Proposed Primary Section

Proposed Primary Section - Proposal to extend the age range: from Year 7 - Year 13 to Reception - Year 13

1 Introduction

1.1 Yavneh College was established in September 2006 as a voluntary aided co-educational 11-18yrs comprehensive school within Hertfordshire Local Authority, to serve the growing local Jewish community.

1.2 The school has admitted an additional cohort of pupils each year since 2006. There are currently almost 800 pupils. When Yrs 7-13 are complete, there will be 1,000 pupils.

1.3 The school acquired specialist status as a Business & Enterprise College in 2008 and was awarded Academy status on 1 July 2011.

1.4 The school was last inspected by Ofsted in March 2011. It was graded Outstanding.

1.5 There were 503 applications for 150 Year 7 places for September 2011.

1.6 In response to significant local demand for additional primary school provision, in particular for children of the Jewish faith, Yavneh College has been working for some time on a proposal to extend its age range downwards to Reception year.

1.7 The proposal is to establish a primary section with two forms of entry, commencing with Reception from September 2012, if possible. The intention is to have 30 children per class so that when the primary section is full there will be 420 pupils.

1.8 This paper seeks views from our major stakeholders through a consultation process to ascertain the level of support for this proposal. The consultation process is for a period of 8 weeks starting on 7 October 2011 and ending on 2 December 2011. The results of the consultation will then be considered by Yavneh College Trust and Yavneh College Academy Trust and the proposal will be submitted for approval by the Secretary of State for Education. We are also seeking capital funding without which this project will not be able to proceed at this stage.

1.9 In the paragraphs below we provide further information about our proposals.

 

2 Proposed arrangements for governance and admissions

2.1 The proposed primary section will be an extension of the existing school and will have the same governing body with the same governance arrangements as are currently set out in the school's Funding Agreement with the YPLA . The existing structure of committees of the governing body will continue to apply.

2.2 We are currently in the process of drafting admissions rules for the proposed primary section. A conditional statement will be included in Hertfordshire Local Authority documentation in respect of primary admissions for 2012 /2013, to be published in the autumn of 2011.

2.3 The admissions arrangements will be in line with the admissions rules for the current secondary school , although they will not include the criterion of Yavneh College being the applicant's nearest maintained Jewish primary school.

 

3 Community support and local demand

3.1 Basic Need: Hertfordshire Local Authority has identified that the Borehamwood area has a significant level of basic need for additional primary school places. One form of entry has accordingly been added this year at each of two existing Hertfordshire primary schools, one of which has been increased on a permanent basis and the other on a temporary basis for two years. This has increased the total provision of Reception  places in the area to 420 until 2013/14 and 390 on a permanent basis.  Further places will be required to match the Local  Authority’s forecast that numbers will increase to 431 by 2015/16. In addition, further basic need will be generated by the ongoing influx of young families into the rapidly growing Jewish community in the vicinity of Yavneh College.

3.2 Jewish community: South Hertfordshire has a rapidly growing, predominantly young, Jewish community. Borehamwood and Elstree alone has more than 1,500 families. This number has been growing substantially over the last decade. The establishment of a Jewish secondary school – Yavneh College - in Borehamwood and an eruv (a religious boundary that allows orthodox Jewish families to use pushchairs on the Sabbath), has attracted many young families into the area, causing the growth of the community to accelerate further.

3.3 Effect on admissions to existing local Jewish voluntary aided primary schools: There are currently two Jewish VA primary schools in Hertfordshire, serving the local community: HJPS, a two-form entry school in Radlett; and Clore Shalom, a one-form entry school in Shenley. Both of these two schools are substantially oversubscribed. In 2010, 80 Jewish children had to accept Reception places in Jewish primary schools outside of Hertfordshire. Opening a primary section at Yavneh College would thus have no detrimental effect on admissions to these two schools.

3.4 Effect on admissions to existing local non-Jewish community primary schools:

An online survey was conducted in March 2011. There were 434 respondents. The  following responses to questions in the survey demonstrate that opening a primary section at Yavneh College would have little or no detrimental effect on admissions to local non-Jewish community primary schools:

  • In answer to the question: ‘If there were a Jewish school and a non-Jewish community school both available to you, and both within 15 minutes’ access by foot, car or public transport, which school would you be more likely to choose for your child?’, 99% of respondents said they would choose the Jewish school.
  • In answer to the question: ‘If there were no Jewish primary school places available within 15 minutes’ access, how would you rate the following options, in order of preference?’, 91.5% of respondents stated that they would choose the option of sending their children to a Jewish school 15-30 minutes away. Only 4.4% said that they would choose the option of sending their child to a non-Jewish school within 15 minutes’ access.

3.5 Community Support: 438 people signed an online petition in July 2011 in support of the planning application for the primary section (TP/11/1128). 303 letters of support were received by Hertsmere Borough Council and only 8 letters of objection and an estimated 100 young parents attended the meeting of the Planning Committee. Local synagogues in Hertfordshire are actively supporting our proposal.

 

4 Premises

4.1 The primary section will be set up on an unused parcel of land within the grounds   of Yavneh College in Hillside Avenue, Borehamwood.  

4.2 Planning permission for the intended construction work was approved unanimously by Hertfordshire planning authority on 15 September 2011.

4.3 The primary section will be housed in a new two-storey building, approximately  2120m² in area, adjacent to the present school buildings in the western corner of the site. The building will lie behind the Sixth Form block and will thus not be visible from Hillside Avenue. It will be accessed from Hillside Avenue.

4.4 The primary section will include 14 classrooms, informal study and meeting areas, a P.E. hall, offices and play areas.

4.5 The primary section will not have its own dining hall, kitchens or staffroom. Instead, it will use the facilities which already exist within the secondary school.

4.6 The primary section will be served by the secondary school’s existing business manager’s office, administration team and caretakers.

4.7 The effect of 4.1, 4.5 and 4.6 is to make the proposal - to set up a primary section at Yavneh College - excellent value for money i.e. the project will deliver a two-form entry primary school for a far lower cost than is normal.

4.8 Yavneh College’s existing Travel Plan received a gold award from Hertfordshire County Council in 2011. Routine monitoring confirms that over 97% of parents  adhere to the Plan. The primary section’s Travel Plan aims to build on this success, thereby keeping local disruption to a minimum.

                                                  

5 Local Authority support

5.1 We have been liaising closely with Hertfordshire Local Authority on this project.

 

6 Educational benefits

6.1 Yavneh College is graded Outstanding by Ofsted. The school would ensure that in establishing a primary section it would provide an outstanding education for primary age pupils.

6.2 Provision of all-through education from 5 -18yrs has been a longstanding feature of successful schools in the independent sector and is now being adopted in the state sector. There is considerable educational research which demonstrates the learning dip which occurs when children transfer from primary school to secondary school.  All-through schools do not incur such a learning dip.

6.3 Certain specialist curriculum areas in the proposed primary section would benefit from the input of secondary-trained subject specialists on the staff e.g. modern foreign language teaching for primary section pupils would be provided by trained modern foreign language specialists from the secondary section of the school.

6.4 Certain specialist curriculum areas in the secondary section of the school would benefit from having the primary section e.g. pupils following a KS4 child care course would undertake the practical elements in the primary section.

Documents available for reference

Please note that the following documents are available to download for reference:

(requires Adobe reader or a PDF reader)

The proposed admissions rules will be the subject of a separate consultation exercise.  They will be placed on the school website as soon as they become available.

 

 

Yavneh College
2 December 2011