Purpose

Jessie Younghusband Primary School is a
primary school providing up to 210 places for children aged 4-11
years.  The proposal is to relocate
Jessie Younghusband Primary School from its current location to a
new 1 Form of Entry (1FE) primary school (210 places) which is
being built on the housing development west of Chichester, known as
Minerva Heights.
 
St Anthony’s School in Chichester is a
special school for children and young people aged between 4 and 16
years with moderate learning difficulties. It currently shares a
site with Jessie Younghusband Primary. There is a need to expand St
Anthony’s to ensure there are appropriate and sufficient
places in accordance with the County Council’s
Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Strategy
2019-2024. The relocation of Jessie Younghusband Primary would
leave a vacant building which could be used for the purposes of
expanding St Anthony’s School.
 
It is also necessary to propose revisions to
the catchment areas of other schools in the local area should the
proposals proceed.
 
In December 2023 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 proposed changes
(decision
CYPLS05(23/24) refers). The Cabinet Member subsequently
approved progression of these proposals to the next stage of the
DfE process.  This led to the
publication of statutory proposals for the relocation of Jessie
Younghusband school, in March 2024, (decision
CYPLS02(24/25) refers). 
 
The proposals were published for a period of 4
weeks and provided the opportunity for the public to submit new and
substantively different comments regarding the proposals; a summary
of the representations received is set out in section 4. Following
analysis of the representations, which indicated no new or
substantively different comments, approval is now sought to
implement the proposals as published and to implement the related
proposals for associated catchment areas and for St Anthony’s
Special School.

Decision

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

(1) The relocation of
Jessie Younghusband Primary School to the primary school site
within the Minerva Heights development. 
The school is expected to open at its new location in September
2025.

(2) The revision of
the catchment areas for Jessie Younghusband Primary School,
Fishbourne C of E Primary School and
Parklands Community Primary School, as set out in the Appendix.

(3)The publication,
when appropriate, of formal statutory proposals for the expansion
of St Anthony’s School into the vacated buildings currently
occupied by Jessie Younghusband Primary School.