Fresh anger as delayed Leamington school to be opened without a sixth form

Parents are outraged that a long-promised Bishop’s Tachbrook school will be opened at least a year late and without a sixth form.

Warwick and Leamington MP Matt Western has joined in the criticism of Conservative-run Warwickshire County Council (WCC) which he says has “failed the area’s children”.

An email to Mr Western from the council appeared to confirm no sixth form places will be available at the proposed Oakley Grove school when it opens.

Residents of the nearby estate, off Harbury Lane, say they were promised a convenient school for their children as a condition for the homes receiving planning permission from Warwick District Council.

But WCC announced in March that the school would not be ready for pupils until 2024 – a year later than initially planned.

A campaign group, including more than 200 disgruntled parents, has slammed the council over plans to send children to Myton school in Warwick for a year before they move to the new school.

Its members are concerned that, in addition to a year of disrupted learning, they will now have to wait several more years before post-16 education is offered at the school.

Its leading member and mum-of-two Jenny Bevan, said: “WCC took its eye off the ball some years ago when it failed to plan ahead for the surge in demand for school places caused by the new housing developments south of Warwick and Leamington.

“Now families are paying the price with a long delayed, much compromised school.

“It makes me worried there won't be enough local sixth form places for our children because yet again no one is looking far enough ahead.”

In the email to Mr Western, WCC said: “Whilst WCC acknowledges that additional sixth form capacity is not an immediate requirement in the area, by investing in this sixth form provision (at Myton school), it was considered it would be highly unlikely that there would be a requirement to add post-16 provision at the new Oakley Grove school and therefore the view was that funding allocated to the project was an investment that would save additional costs in the future.”

Parents and Mr Western have already called on WCC to immediately start building the new school on the “more accessible”, flat site next to Harbury Lane and the junction of Oakley Wood Road which is currently set aside for 150 “needless” new homes.

They say this would resolve the disagreement with the landowner over the transfer of the, more distant, sloping site developer AC Lloyd secured for the school.

Mr Western said: “Both council’s must put children’s educations before profit and cancel the 150-home development and begin work on the school immediately in its place.

“It’s more important now after we’ve been told there will be no sixth form either.

“If the school was built on the site intended for the homes it could be built in time for 2023 and no child would have their learning affected.”

Mr Western points to research which found - at the current trajectory of applications granted and sites earmarked for development - almost 4,000 more homes than needed could be built in Warwick district by 2029.