The Consultation

The closing date for responding to this consultation is: Wednesday, 23 June 2021 at 5pm This consultation invites you to comment on the proposal to increase the physical pupil capacity at Exmouth Community College, an 11-18 secondary academy trust in Devon. The proposed changes are intended to address the demands for increased local pupils to attend their local secondary school. This is because of the delivery of East Devon District Council’s local plan for increased housing development in Exmouth and Devon County Council’s responsibility to provide places for all pupils in Devon.

 

The Proposal

Exmouth Community College, at the request of Devon County Council, is proposing to increase capacity from 2,418 pupils to 2,650 (an increase of 9%) to ensure there are sufficient school places to support local need.

Cohorts of students within the local learning community are forecasted to exceed 500 in the next few years and all will be above 400 for the foreseeable future, currently the College offers an intake of 390 per year which aligns to the current capacity of the College including post 16 provision. As a result, the College will not have sufficient capacity or accommodation to support local children to attend their local secondary school.

Whilst Devon County Council forecasts recognise there will be migration to schools outside of the catchment area, there is still a statutory requirement to ensure there is capacity in the Exmouth area to meet known and future numbers including increased local housing development and future local plans. The East Devon Infrastructure Delivery Plan 2013-2031 confirms ‘Secondary education facility - With the potential for over 1300 dwellings within the College catchment area, the institution will be over capacity within the plan period’.

To accommodate the increased capacity, it is proposed to build an eight-classroom extension to the existing Maths Block at the Gipsy Lane site. This new extension will provide sufficient accommodation to support the increase in capacity. Plans of the proposed new building are available on our website at: www.exmouthcollege.devon.sch.uk. All capital costs associated with the building will be funded by Devon County Council and East Devon District Council, the latter through proceeds from contributions from new housing.

Therefore, this additional capacity will mean that in the future as Exmouth grows as a community, this new build will ensure that local children who wish to come to their local school will be able to do so as well as providing modern facilities suitable for delivering a 21st century curriculum.

Background

As a larger than average school, due to the economies of scale, we are able to offer high quality, wide ranging and inclusive provision which includes:

• a very broad GCSE curriculum which includes courses from Engineering to Health and Care as well as differentiated courses within subjects, such as academic and vocational routes through Business Studies and Physical Education.

• a highly academic offer at Post-16, including Photography, Psychology, Criminology and Textiles, that has enabled students to regularly earn places at top Russell group universities including Oxford and Cambridge.

• a vocational offer at Post-16 with a wide suite of courses including Media Studies and ICT which allows students to bridge across to further study and potentially university as well as providing access to high quality apprenticeship schemes.

• additional support for students through our REACH Centre and STEPs behaviour for learning hub. • a well-resourced pastoral team to look after individual students.

• a very well-regarded transition programme for new students moving to the College.

• a very wide range of extra-curricular opportunities including Dance, Drama, Music and PE amongst other areas.

• excellent sporting facilities with two floodlit artificial grass pitches, several gyms, climbing wall and fitness suite.

• modern facilities across the College, with other new facilities being developed including a new £13.5 million block for Drama, Library, Humanities, PE, Technology and Science and a new purpose-built auditorium which will seat 450 people.

As well as providing additional accommodation, the proposal will support improved curriculum delivery for our Maths department and Post 16 education.  In addition the proposals will enable the College to expand its SEND provision by freeing up other spaces in the College as dedicated SEND resource areas.  The new building will also provide a number of smaller teaching spaces for specific intervention and one to one work.  The new block will also be fully accessible and provide spacious and bright classroom environments.

This new block will enable us to realise our ambition to provide our students with a College campus which is amongst the best in the south-west.

Consultation

The College values highly the views and opinions of the community within which it operates. We now seek your views regarding the physical expansion of capacity at the College to meet the increased demand for pupil places in the local area of Exmouth.

As the College is an academy trust, the decision maker for the expansion of the physical capacity rests with the Regional Schools Commissioner (RSC). The College will submit information gathered from this consultation to the RSC as part of its business case for the increased capacity.

The College will carefully consider your views, and this will help us plan for the future.

If the decision is made to proceed further with the increase in capacity, then the timetable for the remainder of the process is likely to be:

Consultation – Wednesday, 19 May – Wednesday, 23 June 2021

RSC makes decision – June / July 2021

Building work commences – August 2021

Building work completed – June 2022

Responding to this consultation You can respond to the consultation by:

emailing: consultation@exmouthcollege.devon.sch.uk

or by writing to:

Consultation on changes to provision Exmouth Community College Gipsy Lane Exmouth EX8 3AF

Please note that all comments will be properly considered, but we will not send individual responses to any specific points raised.

Consultation responses will be shared with the Governing Board and the RSC.

Closing date for responses is:  Wednesday, 23 June 2021 at 5pm

 

Please find attached below the plans for the new building