Parents want rethink on scrapped secondary school

Parents living on a new build housing estate said they were disappointed funding had been withdrawn for a secondary school.

In February, the Department for Education (DfE) decided not to go ahead with Dallington Park School in Northampton, which would have created up to 900 places and helped meet demand from new housing in the area, including the Dallington Grange Development of 3,000 homes.

Mum-of-two Daniela Oanta started a petition calling for a review of the decision she said: "I feel very disappointed, I feel that [moving here] was the worst decision we could ever make."

West Northamptonshire Council said there was "sufficient secondary school capacity" at local schools.

Oanta, 37, said: "When we found out that the school is not being built, we are looking potentially to live another year and then sell the house and move somewhere where it's closer to a secondary school, which is annoying because that wasn't our plan."

Clare Hopkins, who has five children aged between 21 and nine, said: "We don't have a catchment for secondary schools, there are no options all the schools around us are oversubscribed.

"When we moved to Northampton we were given a list of five schools and one was in Brackley, one was in Wellingborough, it's completely unreasonable to think we should be travelling that number of miles to get our kids to school."

Dallington Park School would have added 180 places in 2027, eventually growing to 900, and had already begun preparing to open by taking registrations of interest from parents.

Sally Keeble, a ward councillor Dallington Spencer and leader of the Labour opposition group on West Northamptonshire Council, said: "The decision made to scrap the school in Dallington Grange has left the town with a looming crisis."

She has also called for the decision to "be revisited".

Following a Freedom of Information request, Keeble said the government had made "decision based on out-of-date information".

West Northamptonshire Council said in a statement: "Families in the area will continue to have access to a choice of secondary schools, with admissions managed in line with the national admissions process.

"The council remains committed to ensuring local children can access high-quality school places."

A DfE spokesperson said: "No child should be without a suitable school place and the statutory duty to provide sufficient school places sits with local authorities.

"We work closely with local authorities and provide funding to them to meet that need for places based on their own data and forecasts."

Do you have a story suggestion for Northamptonshire? Contact us below.

Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.