Cotswold school places
The County Council has a statutory duty to plan the provision of school places and to ensure there are sufficient, appropriately located places for all 4 to 16 year old young people in the County. This includes the commissioning of suitable school accommodation to support the promotion of high-quality educational standards and to ensure vulnerable learners get fair access to educational opportunities. The County Council manages the impact of rising and declining pupil numbers and helps to create a diverse community of schools.
See below for the latest updates on all of our school projects in the Cotswolds:
Ongoing projects
A new school in Chesterton (The Steadings Development)
There is an identified need to establish a new 3 forms of entry primary school, with Early Years facilities, following a housing development (The Steadings) of 2,300 new homes planned on land in Chesterton, Cirencester. Under the terms of the S106 agreement the temporary accommodation and new school will be funded and delivered by the developer, Bathurst Developments Ltd (BDL).
A competition was carried out to find a sponsor for the new school and following a selection process, the Regional Schools Commissioner announced in September 2019 that the preferred sponsor for the new school is Corinium Education Trust.
The new school that will be situated on the Steadings Development will offer 630 primary school places. The school will be opened initially on a host site in September 2024, moving to its permanent site in September 2026 when the building has been delivered. The school will open in a phased manner, allowing it to grow gradually to accommodate pupils as the new housing comes on line.
GCC is currently working with BDL and Corinium Education Trust on the temporary accommodation for September 2024.
Siddington Primary to open its doors to the pupils of The Steadings
Siddington C of E Primary School plans to welcome pupils from The Steadings, the new neighbourhood within Cirencester, for a minimum of two years from September 2024 while the primary school at the heart of The Steadings is being built.
The Corinium Education Trust will run The Steadings’ primary school to meet the demand for additional school places in Cirencester as the neighbourhood develops. Initially, the school will be run from a temporary site at Siddington C of E Primary before it moves to its permanent location currently planned for 2026.
The Corinium Education Trust is working closely with Gloucestershire County Council and the site developers, Bathurst Development Ltd (BDL) to ensure that any temporary accommodation for the new school provides a permanent legacy building for its host in the form of a new multi-purpose hall.
Following local consultation held on 31st March 2022, BDL expects to make a formal planning application in early Summer 2022; with construction work anticipated to start in Summer 2023. If you were unable to make the event, you can still comment on the plans and provide feedback by completing the feedback form by April 28 2022.
For more information, please visit The Steadings - Cirencester (thesteadingscirencester.co.uk) and Bathurst Development Legacy build | Siddington Church of England Primary School or contact Chiquita Henson, Chief Executive, The Corinium Education Trust c.henson@coriniumeducationtrust.net or 01285 653447 (Cirencester Deer Park School).
The Cotswold School
The Cotswold School has been expanded by one form of entry. Work included a new 10 classroom teaching block and a sports hall extension.
Bourton-on-the-Water Primary School
A scheme was developed and split into phases in order to allow the school to function as normally as possible whilst work took place.
Phase 1 - consisted of extending the hall, providing a new kitchen, servery and store and to bring one of the classrooms (being used as a dining area) back into use.
Phase 2 - was to allow the school to operate more effectively with an increased capacity. Work took place around the entrance to the school and provides a more natural frontage to allow better flow of pupils in and out of the building.
Phase 3 - is to expand the school to 1.5FE. Work will include providing two new classrooms, moving the nursery and turning the old nursery into a classroom.
The capacity before the work started was 210 pupils now the capacity has increased to 259 pupils.
Cirencester Primary School
Work started in May 2019 to replace the life-expired Early Years block/hall. Some remodelling, refurbishment and rearrangement will also take place internally to make better use of accommodation in line with School Development Plan, including:
- Remodelling the current dining room into two EYFS classrooms
- Providing a new school hall/kitchen in a new permanent building, located in part of the current playground
- Demolishing the old EYFS/hall building and reinstating ground as outdoor play area
- Other internal modifications to relocate some classrooms/Reception
- Remodelling and refurbishing main toilet area
Work is due to finish in February 2020.
Completed projects
Mickleton Primary School
Work at Mickleton Primary School has included new classrooms and internal modifications to the old nursery room as you can see from the above pictures.
Work was completed on time and within budget in February 2019.
The Rissington School
Due to an increased demand for places in Reception, mainly due to local housing development, the school will expand from a 1 form of entry to a 1.5 form of entry from September 2019. The additional accommodation required to facilitate this increase is being provided as follows:
- Refurbishment of staff room to accommodate new Reception class
- 2 additional classrooms and additional toilets
- Extension to re-provide staff room
The project is currently on time and due for completion in February 2019.
Slimbridge Primary School
Work involved some refurbishment of the Group room/break out space, replacement of toilets and changing some use of rooms for more storage.Work finished at the end of November 2019, on time and on budget.
Fairford C of E Primary School
Due to housing development and increased demand for school places in the Fairford area, from September 2019 the school increased their reception intake from 30 pupils to 45 pupils. In order to accommodate this expansion, works included two key stage one classrooms, two rooms for pre-school provision, a new hall and other core facilities. The work was completed on time and on budget.
Paternoster School
As part of our £100 million investment into our county's schools, we have built four new classrooms and improved accessibility for pupils at Paternoster school. On Friday 30 November 2018, the school celebrated the completion of the work.
The work involved replacing and remodelling the older parts of the building and constructing a new, larger two storey extension in its location.
This has provided the school with four classrooms which include a group room, classroom store, wheelchair store, and accessible outdoor areas; purpose built hoisting facilities and disabled WC and hygiene room facilities to better support pupils at the school.
All pupil areas are at ground floor level and a lift has been installed for access to the staff and support areas upstairs. The building is also equipped with a new admin office and reception areas.
Chipping Campden School
Chipping Campden School is in the process of building a sizeable extension to its Sixth Form Centre in order to accommodate the growing number of post-16 students choosing to join the school.
Alongside the refurbishment of the current facility the new Sixth Form Centre will provide study facilities for over 300 Sixth Form students, a bespoke sixth form cafeteria and two new classrooms.
The work is due to be completed in March 2019.
The Cotswold School
The building works started in April 2017 and completed November 2017, both on time and within budget. The building connects the existing geography block and provides staff offices, 2 breakout / meeting rooms, a large 6th form multi-use common room and a large 6th form study room.
The new build was required to increase space to accommodate the increase in 6th form pupils attending The Cotswold School. The new 6th form provides capacity for up to 280 6th form students and the old 6th form common room was then converted to an additional science laboratory, which was much needed to meet the curriculum needs of the 11-16 year olds.
The old 6th form study room was re-used to provide additional teaching space and to also be used as a study room for year 11’s during their revision periods for GCSE’s.