Planning for school places across Warwickshire – 2021 Update

The WCC School Organisation and Planning team has recently published the Annual Education Sufficiency Update, which provides the current context for the delivery of the WCC Education Sufficiency Strategy 2018 - 2023.  

School leaders may find the pupil forecasts useful in understanding the future need for school places in their local planning areas.

The 2021 Sufficiency Update is available in the 'Education policies and strategies' section of the WCC website, towards the bottom of the webpage.

This update provides pupil number forecasts in each planning area in the County from September 2021 and outlines any pressures expected during that period. Pupil forecasts include the impact of all currently approved housing developments at the time of publication. Details of how any expected pressures will be met, including current planned capital schemes, are outlined in each section. 

To meet demand for school places in specific areas across the County, numerous temporary and permanent school expansions and several new schools have been delivered in recent years - or are in progress. The details for all of these projects are provided in the Sufficiency Update and on our website. 

In areas where falling school age populations have resulted in surplus school places, some schools have responded by reducing capacity; changing their Published Admissions Number (PAN) either temporarily or permanently, thus mitigating the risk of financial strain due to under-capacity classes.

Information is also provided regarding Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and post-16 capacity planning and projects. This includes the opening of four new SEND resourced provisions and specialist partnerships in 2021/22 as well as The Warwickshire Academy, a new special school scheduled to open in early 2022.

 Please download here the Annual Education Sufficiency Update