Barking and Dagenham primary schools set to get 1,000 extra places
Education chiefs are to spend nearly �10 million creating up to 1,100 much-needed primary school places before the start of the autumn term.
Barking and Dagenham Council has approved an expansion programme at seven schools after figures showed the number of primary children had soared by eight per cent each year since 2010.
The Labour council said the east London borough had seen “an unprecedented rise in births”.
Greater London Authority statistics show that births in Barking and Dagenham increased by more than half in the last decade. There were 2,416 births in 2002, compared to 3,729 in 2011, a rise of 54 per cent.
Council documents on the proposed expansions indicated that �9.9m would be spent creating the extra places by September.
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A council agenda document published last month stated: “In addition to the increased births, admissions are continuing to receive high numbers of late applications for reception age and Year 1 children and this has compounded the difficulty in planning for the right number of school places.
“Further, the number of casual admissions into Year 1 and Year 2 has risen substantially compared to previous years.”
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Southwood Primary in Keppel Road, Dagenham, will have 210 extra places, Eastbury Primary in Dawson Avenue, Barking, 150 places, St Joseph’s Primary in The Broadway, Barking, 150 and St Joseph’s Primary in Connor Road, Dagenham, 105.
Parsloes Primary in Spurling Road, Dagenham, is to get up to 210 extra places, Monteagle Primary in Burnham Road, Dagenham, up to 202 and Gascoigne Primary in Gascoigne Road, Barking, up to 90 places.
The provisional figures were published by the council in a public notice in March.
Barking and Dagenham Council cabinet approved the expansion at Dagenham Civic Centre on May 22.
