An educational trust has ambitions to increase admissions at one of its secondary schools and its sister primary school by improving the quality of the buildings.
The Future School Trust runs the New Line Learning Academy and Tiger Primary School, which share a site off Boughton Lane in Loose, near Maidstone.
Both schools are comparatively new, with Tiger Primary opening in 2014 and New Line Learning opening in 2012, but neither has so far reached its full potential.
The Published Admission Number (PAN) is the limit on pupil numbers set by the education authority for the building.
Tiger Primary has a PAN of 420 pupils, but currently has only 382.
Similarly, New Line Learning has a PAN of 1,050, but has only 807 pupils.
The trust believes this is partly due to inadequacies in the school buildings.
The “innovative” design for New Line Learning did not provide it with a school hall, but did create double-height science classrooms for 90 students.
The trust said: “These innovations have proved difficult for the current teaching staff. The building does not support current teaching practice, nor is it likely to in the future.”
There was also a concern about sanitary provisions. Sufficient toilets were provided in the school, but they are all accessed from the main atrium space at some distance from the main rear entry doors.
The location of the toilets was having “a significant impact on the management of students during break times.”
There are also problems at Tiger Primary.
The new school was built “for reasons which are not clear” with a floor area that was “approximately 16% below the minimum recommended area in the Department for Education national standards.”
As a result, the school lacks support spaces for intervention, so currently small group work, such as extension reading classes, has to take place in corridors among the coats and bags, or in shared rooms, “that are a significant compromise to education.”
Furthermore, the school “suffers from some undersized classrooms and a lack of space for coat areas and storage.” They also don’t have a hall for PE.
The trust intends to create a 210-seat performance hall with four classrooms for music, with associated practice rooms and other support spaces at New Line Learning.
Additional toilets will also be provided with access from the play area so pupils have won’t need to re-enter the main building during break times.
In addition, there will be a new hall shared with Tiger Primary that will give the younger children a place to have PE.
Tiger will be further expanded with a new single-storey, two-classroom extension to the rear of the existing building, with an additional accessible toilet. It is intended to move the Year 1 classes to the new classrooms and to utilise the existing Year 1 classrooms for extended learning.
The plan does involve the loss of some of the primary playground.
Although the trust emphasises that it is not seeking to increase the PAN for either school, it is hoped the changes will bring about an increase in pupil admissions over the current levels.
Because both schools were originally granted planning permission for the higher level of pupils, the trust does not consider there is any need to increase parking provision on the site, which has 233 parking spaces.
The trust has submitted a travel plan to support its application for a lawful development certificate for the extension at Tiger Primary, which has been criticised by Loose Parish Council.
The parish said: “We believe it would be to the advantage of the applicant and local residents, if the inaccuracies in the report were addressed.”
“It is not unreasonable to expect the improved facilities to encourage an increase in the actual pupil numbers with an associated increase in traffic. Therefore, steps should be taken to improve parking capacity on the campus.
“There is already a backup of vehicles on Boughton Lane, especially where vehicles are seeking to turn across the traffic.
“A particular pinch-point is the junction with Paynes Lane near the school entrance.
“The one-car width Paynes Lane is used as a cut-through by cars, vans and minibuses who compete for space with pedestrians since the lane has no pavement.
“This ‘competing for space’ can lead to vehicles reversing from the junction back into the traffic flow on Boughton Lane.
“The travel plan refers to a ‘flashing 20mph school zone sign on Loose Road near the Boughton Lane junction’. There is no such sign.
“The travel plan also refers to ‘the proposed zebra on Boughton Lane’ – the parish council is unaware of any such plan.
“The plan proposes starting a walking bus from a drop-off point at ‘Loose village hall car park’, which appears to mean the King George V Pavilion in Walnut Tree Lane, which is close to Loose Primary School and already very busy at school times.
“A ‘Park and Stride site’ is identified as being at the Wheatsheaf car park, yet there is no car park at the Wheatsheaf.
The Future Schools Trust explained that staggered start and finish times, plus clubs before and after school, help ease the congestion. It has been contacted for comment.
Find out about planning applications that affect you at the Public Notice Portal.
The Tiger Primary application for a lawful development certificate can be found on the Maidstone council website under application number 25/502680.
The planning application for Tiger’s new hall and the New Line Learning buildings can be found under application number 25/502815.
