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A fantastic day of teamwork and tech at Seaton Delaval Hall!

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A fantastic day of teamwork and tech at Seaton Delaval Hall!

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A fantastic day of teamwork and tech at Seaton Delaval Hall!

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Topping out at the site of the new Seaton Valley Super School

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Topping out at the site of the new Seaton Valley Super School

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Topping out at the site of the new Seaton Valley Super School

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Topping out milestone celebrated at £50m Seaton Valley super school

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Topping out milestone celebrated at £50m Seaton Valley super school

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Topping out milestone celebrated at £50m Seaton Valley super school

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Milestone groundbreaking ceremony for £50m Seaton Valley super-school 

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Milestone groundbreaking ceremony for £50m Seaton Valley super-school 

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Groundbreaking at new Seaton Valley Super School

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Groundbreaking milestone at new school site

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Groundbreaking milestone at new school site

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Groundbreaking milestone at new school site

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A sneak peak at plans for the new Astley Community High School and Whytrig Middle School

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Planning permission granted for £40m carbon neutral super school

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Planning permission granted for £40m carbon neutral super school

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Northumberland County Council - Planning permission granted for £40m carbon neutral super school

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Planning permission has been granted for Northumberland’s first carbon neutral school that is set to transform education for young people in Seaton Valley for generations to come.

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22/02627/CCD | Construction of new school buildings, sports centre, external sports pitches, landscaping, parking and access at Land North of The Avenue, Seaton Delaval and parking and access at former Whytrig Middle School Site, Western Avenue, Seaton Delaval (amendment to red line boundary 27.20.2022) | Land East Of Allenheads/Former Whytrig Middle School The Avenue Seaton Delaval Northumberland

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22/02627/CCD | Construction of new school buildings, sports centre, external sports pitches, landscaping, parking and access at Land North of The Avenue, Seaton Delaval and parking and access at former Whytrig Middle School Site,…

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First look at plans for Seaton Delaval’s new £40m carbon neutral super school

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First look at plans for Seaton Delaval’s new £40m carbon neutral super school

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Northumberland County Council - First look at plans for Seaton Delaval's new £40m carbon neutral super school

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Here's how Northumberland's first carbon neutral school could look.

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The Outline Business Case for The Replacement School Buildings for Astley High and Whytrig Middle Schools

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The Outline Business Case for The Replacement School Buildings for Astley High and Whytrig Middle Schools

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Plans for innovative £40m carbon neutral super school in Seaton Delaval are approved

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Plans for innovative £40m carbon neutral super school in Seaton Delaval are approved

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Northumberland County Council's Cabinet has approved the next steps in ambitious plans for new school buildings that will transform education facilities for generations of young people in Seaton Delaval.

Following consultation with staff, local community groups, county c ouncillors , and the public , a preferred option has been approved for the £40m development that would see Astley High School and Whytrig Middle School rebuilt on a new shared site on land in The Avenue, proposed to open in April 2025.

The new buildings w ill allow all students across the two schools, which are part of the Seaton Valley Federation, to access facilities including science laboratories, art & design studios, sports pitches and a swimming pool that will also benefit the wider community.

Pioneering construction methods will also be used to create what will be the council's first carbon neutral school and support the council's agreed Climate Change Action Plan and its aspiration to move Northumberland to a carbon neutral position by 2030.

Councillor Glen Sanderson, Leader of Northumberland County Council, said: " Thank you to everyone who has shared their views in the consultations so far.

"The vast majority support the proposed development on the new site as t he current site of Astley High School is too small for the new-build requirements.

"This is a hugely important step for the project and it's going to be a fantastic first-class new facility.

" As well as improving the teaching and learning environment for current and future pupils in the schools, improvements to the on-site sporting and community facilities will benefit the wider Seaton Valley Federation community.

"We are also investing in ensuring the school will be net zero carbon in operation, supporting our ambition to become carbon neutral by 2030."

The project will be the latest in a series of investments in schools across Northumberland as the council's largest capital programme continues to take shape, improving education prospects for all.

Executive Director of Adult and Children's Services, Northumberland County Council, Cath McEvoy- Carr , said: "The new school buildings are much needed and work will now start to develop detailed proposals, and these will be shared in the summer at a further public consultation event prior to planning application being submitted.

"There will also be the opportunity for people to respond to the planning application throughout the Autumn."

John Barnes, Executive Headteacher, Seaton Valley Federation , said: " I am really pleased that this has been agreed. I cannot wait for there to be a school building that gives the pupils of Astley High School and Whytrig Middle School facilities that are needed in the 21st century.

"The standard of education at the two schools is already very good and these new facilities will allow it to be even better.

"There will be lots of opportunities for the school and wider community to shape the plans and it is an exciting time for all of us."

