Plans to expand a Reigate infants school and make another an all-through primary have moved a step closer.
The expansions would create an extra 342 primary places across the two schools and are aimed at meeting rising demand for school places in Reigate and the surrounding area.
Dovers Green School currently caters for 168 four to seven-year-olds and would take 270 under the proposals.
Reigate Parish Church School currently serves 180 four to seven-year-olds but would extend its age range upwards, taking children up to age 11.
The school would eventually take 420 pupils aged four to 11.
Linda Kemeny, Surrey County Council’s Cabinet Member for Schools, Skills and Educational Achievement, agreed plans for both expansions last week, paving the way for the Dovers Green project to proceed and for further aspects of the Reigate Parish Church School scheme to be considered by the county council’s Cabinet.
Mrs Kemeny said: ‘Surrey needs to find 13,000 places over five years and our plans for these two schools in Reigate will help towards that.
‘There is rising demand for school places in Surrey but we’re short of the money we need to provide them – there’s a funding gap of more than £30million in each of the next two years alone – at a time when our budgets are also under strain from the rising number of older people needing care.’
Under the plans for Dovers Green, the school will become a three-form entry primary from September next year, with 90 pupils in each year group.
At Reigate Parish Church School, pupils who started reception in 2013 would be the first to stay on until age 11 if they wished. The school would grow year-on-year and reach its full capacity of 420 pupils in September 2019.
Extra classrooms and other facilities would be provided at the two schools to accommodate their bigger intakes.
Surrey News 
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