Today, I met with Surrey County Council leader, Tim Oliver, and Cabinet Member for All-Age Learning, Julie Iles, to discuss the supply of secondary school places across Esher & Walton and the progress being made towards the completion of (the permanent site for) Cobham Free School and Heathside Walton School.
Once these schools are completed, Esher & Walton will have two extra secondary schools to ease the pressure on school places, and all of them will have an Ofsted rating of either Good or Outstanding. We also talked about particular local pressure points across the Bourgh and the configuration of catchment areas for feeder schools.
On top of those local plans, there was good news from the Government this week for schools across Elmbridge in the comprehensive spending review. That means additional money being invested in schools across the country. Every primary school will receive at least £3,750 per pupil, and every secondary school will receive at least £5,000 per pupil next year. In Esher & Walton, this extra funding should see 17 primary schools and 2 secondary schools receiving an increase to their funding.
The investment boost will also include an extra £400 million to provide better education for 16-19 year olds - so colleges as well as schools across Elmbridge will benefit.