School place debate rages on in North Solihull

OVERSUBSCRIBED: Some parents have reported a struggle to get into
their first choice school in areas such as Castle Bromwich.

DEBATE has reopened about whether North Solihull has enough primary school places available.
This week, around 600,000 families nationwide found out whether their child had secured a place at their first choice school.
While figures for 2017 have yet to be released for Solihull, country-wide data suggests that thousands of families are missing out on their first preference.
Kevin Courtney, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), said: "We are facing the worst shortage of school places for decades.
"It is resulting in overcrowded classrooms, often in makeshift buildings that are squeezing out space for playgrounds, for art rooms or music spaces."
The issue has really come to the fore in the north of the borough during the course of the past 12 months.
Former councillor Graham Craig suggested last year that there would be an increase in demand as more young families moved onto Smith's Wood, and that the borough council was failing to prepare.
It is almost a decade since parents fought a campaign against the decision to combine Bosworth Wood with Kingfisher Primary, one of several such mergers approved as part of the North Solihull Regeneration.
There is also concern about the situation in Castle Bromwich, with a particular debate on the area's Facebook page about the lack of coverage for the Parkfields estate - with some still blaming the lasting impact of closing nearby Whateley Primary in the 1980s.
James Homer wrote: "We live in Parkfields and [were] refused for Castle Bromwich. Not even Smith's Wood was offered. Straight to Kingshurst."
Touching on long-standing concerns about overdevelopment, Joanne Gibbs said: "They shut so many schools down to build properties on there. They don't think of the kids nowadays."
And Sharon Muxworthy added: "There is massive under-funding from this government in education. I hope all those aggrieved parents put their X in the right box on June 8."
In a report prepared last year to assess demand for school places, Solihull Council noted that the birth rate across the borough reached almost 2,400 in 2015.
The north of the borough has seen a 10 per cent increase, with the local authority reporting the largest rise in the Castle Bromwich and Kingshurst & Fordbridge wards.
The council previously calculated that around 420 new places would be needed in the north of the borough, citing an expansion of Kingfisher and redevelopment at Yorkswood as among the solutions.