Tuesday, September 11, 2007
EDUCATION
Good news for further education in Lambeth
11 September 2007
Lambeth Council last night agreed ambitious new plans to extend further education to all its secondary schools with the establishment of sixth forms in Norwood and Lilian Baylis schools.
The Cabinet agreed to proposals to establish 100 place sixth forms at each school. The decision forms part of Lambeth's £220 million Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.
Prior to this decision, Norwood and Lilian Baylis schools were the only two Lambeth mainstream secondary schools without sixth form provision on site and with no proposals to provide sixth form provision in the near future.
Councillor Sally Prentice, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said: "It is amazing that just ten years ago post-16 education provision was virtually non-existent in Lambeth. Now we will have a sixth form in every secondary school."
Latest figures show that the proportion of young people aged 16-18 in education, employment or training (EET) in Lambeth is 83.3 percent compared to 77.8 percent at the same time last year.
Sixth form places will be available at Norwood from September 2008 and at Lilian Baylis from September 2009.
In the same meeting, Cabinet looked at a series of measures to plan ahead for primary school places in Lambeth over the next decade. A possible need for more primary school places in the borough has been projected by the GLA.
The council agreed to the creation of a Primary Places Board which will set out a strategic and overarching approach to primary school place planning in the borough, and will oversee the development of a ten year strategy.
In July this year cabinet agreed to the acquisition of a building adjacent to Stockwell Primary, classified by Ofsted as an 'outstanding' school, which will be used to expand provision in the Brixton town centre.
The council is also looking at the potential to expand its primary school provision elsewhere in the borough.
Sally Prentice said: "We are aware of the potential of this problem in coming years and are determined to put in place a balanced and well thought out response that will ensure access to good primary school education for all our children for years to come."
FROM LAMBETH'S WEBSITE
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