Proposed changes to Keyham Lodge School and Millgate School

Overview

About the Schools

Keyham Lodge School and Millgate School are community special schools for young people with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD). Keyham Lodge is a day school. Millgate is a day school and is also registered to provide residential education. Both schools are registered to admit pupils of secondary school age (11 – 16 years of age) and are maintained by Leicester City Council.

Pupils who attend the schools have a statement of special educational needs or have been placed at the school whilst a statutory assessment of their special needs is carried out by the council.

Keyham Lodge has capacity for 53 pupils and Millgate has capacity for 50 pupils. Due to the pressure for places the number on roll at each school currently exceeds the capacity: Keyham Lodge has 63 pupils and Millgate has 61 (January 2013 data).

Keyham Lodge is situated in Keyham Lane (LE5 1FG) and Millgate is situated in Scott Street (LE2 6DW).

Both schools are due to be extended and re-modelled under the Government’s “Building Schools for the Future” programme.

Keyham Lodge and Millgate are Federated and share a single governing body. The Executive Headteacher with strategic responsibility for both schools is Chris Bruce.

Each school has a Headteacher who is responsible to the Executive Headteacher and the Governing Body for the day to day operation of the school. The Headteacher of Keyham Lodge is Nina Watts and the Headteacher of Millgate is Mark Oldham.

The proposals

There are 3 proposals for Keyham Lodge School:

• To change the age range of Keyham Lodge School, from its current age range of 11 - 16, to an age range of 9 – 16;
• To change the gender of pupils at the school from boys only to co-educational (boys and girls);
• To enlarge the capacity of the school from 53 places to 126 places.

There are two proposals for Millgate School:

• To change the gender of pupils at the school from boys only to co-educational (boys and girls);
• To enlarge the capacity of the school from 50 places to 75 places.

The proposals are being led by Leicester City Council and are supported by the governing body of the Federated schools. Before any decision is made by the council, we would like to hear your views on the proposal. We believe that the changes we are proposing will provide the pupils, parents and community with excellent provision. 

Your views are important to us. Please take the time to read this information and if possible, attend the consultation meeting and let us know what you think of the proposals.

When will the proposals take effect?

The proposal for Keyham Lodge School to extend the age range to admit younger pupils will take effect in January 2014, as too will the proposal to change from a boys only school to a school for both boys and girls. The additional places will become available once the build programmes is complete; the planned completion date is February 2014.

The proposal for Millgate School to change from a boys only school to a school for both boys and girls will take effect in January 2014. The additional places will become available once the build programmes is complete; the planned completion date is April 2014.

What are the benfits?

• Improved access to special schools in the city providing more young people with specialised support;
• More young people able to attend schools with skilled staff who can provide high quality teaching and high quality therapeutic input;
• Appropriately resourced special schools with the full range of facilities required to deliver the secondary curriculum, offering excellent provision within the city for young people experiencing social, emotional and behavioural difficulties;
• Provision for girls with SEBD will be available within the city enabling girls to attend specialist provision close to their home rather than have to travel to schools outside of the city;
• Provision for younger children (Year 5 & 6) within Keyham Lodge will provide for children who could otherwise be at risk of exclusion from their primary school and provide them with specialised support in smaller teaching groups than that available within mainstream schools;
• Specialist provision will be available at a local school rather than requiring often vulnerable young people to travel long distances to school. This will also result in long term cost savings to the council as the number of young people placed in expensive residential schools and out of city special schools is reduced.

Public Meeting

Two public meetings regarding the proposals will be held:

Date: Tuesday 11th June 2013

Time: 2:00pm and 6:00pm

Venue: Goals Centre, Wakerley Road, Leicester, LE5 4WJ

At each meeting you will be able to hear from council officers and senior staff from the Schools. After a short presentation you will be able to ask any questions you may have. The meeting should last about 45 minutes.

The meeting is mainly for parents and carers of young people who attend the schools, but school staff and their representatives, governors and young people may also attend, although dedicated meetings for these groups will be held during the consultation.

Responses to this consultation can me made online using the Online Survey link below, or by post using the attached response form. 

What happens next

A number of people and organisations including pupils, parents/carers, staff and their representatives, governors, local schools, local MPs and the community will be consulted on these proposals during the consultation period of Monday 3rd June 2013 to Sunday 14th July 2013.

All responses to the consultation will be presented to the City Council Executive to enable a decision on the way forward to be taken. If it is decided to proceed with the proposal, then a statutory notice will be published to seek formal representations. At the end of this period, the City Council Executive will determine whether to implement the proposal to take effect from January 2014.

At each stage of the proposals, information will be updated on the council website.