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Northumberland County Council - Plans for innovative £40m carbon neutral super school in Seaton Delaval are approved

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Northumberland County Council's Cabinet has approved the next steps in ambitious plans for new school buildings that will transform education facilities for generations of young people in Seaton Delaval.

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Would members of the public get a chance to speak to the Council’s Cabinet in person about these proposals before they make a decision?

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Would members of the public get a chance to speak to the Council’s Cabinet in person about these proposals before they make a decision?

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Anyone who submits a representation in writing during the statutory consultation period is offered the opportunity to speak about their representation in person at the Cabinet decision meeting, although this may be a virtual meeting due to COVID.

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If statutory consultation take place, it is planned that a final decision would be made by the Council’s Cabinet in March 2022.

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What happens as part of the statutory consultation? 

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What happens as part of the statutory consultation? 

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If approved, the statutory consultation would last for 4 weeks setting out the specific and full proposals.  This process is subject to legislation set down in Government regulations for the type of change being consulted on here, i.e. the amalgamation of 2 community schools which would lead to the technical closure of one of them.  A summary is also published in a local newspaper.

During statutory consultation, there are no meetings with staff, parents or the public, but anyone who wants to can submit their comments on the proposals in writing (by hand or electronically) - this is also called a ‘representation’.

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What happens at the end of this consultation?

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What happens at the end of this consultation?

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At the end of this informal consultation, the feedback gathered from all those who have responded will be analysed and included in a report that will go to the Council’s Cabinet in January.

The Cabinet will review the feedback as well as the Governing Body’s reasons for carrying out the consultation, and other factors around the proposal such as funding a larger new school building.

They will then decide whether to

Approve the ‘statutory’ phase of consultation on the proposal as it is.

Carry out further informal consultation on an amended proposal, based on feedback from the first consultation

Reject the proposal altogether, in which case the proposal stops at that point.

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How long will this consultation process last?

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How long will this consultation process last?

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This phase of the consultation process is described as ‘informal’ consultation and it is open until 1 December 2021.

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What impact would relocating Seaton Sluice students to Seaton Delaval have on the cost of school transport?

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What impact would relocating Seaton Sluice students to Seaton Delaval have on the cost of school transport?

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There may be some additional students living in the Seaton Sluice Middle catchment who become eligible for school transport should the two middle schools merge.

However, there are also a significant number of students on roll at Seaton Sluice Middle who live in other school partnerships e.g. Blyth, therefore these pupils are not eligible for free school transport at the moment and would not impact on the cost of transport.

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How would pupils, reliant on transport, access after school clubs?

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How would pupils, reliant on transport, access after school clubs?

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The school can talk to Transport officers about how school transport could be arranged to enable students to access after school activities, however, home to school transport will only operate once in the afternoon for all children.

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Children in Year 5 (age 8/9) are too young to travel to school by themselves.  What thoughts have been given to the safety of pupils travelling to and from school?

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Children in Year 5 (age 8/9) are too young to travel to school by themselves.  What thoughts have been given to the safety of pupils travelling to and from school?

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Many children in Year 5 in school partnerships all over Northumberland travel to school either accompanied by parents, or by bus including Home to School Transport.  Should the proposals to amalgamate the two middle schools be approved, children who meet the qualifying criteria in terms of distance between home and school or where there is no safe walking route are likely to be eligible for Home to School Transport.

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The proposal would increase travel for pupils in Seaton Sluice and result in a longer school day.  What impact will this have on their health and well-being? 

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The proposal would increase travel for pupils in Seaton Sluice and result in a longer school day.  What impact will this have on their health and well-being? 

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The move to school in Seaton Delaval would result in longer journeys for some of our students living in the Seaton Sluice area.  Many students who attend Seaton Sluice Middle live outside of its catchment already and may have shorter journeys to school as a result of this proposal, e.g. those student who live in Seghill and Seaton Delaval.

However, relatively speaking, the greater catchment area of the Seaton Valley Partnership is one of the smallest in the county and therefore travel times for our students would be well under the DfE guidelines as the schools are less than 3 miles apart.  In short, we do not expect additional travel to have a negative impact on students' well-being.

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Would a larger school with bigger class sizes not enable and increase bullying and anti-social behaviour?

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Would a larger school with bigger class sizes not enable and increase bullying and anti-social behaviour?

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Having a larger building does not equate to bigger class sizes – the new buildings will be constructed at the right size for the number of students.  The Seaton Valley Federation takes bullying seriously and we already have effective measures  to tackle bullying and behaviour that would continue should the two middle schools be combined.

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What consideration has been given to using the opportunity to move towards a two-tier primary and secondary school system?

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What consideration has been given to using the opportunity to move towards a two-tier primary and secondary school system?

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As a school partnership that borders other Northumberland partnerships organised as 2-tier and to the south we border the 3-tier system in North Tyneside, this debate comes up regularly.  However, the Governing Body believes that currently the 3-tier system serves the Seaton Valley community well and that the majority of local parents continue to like the system.

