Catherine has called on the Secretary of State for Education to urgently act following the chaotic allocation of secondary school places for the 2024 pupil intake in Gosforth.

Parents have expressed widespread concern and frustration about the impact of the delays to the building of Great Park Academy in Newcastle Great Park, which was due to be opened in September 2023 on the 4,500-home Great Park development, but will now not open until September 2025 at the earliest. Both schools are part of the Gosforth Group Multi Academy Trust.

The delays have resulted in children from year 5 and upwards being accommodated in temporary classrooms on the site of Gosforth Academy, with 100+ year 9 students to be added in September 2024, following a large oversubscription of applications to Gosforth Academy.

The temporary housing of students on the Gosforth Academy school estate has understandably left parents worried about their children’s education, limits on their GCSE options and the extracurricular activities available on such a compromised site.

In her letter to the Education Secretary, Catherine said: “Over the past few years, I have met with ministers in the Department for Education to raise my concerns about the provision of adequate school places in Gosforth, and more recently, the significant delays to the construction of Great Park Academy.”

Due to the way in which the September 2024 allocations have been made by the Gosforth Group Multi Academy Trust, of which Great Park Academy and Gosforth Academy are both members, students who are only a short walk away from Gosforth Academy have been allocated a place at Great Park Academy and vice-versa.

Catherine also pressed the need for changes to prevent this situation happening again, and outlined Labour’s plan to require all schools, including academies, to co-operate with local authorities on pupil admissions to better join up local education provision.

She urged the Education Secretary to outline what action will be taken to rectify the situation that children and families have been left in, with a desperately-needed secondary school still unbuilt, an existing school oversubscribed, hundreds of children potentially facing a limited GCSE offer due to the temporary accommodation situation and many children potentially set to face unnecessary shunting up and down the incredibly congested highway that is the Great North Road in opposite directions for years to come.

A copy of Catherine’s letter for the Secretary of State is printed below:

Dear Secretary of State,

Gosforth Academy and Great Park Academy Admissions 2024

I have been contacted by a large number of my constituents regarding the allocation of school places for Gosforth Academy and Great Park Academy for the September 2024 intake. Both schools are part of the Gosforth Group Multi Academy Trust.

Over the past few years, I have met with ministers in the Department for Education to raise my concerns about the provision of adequate school places in Gosforth, and more recently, the significant delays to the construction of Great Park Academy on the Great Park development in my constituency. This new secondary school is desperately needed, following the population growth in northern Newcastle which has been planned for some time.

In 2021, I raised with the Department for Education the fact that if Great Park Academy did not open by September 2023, there would be significant pressures on school places in Newcastle. Since that time, unsuccessful procurement exercises undertaken by the Department for Education to find a contractor that could deliver the permanent site, have resulted in major delays to the new school being delivered. Despite the work of parents, the Trust and I to raise how vital it is that Great Park Academy is completed on time, we are now seeing the outcome of children and families being let down, with the new school now not set to open until September 2025 at the earliest.

As a result of the delays to the development of Great Park Academy, the children from Year 5 upwards are currently accommodated in temporary classrooms on the site of Gosforth Academy. Understandable concerns regarding sending additional children to the temporarily sited Great Park Academy school has resulted in a large oversubscription to Gosforth Academy from the various feeder schools.

As a result, an additional 100+ students from Year 9 are expected to be taught on the temporary site until Great Park Academy is completed. This has left students with only a short walk from Gosforth Academy being allocated a place at Great Park Academy, whilst children who live on the Great Park and even further afield being allocated places at Gosforth Academy, all of which will require a bus journey to attend school, rather than being able to access their school on foot.

Parents are understandably concerned that due to the school remaining unbuilt, and being temporarily housed on the Gosforth Academy school site, that Great Park Academy does not have the same level of curriculum offer as Gosforth Academy, leaving parents concerned that their children will not be able to study their desired GCSE options, nor have the same range of extracurricular activities having been allocated a place at a school which does not yet exist.

Many parents are also concerned about the added travel impacts that the distance from their home to the future Great Park Academy will have on potential active travel, whilst I am advised students from Blyth and Ponteland in Northumberland have successfully received places at Gosforth Academy. Parents have also raised concerns about the impact on their child’s health and wellbeing, where their child’s friendship group has been allocated places at one school, and they, singularly, have been allocated a different school some miles away.

It is clear that the Gosforth Group MAT was placed in a difficult position as a result of this oversubscription, however this was an issue that has been evidently in development for years. It is therefore infuriating that Department for Education failures have resulted in nearly 3,000 homes being built in Newcastle Great Park, with no additional permanent secondary schooling facilities completed, years after families have moved to the area.

We desperately need legislative change to require developers to work with local authorities and government to ensure vital infrastructure, such as schools, is delivered alongside new properties. Labour has also committed to ensuring that academies and multi-academy trusts co-operate with local authorities to establish joined-up education provision, rather than allow issues like these to fall by the wayside as the responsibility for addressing them is unclear to parents and schools alike.

In light of the impact this is having on families across Gosforth, the Government must urgently confirm what action will be taken to rectify the situation that children and families have been left in, with a desperately-needed secondary school still unbuilt, an existing school oversubscribed, hundreds of children potentially facing a limited GCSE offer due to the temporary accommodation
situation and many children set to face unnecessary shunting up and down the incredibly congested highway that is the Great North Road in opposite directions for years to come as a result of this debacle.

Yours sincerely,

Catherine McKinnell MP