New stats put more pressure on Merton primaries

Statistics show demand for places in Merton's primary schools will continue to rise - and while the problem was previously centred in Wimbledon, the affected area now includes Colliers Wood and north Mitcham as well.

Merton Council will be forced to provide places for an extra 240 children to enter the school system next September, and find room for a further 150 by September 2013. Council officers put the increase down to improved results at Merton’s state schools and rising birth rates in the borough.

Councillor Peter Walker, the Labour administration’s cabinet member for education, said new figures showed Merton’s birth rate had risen from 2,612 in the academic year 2002/03 to 3,419 in 2008/09 - a leap of 30 per cent.

He said the council wanted to expand succesful and oversubscribed schools to meet the crisis, but other factors to be taken into account included the location, cost and space available at each site.

Coun Walker said headteachers and governors at the schools had already been consulted about the plans, and letters were sent home to parents last week. A borough wide consultation on the plans will run from October 18 to November 22.

Tom Procter, the council officer in charge of the programme, said: “Governors have been extremely supportive. Schools understand they have got a duty to provide those extra places. They have got confidence in the local authority.”

A council document outlining the school expansion plans, released on Friday, said: “Previously there has been surplus places in the Mitcham area, hence the emphasis on Wimbledon, but these have now been take up and an increase in places is required in all areas.”

It also revealed demand would continue to rise until 2015 - the latest date for which predictions are available - rather than plateauing and falling as previously forecast.

Eight Merton primary schools have already expanded since 2008 in the face of growing demand.

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