Twenty-six responses were received during a five-week consultation on plans for a new primary school in Nantwich – and 24 were in favour, writes Belinda Ryan.
The £3.5m free school is earmarked for land close to Nantwich Town’s Weaver Stadium.
It is needed to cope with rising pupil numbers created by the new Kingsbourne housing development, which will see 1,100 homes built.
The informal consultation, which included local schools, parents, carers, staff, pupils, school governors and trustees as well as the local community, was stage two of the seven-stage DfE free school presumption process for proposing a new school.
One resident who responded, said: “As a mother of a one-year-old on the Kingsbourne estate in Nantwich I am worried about what school my little girl will go to.
“It is important to me that I can walk my child to school, however I am aware that schools closest to us are bursting and it concerns me that she may not get a place.
“The quality of her schooling is also a concern, increasing class numbers will impact the education of our children negatively.”
There were also comments with regard to the facilities.
One resident said: “In building a new school careful thought needs to be given to special needs provision and a strong EYFS (early years foundation stage), including nursery.”
Another said: “I would hope that the new school is going to be eco-friendly.
“Kingsmead Primary School, Northwich, which I have visited, is great example of an ideal primary school.
“Here they have an allotment, water that is collected to flush the loos and, at lunchtime, the teachers all sit with each other and demonstrate how to have basic manners.”
Another referred to the need for provision for children with special needs.
“We would ask for serious consideration to be made of a requirement for the sponsor school to develop a specialist resource provision on the site to address the very high level of SEN within the town,” said the resident.
There were two comments against the proposal.
One asked: “What mandate do you have for the extra 1,100 homes, on top of the many thousands already built on our green fields?”
The other said: “Totally against this proposal.
“It’s hard enough at Malbank opening and closing times with cars parking to pick up and drop off without adding a primary school into the mix.”
Feedback from the consultation will be discussed at next month’s meeting of Cheshire East’s children and families committee.
The committee will then be asked to approve a recommendation to move to stage three of the process and submit a draft specification to the Department for Education.
The council is hoping the proposed 210-pupil primary school will be open by September 2024.
The meeting takes place on Monday January 10, at 10.30am at Crewe Municipal Buildings.
I agree with the point that the school must be eco friendly especially be getting it’s heating system right and setting an example to the local community, perhaps it can plant some suitable trees in it’s grounds to help with carbon absorption.