Warwick primary school plans to halve number of pupils it takes in from 2025 to achieve 'better financial stability'

A Warwick primary school plans to halve the number of pupils it takes in from 2025 in order to achieve “better financial stability”.

Newburgh Primary School in Kipling Avenue is one of three schools that Warwickshire County Council has earmarked for reduced capacity based on low intake figures and projected future need.

Schools work from a published admission number (PAN) which reflects the number of pupils which can be accommodated in each year group without causing problems.

The plan is to reduce the scope for annual intake at Newburgh Primary School from 60 to 30 from the start of the academic year 2025-26 – beginning in September 2025.

The county council, the body responsible for the school and for ensuring that all of Warwickshire’s children have a school place, has to hold a six-week public consultation on the matter, something that was signed off by Councillor Kam Kaur, the portfolio holder for education, on Wednesday.

It was a delegated decision, meaning it was taken at the stroke of a pen rather than in a meeting open to the public.

The report accompanying that decision cited “fluctuating intake numbers at Newburgh Primary School” in recent years “due to parental preference where surplus places are usually available in alternative schools within the planning area”.

It adds: “The proposed change seeks to assist the school to plan for long-term stability, a consistent structure and a sustainable financial position.

“If agreed, a reduction of the PAN to 30 will support the school’s organisation long term, reducing the overall number of classes and teachers that will be required, thus allowing for better financial stability.”

It says that the school and governing body requested the change for those reasons with the local authority’s forecast supporting the PAN reduction for 2025 entry but notes that “there is no proposed reduction in the physical capacity of the school buildings”, meaning “the option remains for the school to increase the PAN in the future should pupil numbers increase in the local area”.

The PAN at Kingsbury Primary School in Kingsbury, is proposed to reduce from 45 to 30.

The Dassett Church of England Primary School in Fenny Compton, is set to drop from 30 to 15.

Those changes are also proposed to kick in from September 2025, subject to the same consultation process.