Diocese of East Anglia gets approval for new primary school in Peterborough

Pupils from St Thomas More Catholic Primary School in Peterborough during recent visit by Papal Nuncio.

Source: Diocese of East Anglia

The Government on Friday (14 June) announced its approval for a bid from the Diocese of East Anglia for a new Catholic voluntary-aided (VA) primary school for the Hampton East housing development in Peterborough.

This school will help to meet demand for more school places in the city as well as providing more Catholic school places.

Helen Bates, Assistant Director for Schools, said: "This is fantastic news. It will provide the first brand-new, purpose-built Catholic school in this Diocese for decades. We would like to thank everyone who helped us make this bid a success by providing their support earlier this year.

"We will now need to go through a statutory consultation to make our case to the local education authority (Peterborough City Council), to approve the opening of the new school. We will be asking for people's support once again when we do this. When this consultation starts there will be further information available on the Diocesan website at www.rcdea.org.uk/vaschools."

It is expected that when the new school is full it could have up to 90 places or three classes in each year group. It is also expected to have a nursery.

"We will work closely with Peterborough City Council to make sure that the right number of school places are available at the right time," said Helen.

The Diocese submitted bids for three new VA schools, with the others being in Northstowe in Cambridgeshire and Great Haddon in Peterborough.

"We were not successful with these two bids," said Helen, "and are waiting to find out the reasons behind this from the Government. But to be successful with one is great news."

Voluntary-aided schools are state funded and unlike free schools, have no limit on faith admissions.

"We expect that this school, like most schools in the Diocese, will have a wide mix of children of all faiths and none. On average, about a third of pupils in our schools are not Catholic" said Helen.