Warwickshire County Council has approved funding of £13.4 million for the delivery of a new primary school at Myton Gardens, Warwick.
The new school – likely to open in September 2024 - will meet the need for school places as a result of the large-scale 4,500 home housing development in the area.
Myton Gardens School is expected to provide a Two form entry primary school providing a further 420 school places in the South Leamington and Warwick area as well as an additional 32 Early Years (0-4years) places and 8-14 Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) places. It will have capacity to expand to three form entry, potentially 630 pupils.
The school will also have vehicular access and car parking configured to enable the potential expansion of the neighbouring Evergreen Special School.
Myton Gardens School is the third of four new schools in the area. The first, Heathcote Primary, opened in September 2017. The second primary provision is to be the all-through provision at Oakley School which is due to open in September 2024.
The fourth is proposed as part of the Asps housing development and the expected opening date is still to be determined.
Cllr Peter Butlin, portfolio holder for finance and property, said: “Ensuring there is sufficient funding available to meet demand for school places takes prudent planning. Capital projects are prioritised and can be moved forwards in line with grant funding so that we stay ahead of the demands for places.”
Councillor Kam Kaur, Portfolio Holder for Education at Warwickshire County Council, said: “We want children to have access to first-class local schools wherever they live in Warwickshire, and so developing more school places where they are needed is a key priority of the County Council.
“This is a particularly exciting venture. As well as being future-proof in terms of its capacity to expand and accommodate a further form of entry, the design of Myton Gardens School will also offer potential for collaboration with the neighbouring special provision at Evergreen, in line with our ambition to increase the attendance at mainstream schools of some of our SEND pupils."
The new school will be opened via the free school presumption route and therefore this project will be delivered and funded by the County Council. As part of this process, a competition will be undertaken in the coming months for Multi-Academy Trusts to bid for the opportunity to operate the new school. The successful Trust will be appointed in Spring 2023.