Morehall Primary School

Consultation on proposal a reduction of published admission numbers from 420 to 210

Turner Schools is undertaking a consultation to seek the views of the stakeholders of Morehall Primary about:

• reducing the Year R published admission numbers (PAN) from 60 to 30.

By stakeholders, Turner Schools is referring to the parents, students, feeder schools and nurseries, and service providers including the Local Authority of the Morehall Primary.

Subject to the feedback from the consultation, and pending approval from the Department for Education, we would anticipate a formal change to take effect from September 2023.

Background

Morehall Primary is a non-selective, two form entry primary school with a published capacity for 420 children, which caters for boys and girls of all abilities from ages 2-11. The school joined Turner Schools multi-academy trust on 1 January 2017 and has since received an OFSTED, ‘Good’ rating in October 2019.

The school opened a teacher-led nursery provision for up to 20 places in September 2021 which has proved a huge success with 95% capacity already achieved in some sessions. The nursery complements the school's breakfast and after-school clubs run every day.

The school currently has the following pupils on roll:

Year R 30

Year 1 28

Year 2 20

Year 3 21

Year 4 30

Year 5 23

Year 6 28

Rationale for the change

• The school does not have classroom capacity to admit 2 forms of entry.

• The school does not have non classroom capacity for 420 pupils i.e. playground and dining hall.

• The school currently runs one form of entry in every year group.

• There is an oversupply of primary school places to children within the Folkestone area.

What will change?

With the proposal to reduce the published pupil admission numbers for the school, it is important to state that some things will not change. From a pupil’s or parent’s perspective, there will be:

• No material change to the admissions criteria caused by the reduced published admission numbers.

• No change to the current structure of the school with all years currently being 1 form.

• No change to the curriculum of the school.

• Average form class sizes will not change and will remain at a maximum of 30 pupils.

• No change to leadership, i.e. Miss Am’e Moris will remain Head teacher of Morehall Primary

• Staff will continue to be employed by Turner Schools as they are now.

• Morehall Primary will continue as part of the Turner Schools Multi-Academy Trust, benefitting from its ambitious educational ethos, and from cost effective central services.

• No change to school hours or term times.

• No change to uniforms

The things that will change are:

• The number of published pupil admission from 2022/23 will be reduced by 30 pupils from 60 to 30.

Consultation

We wish to invite interested parties to take part in this consultation on the proposal. The consultation will take place for a minimum of 6 weeks between Thursday 16th December 2021 and Wednesday 25 January 2022.

There are two elements to the consultation. The first, about the proposal to reduce the year R published admission numbers (PAN) from 60 to 30. The second, on the resulting Morehall Primary admissions policy that would result.

We will consult with the parents and other stakeholders for Morehall Primary including:

• parents and carers of children between the ages of two and nineteen;

• other persons in the relevant area who, in the Trust’s opinion, have an interest in the proposed change;

• all admission authorities within the relevant area;

• feeder schools to the academy; and

• partner organisations to the academy.

Your views on any aspect of the proposal will be sent to the Turner Schools Board of Trustees. All responses received by the end of the consultation period will be carefully considered and will form part of a Business Case submitted to the Department for Education for final decision.

We invite you, therefore, to take part in this consultation. Comments may be submitted in the following ways:

• By email to: FD@turnerschools.com

• By completing an online response form at: https://forms.gle/FtRGjzgJeWx4hb2Q7

• In writing via post: Mr David Bowles, Director of Finance and Operations, Morehall Primary, Chart Road, Folkestone. CT19 4PN