One of the most popular primary schools in Maidenhead could be expanded under plans to cope with a recent rise in demand.
Oldfield - rated outstanding in its most recent Ofsted report in 2007, which described its teachers as “spellbinding” and a “pleasure to watch” - had 99 applications for admission in September 2009, but only 30 places.
Eileen Quick, lead member for children’s services for the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, said: “Oldfield is one of the borough’s most popular schools and our figures show that demand will keep on rising in the years ahead.
“We have a responsibility to explore ways of offering new and better solutions so that good schools can continue to flourish and cater for larger numbers of pupils in the future.”
The council has said that numbers in four schools serving east Maidenhead have gone up and it forecasts further rises. The council has been given Pounds 3 million for 2009-10 and Pounds 5.4 million for 2010-11 under the Government’s Primary Strategy for Change programme to rebuild or refurbish half of all primaries.
Officers have recommended that the council should carry out a Pounds 40,000 feasibility study into rebuilding Oldfield, possibly retaining the infant department on the existing site and building a new junior school nearby. HW.