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My children currently attend Seaton Sluice Middle School which is judged by Ofsted as good.  However, Whytrig Middle School requires improvement.  Why should my children move to a school that is academically worse?

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My children currently attend Seaton Sluice Middle School which is judged by Ofsted as good.  However, Whytrig Middle School requires improvement.  Why should my children move to a school that is academically worse?

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The Ofsted judgement of RI for Whytrig was made more than 3 years ago.  Since that time the Governing Body has taken on board the results of the report and we have made significant improvements at the school.

Another benefit of the amalgamation is that the good practice of the staff at Seaton Sluice Middle will be able to be more easily shared across all Seaton Valley students.

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My son/daughter has special needs and would struggle even more than they do already if there were more pupils and class sizes were bigger?

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My son/daughter has special needs and would struggle even more than they do already if there were more pupils and class sizes were bigger?

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The new buildings will be constructed to the right size for the number of pupils, therefore class sizes will not be bigger than they already are.  We have support in place for students with special educational needs in all of our schools and this would continue at in the new buildings.

It also means that students currently at Seaton Sluice Middle that may benefit from being able to access additional support for SEND pupils that is provided by the Additionally Resourced Provision at the Whytrig and Astley site will be able to access it more easily

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The consultation document mentions that curriculum development, continuous professional development (CPD) and student support systems would be consistent across all schools and work better.  Should this not already be in place across the federated schools?

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The consultation document mentions that curriculum development, continuous professional development (CPD) and student support systems would be consistent across all schools and work better.  Should this not already be in place across the federated schools?

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Yes, there are shared ways of working across all the schools in the Seaton Valley Federation, but we have simply observed that it is has been easier to ensure consistency when staff share a site and have one leadership structure rather than being on separate sites, with different leaders on each site.  . There is already good partnership working but at the moment SSMS miss out on the day to day close working opportunities that are currently available to the staff at WMS and ACHS

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Can you explain why the Seaton Valley Federation Governing Body think that the proposal to amalgamate the Seaton Sluice and Whytrig Middle Schools would benefit all students in the partnership? 

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Can you explain why the Seaton Valley Federation Governing Body think that the proposal to amalgamate the Seaton Sluice and Whytrig Middle Schools would benefit all students in the partnership? 

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There will be a new building for those pupils who attend ACHS and WMS. The proposed buildings will offer tremendous opportunities, facilities and a teaching and learning experience fit for the young people of the area in the 21st Century. If we keep SSMS where it is the pupils there will not get these opportunities and facilities.  As a governing body we did not think it was right or fair for two thirds of our pupils to get the opportunities offered by the proposed new build whilst the other third missed out. By moving forward with the proposal all pupils in the federation will benefit from this. Also the facilities offered will be available for the first schools to access when they wished to.

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Is this proposal a way for the Council to make money from the Seaton Sluice site by selling the land for housing?

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Is this proposal a way for the Council to make money from the Seaton Sluice site by selling the land for housing?

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This proposal was not brought forward by the Council but by the Seaton Valley Federation Governing Body as a way to extend the benefits they experience with the shared site at Whytrig and Astley.  The Governing Body has asked the Council to consult on this proposal and that is the reason consultation is happening.

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There is already a lot of congestion in Seaton Delaval at the start and end of the school day around the shared schools’ site. What measures will be taken to address even more traffic if Seaton Sluice students relocate there?

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There is already a lot of congestion in Seaton Delaval at the start and end of the school day around the shared schools’ site. What measures will be taken to address even more traffic if Seaton Sluice students relocate there?

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Whytrig and Astley already have a school travel plan in place and this would need to be reviewed and amended to manage the proposed larger number of students attending the shared site.

The plans for the new buildings will also include an assessment of the impact of traffic and this will be taken into account in the design of the new buildings.

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If the middle schools need to merge why can’t they be located on the Seaton Sluice Middle School site and be kept separate from the high school? 

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If the middle schools need to merge why can’t they be located on the Seaton Sluice Middle School site and be kept separate from the high school? 

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Again, this proposal has come from the Seaton Valley Federation Governing Body in relation to the shared benefits they have seen as a result of students at Whytrig and Astley being on the same site.  The same benefits wouldn’t be possible if both middle schools were on a separate site from the high school.

In relation to the suitability of the Seaton Sluice Middle site for expansion, it is simply not large enough to accommodate 600 students rather than the 312 students it can currently accommodate.

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What will happen to the playing fields if Seaton Sluice Middle School closes?  The fields are currently used by the community and sporting clubs/organisations. 

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What will happen to the playing fields if Seaton Sluice Middle School closes?  The fields are currently used by the community and sporting clubs/organisations. 

