New academy trust Wembley Secondary SEND School at Planning Committee tonight

 

Brent Council is keen to save money by reducing the need for paying for places outside of Brent and the associated travel costs to provide for the borough's special educational needs pupils and those with disabilities.

Conservative government legislation means that councils cannot build and run new schools themselves (they favour academy trusts) so the council's need has fitted in neatly with the expansionist aspirations of the Rise Partnership Trust LINK, with its own CEO,  that currently runs Manor School and Avenue School.

The school name on the planning application going to Planning Committee tonight is Wembley Manor which confusingly was the name of the infant and junior schools in East Lane changed after merger and expansion to Wembley Primary.

The school would provide 150 much needed secondary places in a site tucked away at the end of London Road and the foot of Ark Elvin playing fields:

The application site is situated at the eastern end of London Road. The northern end of the existing site contains the Ansar Youth Centre (formally known as the Wembley Youth Centre) and its associated car parking and open space. The east of the site contains a large area of hardstanding previously used as car parking and the now demolished Dennis Jackson Centre. The central and eastern elements of the site previously formed a part of the Copland School site, but were fenced off and hard surfaced for parking many years ago and did not form a part of the Ark Elvin playing fields when this was redeveloped.

 

The immediate surrounding area is predominantly terraced residential dwellings, the site is to the north of the Wembley Brook watercourse, which separates the subject site from the railway to the south. The land surrounding the brook is designated as a wildlife corridor as well as a Site in Nature Conservation (SINC). It is not within a conservation area and there are no listed buildings within the site’s curtilage. The site adjoins the Ark Elvin School playing field to the north and east.

 

The site is accessed from the existing access point from London Road, there is a well established footpath that provides access at two different points from the site which have links to the High Road and further down towards Stonebridge Park.

The area is controversial locally because of the loss of the open space, known as Copland Fields, after the academisation of Copland School, to public access. It is now fenced off with the land also going to Elsley and St Joseph's schools. The site is close to the railway bridge used by Elsley, Ark Elvin and Lyon Park pupils (and still in a terrible statement despite campaigns by local councillors and parents).

Previous history of the open land:

https://wembleymatters.blogspot.com/2015/10/ark-elvin-land-grab-to-be-decided-at.html

https://wembleymatters.blogspot.com/2015/10/does-butts-interference-with-ark-elvin.html

https://wembleymatters.blogspot.com/2020/06/loss-of-copland-fields-mourned-as.html

The new school would also be on what was previously open space, some of which had been converted to hard space by the previous school. (see plan above).

The development of the school will mean the significant  loss of mature trees and the officers' report for the Committee goes into that in some detail and worth setting out here for the record (my emphasis) :

The combined canopy cover of the lost trees is 1650sqm, which is proposed to be replaced on site with a total of 23 new trees to be planted. On the assumption that the replacement trees are extra heavy standard trees (14-16cm trunk girth), the canopy radius will be approx. 1.0m (so 2.0m across) which equates to an area of approx. 3.142m2 at time of planting. This would mean that to replace the total canopy loss that the scheme would need to plant around 525 trees to compensate the canopy area lost as a result of the development. Given the constraints of the site, it would not be possible to plant this number of replacement trees. The policy also highlights that another option is for a financial contribution for off-site tree planting of equivalent canopy cover will be sought.

The typical cost of planting an off site tree is around £2,500. Therefore this would account to an off site contribution of around £1.3m. Such a cost is likely to significantly impact on the delivery [sic] of delivering the new school. Nevertheless, the applicant is proposing to plant 8 trees off site within the southern end of the Ark Elvin Playing Field. Such details could be conditioned any forthcoming consent as Brent owns this land.

Given the significant benefits of the proposal to provide much needed SEND school places within the Borough, the benefits associated with the proposal are considered to outweigh the harm as a result of the loss of the trees

 

 There is a cottage on the site that is surrounded by trees and accessed from London Road. The resident claimed in an objection to the scheme that this access road was private but officers state it belongs to Brent Council. 

That is the only objection recorded on the portal although the officers' report does make reference to a previous plan to build 170 units of housing on the site. See Wembley Matters article HERE. However, as the land was designated for educational use because of the youth clubs, permission to build on it would have to be given by the Department for Education, which is unlikely given the rising demand for special school places.

 

 The proposed building

 

Planning officers recommend approval of the application:

 

Following the above discussion, officers consider that taking the development plan as a whole, the proposal is considered to accord with the development plan, and having regard to all material planning considerations, should be approved subject to conditions.

 

The proposal would result in the provision of a new SEND secondary for which there is a significant identified need within the Borough. The new school building would be on land designated as open space which forms a part of the former Copland School site and is not publicly accessible open space, but other open areas are proposed within the grounds of the new SEND school. The proposal would result in the loss of existing trees within the site and while more trees will be planted than will be lost, the canopy at planting will not meet or exceed the canopy size of existing trees. The proposal also results in the demolition of community buildings.

 

However, a community access plan will be secured and new community facilities are also to be provided by Council at the Wembley Housing Zone site on the corner of Cecil Avenue and the High Road. Overall, the impacts associated with the proposed development are considered be outweighed by the planning benefits associated with the proposal and it is recommended that planning permission is granted.

