Millions of pounds are expected to be pumped into providing 200 more high school places at sites in Liverpool.
In a bid to meet the need for additional secondary school places, Liverpool Council is proposing to invest more than £6m in two schools to create hundreds of new places. A cabinet report earlier this year said by 2026, the city will be 370 places short for year seven pupils.
A cabinet breakdown ahead of its meeting on Friday has detailed how all good and outstanding schools have been asked if they can increase the number of places they offer. As a result, approval is being sought for the second phase of expansion at Archbishop Blanch CofE High School expansion which will create a further 50 places from next year.
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More than £3.8m is being sought to add 150 places at Cardinal Heenan High School in West Derby. Archbishop Blanch has contributed towards the cost of the works which are estimated at £3.3million in total.
The funding will provide for additional teaching spaces and a specialist science lab to meet the curriculum needs of the school as the number of pupils increases. Expansion of Cardinal Heenan will provide a new build of six rooms of various uses and remodelling within the school to repurpose rooms.
While the project will provide additional places for September 2023 it will also provide space for displaced catholic boys from The De La Salle Academy in Croxteth if the school converts to become Dixons Croxteth Academy, which will be a coeducational non faith academy. In addition to the approval for works, cabinet is also expected to sign off on proposals to increase its capital budget by up to 15%, in the event that project costs increase above the approved budget for each scheme and mitigate the risk of delay in the completion.
In September, Jonathan Jones, director of education and skills, told councillors that the city will face a shortfall in places for young people for the next six years. Mr Jones said the local authority was “clutching at every bit of land” it can get to meet the demand.
A debate also broke out about the future of a former fruit and veg site in Old Swan that Liverpool Council has made available for educational use, while the city is also facing pressure from young people coming from outside Liverpool.
Mr Jones wrote in a report that in 2021/22, 1,571 were placed in schools across the city out of more than 2,000 applications. The majority of those were in primary schools, with a third going to secondary.
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