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Sport England must be consulted when any local authority plans to make changes that affect school playing fields.  This would be the case if Seaton Sluice Middle School amalgamated with Whytrig.  A plan would have to show that either the playing fields would remain available for community use, or that they are being reprovided elsewhere.  Any ideas as to how the playing fields could be maintained for use by the local community are welcomed as part of this consultation.

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The proposal states that pupils at Seaton Sluice Middle School would benefit from a modern educational environment within new buildings together with their peers who are on roll at Whytrig Middle and Astley High Schools.  Is it not possible to just upgrade Seaton Sluice Middle at its current site?

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The proposal states that pupils at Seaton Sluice Middle School would benefit from a modern educational environment within new buildings together with their peers who are on roll at Whytrig Middle and Astley High Schools.  Is it not possible to just upgrade Seaton Sluice Middle at its current site?

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The rationale put forward by the Seaton Valley Federation Governing Body is that they would like students attending Seaton Sluice Middle School to gain the same benefits that have been experienced by students at Whytrig and Astley from being on the same site.

Also, the funding identified for Whytrig and Astley by the Council has been as a result of the condition of their buildings.  Seaton Sluice Middle School buildings are not as high up on the priority list and therefore would not be replaced at the same time if the school remains where it is.

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In the report, it states that the new buildings may be on an alternate site.  What alternative sites are being considered and when will people be consulted on this?

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In the report, it states that the new buildings may be on an alternate site.  What alternative sites are being considered and when will people be consulted on this?

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The council is currently developing an outline business case to assess all the options in order to establish a recommended option which is due to be complete in the spring of 2022.  The project team with the support of specialist surveyors are currently carrying out a site option appraisal reviewing a number of site options. The sites are currently being appraised in a systematic manner by application of seven criteria which are scored by a specialist surveyor in order to grade any suitable options.

As and when it is possible to share more detail on the site options currently being assessed we will release the details.

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What happens if Cabinet don’t approve the proposal to amalgamate the two middle schools?

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What happens if Cabinet don’t approve the proposal to amalgamate the two middle schools?

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If this proposal is rejected by Cabinet, then Seaton Sluice Middle will carry on where it is at the moment, and the building project would still go ahead but be limited to reprovision for Astley and Whytrig.

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Given that the funding to replace the Whytrig and Astley buildings is already agreed, would the Council’s Cabinet actually agree to spend any more money to accommodate the students and staff from Seaton Sluice Middle?

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Given that the funding to replace the Whytrig and Astley buildings is already agreed, would the Council’s Cabinet actually agree to spend any more money to accommodate the students and staff from Seaton Sluice Middle?

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That is why we are consulting on the proposal.  The Council’s Cabinet will look at all of the factors around the proposal e.g. the rationale from the Governing Body, the feedback from consultation and the additional costs for expanding the building project.  They will then make their decision about whether or not to go the statutory phase of consultation based on this information.

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Can you explain where the proposal to amalgamate Seaton Sluice Middle with Whytrig on a shared site with Astley High has come from?

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Can you explain where the proposal to amalgamate Seaton Sluice Middle with Whytrig on a shared site with Astley High has come from?

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Funding to replace the buildings for Whytrig and Astley is already in place in the Council’s Medium Term Plan and work had started on developing an Outline Business Case for the project.

Having started down the route of developing their Education brief, the Seaton Valley Federation Governing Body identified that the benefits they have seen arise from the shared location of Whytrig and Astley could be extended to students living in the Seaton Sluice area, as well as the opportunity for those students and staff benefit from the brand new facilities planned for the other schools.

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Proposals presented to Family and Children's Services OSC

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Proposals presented to Family and Children's Services OSC

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This report sets out the request of the Governing Body of the Seaton Valley Federation to the Council to carry out informal consultation on a proposal to amalgamate Seaton Sluice Middle School and Whytrig Middle School on the current Whytrig and Astley Community High School site in Seaton Delaval or alternative site, should one be identified as part of the site option appraisal.  This proposal has arisen in the light of the capital project to reprovide new buildings for Astley and Whytrig Middle School on their current site, these two schools already being co-located on the high school’s site in Seaton Delaval.  Although the initial project was limited to the reprovision of new buildings for Astley and Whytrig, in the course of planning this project the federated Governing Body has identified a number of significant educational and financial benefits for all students within the Seaton Valley Federation to be co-located on one site in new buildings, and these are included in this report.

Furthermore, the proposal would require the expansion of the capacity of the planned new buildings for  Whytrig in order to accommodate students relocated from Seaton Sluice and this would be included within the informal consultation.  Therefore, the report also notes that Cabinet may be requested to permit the publication of a statutory proposal in line with the requirements of The School Organisation (Establishment and Discontinuance of Schools) Regulations 2013 and The School Organisation (Prescribed Alterations to Maintained Schools) (England) Regulations 2013 following the outcomes of informal consultation at a future date (Appendix A).