School may be built in Sandwell to cope with baby boom

Sandwell Council is already creating hundreds of new primary school places for pupils and will eventually need to increase secondary school capacity.

It is now proposed to bring back into use the former Langley High School site on Moat Roat in Oldbury.

The site has been vacant ever since it was handed back to the council by Oldbury Academy in February this year. The academy occupied the site until it moved to its £20 million home in Pound Road.

Council chiefs are now looking at re-using the site to help find new pupil places from 2016 onwards. Under latest Government policy, the desired occupiers would be a free school or an academy.

A report to the borough's cabinet which meets on Wednesday states: "Over the next 10 years the council will need to provide an additional 26 forms of entry in the secondary sector.

"The national increase in the birth rate, which has seen an unprecedented increase in Sandwell of 26 per cent in the last seven years, has meant that all available capital resources have been targeted at primary provision and this will need to continue until at least 2016, by which time the council will have provided an additional 25 forms of entry at primary school level.

"The pressure on secondary places will become evident from 2016 onwards.

"Projections for 2023 show a need for nine new forms of entry in Oldbury. The availability of the Moat Road site presents an ideal opportunity for the council to establish a new school because the need for new places will become acute in 2016."

The report adds: "Any new school has to be considered under the Department for Education 'presumption' the council will seek proposals to establish an academy or free school.Only if this process is unsuccessful can the council, with the agreement of the Secretary of State, consider establishing a maintained school through a competition.

"An alternative option would be to extend and expand an existing maintained school."

The report adds that before deciding whether or not to enter into a funding agreement with any proposer, the Secretary of State will need to be satisfied about their suitability to set up and run and academy or free school. On Wednesday, the borough's cabinet is recommended to proceed.