There are no open competitions. Please see pre consultation information below for competitions due to open in early 2025.
Pre consultation for Free School Presumption for schools at North Felixstowe and Brightwell Lakes
Suffolk County Council will soon be seeking applications from which to identify its preferred sponsor to run two new mixed gender mainstream primary schools for children aged 4 to 11.
There will be a new primary school on Brightwell Lakes development, Martlesham and a new primary school in the North Felixstowe garden neighbourhood development.
The Brightwell Lakes Primary School is planned to open as a two form of entry (FE) primary school. The North Felixstowe Primary School is due to open as a one FE primary school. Both schools will open initially with reduced numbers and grow as the developments progress.
Suffolk County Council plans to launch a competition under the free school presumption legislation for both schools. We will invite proposals from Academy Trusts who wish to establish and run one of the new primary schools. The Council’s process meets the statutory requirements of the Education Act 2011.
The target opening date for both new schools is September 2027, however this may change due to demographics.
It may be necessary to limit the PAN at each school whilst the schools grow to ensure that the opening of each of the schools does not have a negative impact on their surrounding schools and to ensure that there are sufficient places for those moving into the area. The new primary schools and pre schools are already in design, therefore the successful sponsors will not have the opportunity to influence the design of the new schools.
It is expected to cost approx. £8.4m to deliver a 1 FE school and £13.8m to deliver a 2FE primary school, however the final costs for delivering these schools are unconfirmed at this stage, as the design and surveys are not yet complete.
The schools will be funded in line with Suffolk growth funding, the guidance is available at https://suffolklearning.com/finance/schools-accountancy/school-funding/growth-policy/
The closing date for this pre consultation is Friday 27 December 2024 and we invite you to share views on these proposals prior to that date. Please send your comments to: schools@suffolk.gov.uk
