are commenting on.
A month-long public consultation is being launched to find out what matters most to residents in the delivery of a new school for their children.
As part of the plans, the school will be run by an academy sponsor, which will be appointed in the autumn term of 2021.
The reason for the school, according to the council, is to cope with an increasing demand for school places following the approval of a number of large housing developments in and around Worcester.
Cllr Marcus Hart, cabinet member with responsibility for education and skills, said: “Making sure children across the county have access to good quality education is a long-term priority for the County Council.
“We really want to hear the public and stakeholder views of what is important to you about this exciting project.
“Over the past five years, we have invested in developing facilities at the existing secondary schools in Worcester.
“The level of additional places required now provides us with an opportunity to consider the delivery of a new school.
“The location of the site of any new school will consider several factors including reducing pressure from oversubscribed schools and helping parents to fulfil their preference in choice of secondary school for their children.”
Public responses to the consultation will be used by the council to decide on the exact specifications of the school and what will be needed to help the academy organisation establish it.
The survey runs from May 11 to June 11 and residents can submit their responses online at www.worcestershire.gov.uk/newsecondaryschool.
In February this year, we reported how a cabinet report proposed the new school.
Six locations were proposed for the school by Worcestershire County Council, but the whereabouts of the new school remain a secret.
The need for a new secondary school in the city has not only been brought on by a need to cope with thousands more homes being built but also by the poor choices for parents in other parts of the city.
The new secondary school would need to help alleviate pressure on Nunnery Wood and Tudor Grange as well as improve choice for parents and children in Warndon and Claines, the council said.
There were fewer than 10 year seven places spare across Worcester last autumn – representing a 0.7 per cent surplus and nowhere near the five per cent surplus it would like and according to the council, just 54 per cent of children at Claines CE Primary School received an offer from their first choice secondary school in 2019.
The same can be said for Lyppard Grange Primary School and Oasis Academy in Warndon where just 60 per cent and 67 per cent of children received an offer from their first choice secondary school.
The figures for those primary schools are much below the 2019 average for Worcester which was 85 per cent and the Worcestershire average which was 89 per cent.
Article originally appeared on Worcester News
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