Have your say on changes to schools in the Woburn Sands area
Thursday, 23 January 2020
We've launched a public consultation on proposals to change schools in the Woburn Sands area.
This is part of the Schools for the Future programme to ensure that the area has the right schools, in the right places delivering the best education to children.
The Schools for the Future programme will cover the whole of Central Bedfordshire but will be delivered in stages, in line with the needs of each community.
The Woburn Sands area contains five lower schools and Fulbrook Middle School.
All the schools in the area have been working collectively with each other and us to develop a proposal that would move the schools to a primary/secondary system. This will mean in the future that pupils will be able attend both primary and secondary school in their local area.
Under the proposals, Fulbrook Middle School would initially become an extended secondary school, before changing to a secondary school.
Swallowfield and Aspley Guise lower schools would become primary schools, while Husborne Crawley, Ridgmont and Woburn lower schools would work together as soon as possible as a federation with the goal of coming together as a single primary school on one site.
If the proposal is agreed, changes would take place between 2022 and 2024.
Our Executive Member for Families, Education and Children, Councillor Sue Clark, said:
Through the Schools for the Future programme, we are committed to improving education outcomes for young people, while also increasing the capacity of the schools, allowing them to accommodate more pupils.
We have been working with the schools in the Woburn Sands area to develop a proposal that would provide a great education for pupils in the future, while giving parents and young people more choice to attend a school nearer to where they live.
At present, the area does not have an upper school, and this means that children usually have to travel to Leighton-Linslade. Fulbrook Middle School has already consulted on changing its age range and we are very happy to support them in their ambition to become a secondary school, because it is absolutely the right thing to do for residents in the Woburn Sands area.
The consultation is open now and runs until 5pm on 15 April 2020.
Visit the Schools for the Future website to have your say.