Issue - meetings

Background:

This report set out details of the Council’s proposals to amalgamate Luton Infant and Junior Schools by way of statutory prescribed alterations, including: changing the lower age range at Luton Junior School from 7 to 3 years old; enlarging the premises at Luton Junior School; and closing Luton Infant School. The impacts associated with the proposed changes were described in section 4 of the report.

The report explained that subject to the outcome of the period of statutory representation, it was proposed that the changes would be implemented on 1 September 2019, when the school would become known as Luton Primary School and Nursery.

The report stated that a four week informal consultation period would be held before the formal statutory representation process. The comments received at the informal stage would be used to develop the proposals into the statutory representation period. Full details of the consultation process were set out at section 7 of the report. It was noted that both Chairs of Governors were supportive of more collaboration and partnership between the two schools.

The report stated that a Diversity Impact Assessment (DIA) would be completed after the informal consultation and would accompany the outcomes of consultation report.

Reasons:

Approval to proceed to a period of informal consultation would ensure the Council complies with its duty to follow the prescribed consultation process when proposing changes to schools.