Consultation on proposal to increase the capacity and age range of The Coppice Spring Academy

The Coppice Spring Academy is currently an oversubscribed, 70 place special school for 11-16 year olds catering for pupils with social, emotional and mental health needs.

The proposal is to increase capacity and lower the age range by adding an additional 8 places for students in year 5 or 6 (aged 10/11 years old). This will give an overall capacity of 78 places at The Coppice Spring Academy.

To accommodate the increased number of places, it is proposed that a part of the building adjacent to The Coppice Spring Academy, known as Broad Oaks, will be re-designed and leased to the school for use as a Primary setting. The proposed works will include comprehensive refurbishment of the designated areas to provide an appropriate learning environment. The primary pupils will also access specialist areas such as science, music and dining on the main Coppice site.

Reason for proposal

Both Catch 22 Multi-Academy Trust and Hampshire County Council are committed to expanding successful provision where possible to meet demand. Currently, there is an increased need to provide support to year 5 and 6 children with social, emotional and mental health needs in this area of the county. This proposal will provide much needed specialist educational capacity to meet this increased need and support pupils in their transition to secondary education.

Where an Academy proposes to permanently enlarge a special school’s capacity by 10% or more it must follow a procedure set out by the Department for Education.

The consultation

The purpose of this consultation is to seek the view of consultees on the principle of increasing the school capacity to meet the demand for additional special school places in the local area together with changing the age range of our overall provision. We understand that you may have some questions regarding how the school building will be adapted to accommodate additional pupils and whether there will be an impact on travel to and from the school as a result of accommodating additional pupils. Both of these aspects are important but at this stage these details will not be available as we need to obtain approval to the expansion before detailed work commences. It is important to hear your views at this stage so we can consider them as part of the detailed work to be undertaken should approval to increase the capacity and age range of the school be obtained.

This consultation will run from 5th October to 13th November. Officers will then take into consideration all the consultation responses received before deciding whether the proposal should continue to the formal publication stage.

If so, a statutory Public Notice will be published, setting out Catch 22 Multi Academy Trust and Hampshire County Council’s intent to increase the age range and capacity of the school. It is anticipated that this will be published on 16th November.

After the date of publication there will be a four-week period in which any representations can be made to the local authority. After the conclusion of this period the County Council will decide whether or not to proceed with the proposal. It is anticipated that a decision will be made on 16th December.

Further information

An online drop-in session where you will be able to discuss the proposal with Hampshire County Council officers will take place on 22nd October between 3.30pm and 4.30pm via Microsoft TEAMS. Please email [email protected] if you would like the link to join.

The proposed building plans are currently being developed by Hampshire County Council in conjunction with The Coppice Spring Academy.

If you are unable to attend this session or visit the above website and wish to make a comment then please email The Coppice Spring Academy directly at [email protected] by 13th November.