Rugby primary school introduces £190,000 temporary classroom to deal with rising demand for places

A primary school in Rugby will have a temporary classroom built at a cost of £190,000 to deal with rising demand for places.

The provision for Eastlands Primary School, Lansdowne Place, Rugby, is being put up for two years to create an additional 30 places for pupils who move into year five from September 2023.

The school is within Rugby’s most problematic area for primary school availability – Rugby North Central – where a county report from November 2022 highlighted “significant pressure for places across all year groups”, citing the development of 6,000 new homes on the Mast Site, Houlton, which will "eventually" see three new primary schools created.

A report from Emma Basden-Smith, education planning manager at Warwickshire County Council, highlights the current problems.

“Large scale housing development across Rugby town increases the number of families moving into the area and consequently the number of applications for school places,” it read.

“This gradually reduces the number of places available as cohorts move through the primary year groups. It has been identified that with the growth in the current year four cohort in Rugby town, to ensure sufficient year five places are available into the 2023-24 academic year it is proposed to create an additional 30 places at Eastlands Primary School.

“Given the short time frame to put the accommodation in place in readiness for September 2023 and the short-term arrangement for the provision, hiring the accommodation rather than purchasing a solution provides the most cost effective solution in this instance.”

The budget of £190,000 will cover the delivery, hire, installation and connection of the temporary structure, plus planning, fees, computers, furniture and some wiggle room for unexpected costs.

It comes after a £15 million-plus programme of capital spending on schools, which included new projects, increased special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision and added spend on existing projects affected by inflation, was approved by the county’s cabinet in March to address growing school capacity needs.

This latest project was signed off by deputy leader and portfolio holder for finance and property Councillor Peter Butlin (Con, Admirals & Cawston) on Wednesday.