One of York’s most popular schools is set to get a £7 million upgrade, including a brand new sports hall.
Fulford School would get new classrooms, science labs and spaces for drama, food tech and design and technology spaces, as well as the sports hall.
Consistently over-subscribed, the pressure for spaces at the school is expected to increase as housing developments are built in its catchment area. These include Hungate, Germany Beck and the Barbican site.
Today the school has 1,048 pupils aged 11-16. By 2020/21 this is projected to rise to 1,252 pupils.
If councillors agree to the school expansion, Fulford could increase its capacity by 160 places.
The council anticipates this would be enough to meet demand until 2020.
Show me the money
Where would the £7m to develop Fulford School come from?
£2m from section 106 funding from local housing developments
£0.35m from the school
£4.5m from the council’s Basic Need funding allocation from the Department for Education, provided to help schools deal with capacity issues.
Looking further ahead, the work would “enable a second, relatively inexpensive and cost effective
expansion to be carried out” to meet demand after 2020, says a report to councillors.
At £2.1m, the sports hall is the biggest single component of the project.
Fulford School is the only secondary school in York without a dedicated sports hall.
At present students walk to the University of York to use indoor PE facilities there.
“With greater pupil numbers, it would not be possible to continue the arrangement with the university due to other demands on the facilities by students and the wider community,” says the report by Mark Ellis, head of school services at the council.
Councillors will decide whether to go ahead with the Fulford School development at the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, October 7.
If approved, the work is expected to be completed in 2017.