Purpose

Millais is a girls’ secondary school in
Horsham catering for pupils aged 11-16. 
The demand for places at the school has been declining at a time
when there is a shortfall of places for boys in the wider Horsham
area. 
 
In April 2024, the Cabinet Member for Children
and Young People, Learning and Skills approved the launch of a
public consultation, in accordance with
Department for Education (DfE) guidance, to seek views on the
proposals to change the status of Millais School from a single sex
girls’ school to a co-educational school, thereby increasing
the number of available secondary places for boys in the Horsham
area (decision
CYPLS03 (24/25) refers).  The
changes would mean that Millais would no longer admit only girls as
pupils from September 2026 and each year of entry thereafter would
be co-educational. There are no changes proposed to have
co-educational provision for any of the existing year groups on
roll. 
 
The consultation ran from 8 May 2024 to 12
June 2024 and views and comments have been collated from interested
parties.  Details of the consultation
and the feedback received are set out in section 4 of this
report.
 
The DfE guidance sets out the stages of the
process that should be undertaken when considering a change of
status to co-educational provision. 
Having completed the first stage, the initial consultation, the
Cabinet Member is now asked to consider the feedback received and
consider whether to approve the progression of the proposal to the
next stage of the process – publication of statutory
notices.
 
Should the school become co-educational some
refurbishment works to the school site would be required, such as
the delivery of adapted changing and toilet facilities.  Therefore, approval is also sought for allocation
of the capital funding required to undertake the refurbishment
works should it ultimately be determined that the change to
co-educational provision should proceed to implementation.

Decision

The Cabinet Member for Children and Young
People, Learning and Skills has approved:
 

(1) The publication of
formal statutory proposals to change the status of Millais School
from a single sex girls’ school to a co-educational school
from September 2026.

(2) The allocation of
£1.5m capital funding from the basic need budget to deliver
the necessary works, as detailed in paragraph 2.7 of this report,
to enable the school to change status to co-educational provision
should it be determined that this should proceed to implementation
following conclusion of the statutory proposal period. 

(3) The delegation of
authority to the Assistant Director (Education and Skills) to
determine whether the proposal to change to co-educational
provision should proceed, following consideration of any
representations received during the statutory proposal period.

(4) Should the change
to co-educational provision proceed, the delegation of authority to
the Assistant Director (Property and Assets) to commission the
development of an agreed design for the necessary works and
subsequently commence a procurement process to seek a contractor to
deliver the required works.

(5) The delegation of
authority to the Assistant Director (Property and Assets) to submit
the necessary planning application and building regulations
approval and to obtain any statutory consents, and to enter into a
construction contract with the successful tenderer.