Good news for construction as pupil numbers soar

A report by the Scape Group looks at the current school building challenge across England, by analysing primary and secondary pupil projection numbers from the Department of Education and local authorities. 

Mark Robinson, chief executive of Scape Group, said: “The country will soon start to feel the full weight of the impending boom in pupil numbers, and we’re already seeing unprecedented pressure on school places. A radical new wave of school building must be a top priority for government.”

The current system will be overwhelmed in less than five years unless drastic action is taken.

By 2020 local authorities are predicting that there will be an extra 366,000 primary school pupils and an extra 362,000 in secondary schools. To accommodate them, the country will have to build over 24,000 extra classrooms or over 2,000 extra schools.

In the past year alone, England’s primary school population has jumped by 2.4% or 91,000 extra pupils, which is equal to 434 primary schools.

London, the East of England and the South East will see the biggest increases, with the capital set to see a 15% increase in the number of pupils within the next four years. London will see an extra 170,943 pupils by 2020, which is more than the North East, East Midlands and South West combined.

However, it’s clear that every region of England faces a school building challenge. Even the North East, the region set to see the smallest growth (6%), will need to build as many as 52 new schools over the next four years to accommodate the projected increase in pupils.

More than 2,000 new schools must be built by 2020

This equates to two new schools every day to meet the shortfall. More than 500 of these would be needed in London alone to head off the looming schools crisis.

The report concludes by saying: “Creative solutions including standardised design, classroom extensions and larger ‘super schools’, as well as more effective use of land to deliver mixed-use developments, are all options we need to look at to deliver more new schools.”

Read the full report