School places at Oldfield School to double

The number of children accepted into reception at Oldfield Primary School is to be doubled from September 2012.

The high pressure decision was made at a Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead cabinet meeting last night to help cope with a growing demand for school places.

The popular school which is constantly oversubscribed will now take in 60 new pupils each year instead of 30.

Members agreed two temporary classrooms should be built on site to cope with the extra pupils in 2012 and 2013 and planning permission will now be sought.

The Chiltern Road school will need to be permanently expanded by September 2014.

A final decision on how this will be done could not be made at the meeting because councillors did not have the full costs for the option preferred by parents and staff.

The Royal Borough had consulted them on three options for how to split the school over two sites.

But there was overwhelming opposition to this as respondents said it would destroy the school spirit and could affect the schools 'outstanding' Ofsted rating.

As a result a fourth option was drawn up to close the Chiltern Road site and build a new, larger Oldfield campus elsewhere.

The proposed sites are in Braywick Meadows, which is on the green belt or in an empty field near the junction of Bray Road and Chalgrove Close.

Cabinet agreed that officers should further investigate options for relocating the entire school and bring a report back to them in March.

Members also agreed:

- To expand the intake at both Clewer Green CE Aided School and St Edward's Catholic First School from 45 to 60 places from September 2013.

- To expand the intake at St Edward's Royal Free Ecumencial Middle School from 93 to 120 places from September 2013.

- To create a conservation area in Furze Platt.

- To create a 12 acre Jubilee Woodland in Shurlock Row, Waltham St Lawrence.

For full coverage of the meeting see next week's Advertiser.