Ashton Gate Primary to help ease south Bristol primary schools crisis

Ashton Gate Primary School is to take an additional Reception class of 30 children in September to help ease the shortage of primary school places in Bedminster and Southville. 

Bristol City Council has approached the school to ask if it could help with the crisis. The school governors discussed the proposal with council officers at a Full Governing Body meeting earlier this week.

The new class would be fully funded by the local authority in its first year, and the additional cost of setting up the new class – such as supplies and furniture – would be met by one-off funding from Bristol City Council.

The class would stay with Ashton Gate Primary through to Year 6. 

Lloyd Fletcher, Chair of Governors at the school, said: "After extensive and detailed debate, governors voted unanimously to accept the local authority's proposal, in an effort to play our part in helping to reduce this stressful situation in our local community. 

"Governors and school senior management are confident that we can accommodate this additional class without any negative effect on our high standards of teaching and learning at Ashton Gate."

Long term problem

The shortage of primary school places is set to continue for local families in the years ahead.

At a meeting with council representatives on 10 May 2011, parents of children affected by the crisis in the BS3 area were told that, over the next five years, the shortage of primary school places in Bristol could be more than 3000 if current capacity is not expanded.

Craig Bolt, Bristol City Council's Service Director for Education Strategy and Targeted Support, who is responsible for providing solutions to the shortage of school spaces in the city, told those parents that a review was started in the summer of 2010 which has resulted in a School Organisation Strategy published in March of this year. The strategy includes a £500,000 sum allocated for emergency provision for this September.

Admissions criteria

Although an extra class is being provided at Ashton Gate Primary, the current admissions procedure will still apply, which means that there will be no priority given to families who have been offered schools outside the local area and parents of affected children should continue with the current admissions and appeals procedure.