School expresses concern over plan for 36 new houses
An outstanding school in rural Northamptonshire has voiced its concerns over development proposals which it says could lead to oversized classes and a drop in standards.
Plans have been submitted which could see 36 houses built on land behind Hartwell CofE Primary School, a move which could add up to 11 pupils to the school, leaving it close to capacity.
School officials say they are worried this could lead to oversized classes and a resulting drop in standards at the school, which has previously featured in the Chronicle & Echo for its outstanding performance in national tests and Ofsted inspections.
Neil Morrison, chairman of governors, said: "As a school we have a lot of concerns about the implications of the development. Those are primarily around the access to the houses being through School Lane, which is currently what I would class as quite a dangerous road anyway and particularly so if you were to add another 50 plus cars a day going in and out of it, as it goes directly past the school entrance.
"The other concern is in relation to the ability to accept further pupils. We are a small village school and, as it is, we are quite constrained with how many pupils we can take.
"We believe there's an optimum number of pupils per class and, unless we were able to extend our infrastructure and teaching staff, it may well have an impact should pupil numbers increase significantly."
The school currently has 196 pupils, with space for only 12 additional children.
Mr Morrison said one of the main problems was any additional pupils might not fit into the classes and year groups with space, but might go into already full classes, making them oversized.
Other community groups have offered their opinions on the proposals, which will go before a meeting of South Northamptonshire Council's development control committee on January 7.
Hartwell Parish Council raised no objections but 138 residents have signed a petition objecting to the development.
The council's committee is expected to delegate approval to their environment and implementation department, subject to the developers entering into a Section 106 agreement to provide funding for the community, as well as compliance with any additional conditions imposed by the agencies consulted.
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