Does Thatcham need another secondary school?

That was the view of West Berkshire Council’s executive for education, Irene Neill (Con, Aldermaston), when asked whether Thatcham needed another secondary school.
Kennet School currently has 1,800 pupils on roll and the catchment area for the school has changed, with some Thatcham children now having to attend Trinity School nearly three miles away.
Council documents from 2010 warned that with only one secondary school, the lack of education facilities would have to be addressed in the future.
However, no provision for extra secondary school places in Thatcham was written in to the council’s local development plan.
Mrs Neill told the Newbury Weekly News this week that the council was trying to limit development to the east of Thatcham as the town had taken a huge amount of houses over the last couple of decades, with new developments generating more primary school children.
And if a large development was built in the town, Mrs Neill said that the council would have to consider the possibility of building a new primary school, with Francis Baily becoming part of the Kennet campus.
She added that the council was currently addressing primary provision in the district but did not need to start planning for these children moving up to secondary school for a couple of years.
“We are aware of it. It’s in our minds and it does take a while to build a new school,” she said. “Kennet is as full as it can be and in the future we will have to think of something.”
One Thatcham mother affected by the lack of school places is Karen Pettitt who was upset that her daughter could not attend Kennet School five years ago and instead had to travel to Trinity.
She demanded to know how the council had spent the developers’ contributions it received from the Kennet Heath development.
The council said it had spent £1.8m on a new teaching block at Kennet, while £1,674,080 was spent to increase capacity at Spurcroft Primary School from 210 to 315.
Ms Pettitt maintains that the council should have planned for a new secondary school before building the 800-home ‘village’ Kennet Heath on the edge of Thatcham.
And with the possibility of up to 87 homes being built on the Lower Way field, Mrs Pettitt said that Thatcham had become a town with little investment.
On the question of another secondary school for Thatcham, the leader of the West Berkshire Liberal Democrats, Jeff Brooks (Lib Dem, Thatcham West), said: “I would like to see Kennet rebuilt and expanded. I don’t think there’s room for another school in Thatcham. We can rebuild it like St Barts and then increase the role.
“I would like to see that for any plan for development if it’s north of the A4 or along the A4 or Seigecross. If they were to come up with new plans for there I would like to see new plans for rebuilding.
“I would like to see the councillors, officers and policy for rebuilding Kennet School; that would be the perfect opportunity to raise that money.”
Mr Brooks added that he would be happy to ask what impact development on Lower Way would have in terms of pupil demand if plans were submitted.
“It would put a strain on the school,” he said.
“Right now it’s over-subscribed and has been for years so it would be more over-subscribed and turn more people away.
“With development in Lower Way you could see them going to Trinity when it’s an easier walk from there to Kennet.”
The headteacher of Kennet School, Paul Dick OBE, said: “Over recent years Kennet has expanded its intake to meet as much parental demand as possible but there are limits on that to make sure that we are meeting the same educational standards that made it popular in the first place.”