 

 

Additional 27 places for Manor School Satellite at Newman Catholic College

Brent's Director for Property and Assets has approved a variation of the Council's contract with McAvoy Group to build extra SEND provision at Newman Catholic College.

The variation will provide an additional 27 places to the 36 originally planned and will cost £411,624.15.

The satellite provision will be run by Manor School.

The provision will remain in place until the new SEND provision in London Road, Wembley is ready to be occupied - originally expected in 2024/25. 

BREAKING NEWS: DfE 'turn down' The Village School MAT proposal

Over 110 staff were on strike for 11 strike days

From Brent National Education Union

We are informed that the Department for Education (DfE) has turned down the proposal for The Village school, a special school in Kingsbury, Brent, to form a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) with Woodfield Academy. They say the MAT is not big enough.

A source from within the DfE informed Hank Roberts, NEU Joint Executive member and local NEU NUT section president of the shocking news.

Hank Roberts said:

This shows monumental incompetence on the part of the Governors, in particular the Executive Head Kay Charles and the Chair of Governors, Sandra Kabir who drove this project forward despite overwhelming opposition of staff, parents and the community.

The whole deeply flawed MAT idea should now be dropped. Brent Council should also use this opportunity to publicly reiterate its call for The Village school to remain a Local Authority school.

Kay Charles had written to Roberts on 7^th March stating:

Your speculation around the size of a potential Multi Academy Trust is in error. There is only discussion about Woodfield School and The Village setting up a MAT together, no other schools are being considered.

Hank Roberts continued:

 So it is clear that it was only these two schools they were consulting on. It would be shameful, if any attempts are made to go secretly scrabbling around in an attempt to find other schools to join them enabling them to make a different proposal, without a full consultation on what would be a new proposal.

Further, the NEU are studying documents that may well prove that there have been financial irregularities at one of the schools.  

Cllr Jumbo Chan, a Brent Labour councillor said:

The unnecessary decision by the majority of The Village School governing body to become an academy as part of a multi-academy trust was an unpopular one which defied a broad coalition of teachers and support staff, parents and campaigners, so it is very welcomed news that this proposal [may now be/has been] rejected.

I was incredibly proud to have supported The Village School’s outstanding, inspirational and passionate teachers and support staff from the onset of their winter campaign. As we now move forward, it is of utmost importance that any popular view is more robustly reflected and enforced.

 

NOTE I have raised the possibility that all special (non-mainstream) provision in Brent could end up academised if The Village proposal went ahead LINK. Woodfield, Manor and The Village co-operated in setting up The Avenue special free school which will eventually expand to 100 pupils. The Avenue and Manor form the Brent Specialist Academy Trust.  Woodfield is already an academy. 

The statements above by Kay Charles and Hank Roberts are important in that the DfE's opposition on grounds of size could be overcome if all four schools combined in the Brent Specialist Academy Trust.

Brent academies propose new free school and special schools a new free special school

With the present government snot allowing local authorities to build new schools to meet growing demand for school places, Brent Council has said it will pursue options with academy and free school providers.

As all local secondary schools are academies it is unable to force them to expand on existing sites. Now local academies that are not part of a chain have claimed they have been backed by Brent Council in proposing a new secondary free school in the north of Brent.

Separately a consortium of special schools have forward a bid for a new special school to meet growing demand. This also claims to be backed by the Council.

In both cases a headteacher will be appointed from an existing school and will head up the new school in addition to their present post.

Both bids will have to be approved by the DfE.

The secondary proposal is for Brent North School in the north of Brent/Wembley area and is backed by Terry Molloy, headteacher of Claremont High School; Mike Hulme headteacher of Queens Park Community School and Gil Bal, Executive headteacher of Wembley High Technology College. Gil Bal would me headteacher of the new school in addition to her role at Wembley High.

The proposers have no site in mind at the moment and readers will know the difficulties various free schools have had in finding a site in Brent. A site in the north of Brent will add to the imbalance of schools between the north and the south of the borough.

Wembley already has Ark Elvin (previously Copland), Ark Academy, Michaela Free School,  Preston Manor and Wembley High with the new 1,000 plus private French School also in the area. Elsewhere in the north of the borough there is Claremont, Kingsbury High and St Gregory's RC - the only non-academy. The Jewish Free School, situated in Kingsbury, takes few pupils from Brent.

Despite not having a site the school intends to open in September 2018 with 180 places for Year 7 pupils. It promises to admit children of 'all faiths and none, giving priority to siblings and children at local primary schools'.

The proposers  justify the need for a new school on the basis that Claremont, Queens Park and Wembley High collectively received over 3000 applications for Year 7 in 2016, including almost 1,000 first preferences for the 670 available places.

This is their brochure:


The second proposal is for a new special school and is led by Woodfield Special School Academy, Manor School and the Village School. This may prove to be controversial as there are many who want to see special needs pupils integrated into mainstream schools rather than segregated into special provision. This is dependent on resourcing that ensure high quality provision.

The school would be sited at the junction of Christchurch Avenue and Brondesbury Park NW6 which is possibly the same site that Marylebone Boys Free School had their eye on. LINK

It would provide 100 places for children aged between 4 and 18 with complex needs including ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder). The proposers say that the school is needed because the existing special schools are full.

Ms Jardine, Head of Manor School, would be headteacher of the new school in addition to her existing post.

This is their brochure: