Planning of School Places

Welcome to Planning of School Places.  The School Organisation Team is responsible for planning of school places, management of surplus places and pupil projections. For further information, please contact the team or visit our webpage on the Staffordshire County Council website by clicking here: Planning of School Places webpage.

Planning Obligations (Section 106)

Section 106 of the Town & Country Planning Act 1990 allows education authorities to obtain funds from developers of new housing developments where the number of houses being built will require extra school places. The Planning Obligations Policy  has been created to allow a fixed approach for the calculation of funds across all districts.

The School Organisation Team is currently reviewing the Planning Obligations Policy.

For an indicative education contribution please contact the School Organisation Team by email at school.organisation@staffordshire.gov.uk providing details of the site, dwelling numbers and dwelling type breakdown (if known).

Infant Class Size Legislation

It is a statutory requirement that all infant classes are limited to a maximum of 30 pupils per one school teacher, throughout the school day, except for school assemblies, music, drama and sports lessons.

In the majority of cases Staffordshire schools have maintained infant classes within the legal limit. However the PLASC returns made each year identify a small number of schools with infant classes of more than 30 pupils.

Further information for schools is available by logging on to the Staffordshire Learning Net where further information is available under the Infant Class Size channel to the left of this page.

The closing date for applications for funding for the academic year 2012/13 is Friday 11 May 2012.

You can also view the Infant Class Size Legislation on the DfE Website. 

Pupil Projections

The Primary and Secondary school projections are calculated annually by the School Organisation Team. They are used to assist in the long-term planning of school places, by presenting an indication of future pupil numbers. The projections will also be used for the provisional 2013/14 and 2014/15 budgets.

Both Primary and Secondary projections are based on the October 2011 Number on Roll (NOR) returns and reflect recent patterns in admissions to each school.  Primary School projections also use catchment birth rates.

Whilst the actual and projected numbers may vary at a school level, the trend they show across the districts and county is reliable.

For individual school projections by district please log in to this site and you will see the pupil projections link on the left of this page.

School Organisation Plan (SOP)

There is no longer a statutory requirement to publish a School Organisation Plan annually.