Expansion consultation proposal

This is a proposal to expand the number of students on roll at Ormiston Endeavour Academy.

What are we proposing?

As Ipswich continues to grow, the new housing development Ipswich Garden Suburb, will see an additional 3500 homes built when fully completed. The infrastructure required to support such an increase in population includes needing to increase the provision for school places. Initial plans would have seen a new secondary school being constructed as part of the development, however local government agencies have now decided that this will not be the case, and instead have asked that local schools expand in order to meet the increased need for student places.

With this in mind we are looking to expand from having a maximum pupil admission number of 900 students, to a new maximum admission number of 1200 students. We are proposing that this change will take place over the next 5 to 10 years depending upon the progress made by the development and occupancy rates in the new housing.

To support this growth the local authority are working with the Academy to provide additional new facilities. This will be in the form of a new building, providing the capacity for such an increase in student numbers. The project for the new building is currently set to be completed for September 2027 in good time for the planned growth.

It is incredibly important to us that we hear the views of everyone in our community in relation to the plans for this expansion because we want to ensure that any change has our children’s best interests at the heart. A formal consultation period for this will run from Monday 28th April 2025 until midday on Friday 16th May 2025. There will be opportunities for you to share your views, including written feedback and face-to-face stakeholder events.

Why do we think we should expand our academy ? 

The purpose of the expansion is to create sufficient school places to support the continued growth and increase in housing in our local community if implemented, we believe the expansion will bring many benefits such as: 

Benefits for the children 

• Increasing the Academy roll will provide greater opportunities to expand and develop our curriculum in ways that support young people with their developing career aspirations.  Whilst we feel our current curriculum provides a broad and balanced experience for students, the opportunity to further develop this and offer greater choice, particularly at Key Stage 4, is one we feel will benefit students greatly. 

• The growth in student numbers and the associated increases in staffing will provide new and exciting opportunities that stretch beyond the core curriculum  our ability to offer extra-curricular experiences, trips, visits and run activities which allow students to enjoy their passions, or explore new ones, will be greatly enhanced through the planned growth.

Benefits for parents and carers 

• We are firmly committed to serving our local community.  Expansion ensures that parents and carers living in our local community are able to access a school on their doorstep. 

Benefits for staff and the school 

• Enabling the school to provide further new facilities to enable students to engage in their learning in a suitable environment.  The new facilities will include additional classroom, IT suites and social spaces to meet the demands of our continued growth.  With an additional project underway to re-develop our sports hall we will have transformed the Academy’s facilities over the course of a 10 year period. 

• Growth of the Academy will see new opportunities for staff, providing career progression not possible before and allowing us to retain high quality colleagues at a time when staff recruitment is a challenge. 

• Movement to a stable, consistent Academy roll will allow us to plan more effectively for the future, both in terms of staffing and our developing curriculum

What difference would there be?

We pride ourselves on providing a safe, warm and welcoming environment for our students and are determined that growth will not see any change in this commitment.

Over the past 7 years we have seen an increase in student numbers of well over 50%, and yet our commitment to our 3 core values (Building Aspirations, Achieving Excellence, Fostering Kindness) has not waivered.

It is our goal to ensure that continued growth does nothing to diminish the culture we have worked hard to create, and indeed our hope is that taking a greater number of students from our local community will enhance the ethos across the Academy.

The practicalities of a new building project have already been fully considered to ensure that any disruption to the normal running of the Academy is minimized, and we are confident that our current and future students will see ne changes to their learning during the period of construction. Once completed the building will add significant value to the experience of our students.

Where can I find out more and have my say?

To ensure we hear from a wide range of voices throughout the school and wider community, we organised an event on Tuesday 6th May 2025.

You can complete the online stakeholder public questionnaire below, or if you prefer, download this questionnaire, and submit by post, or hand it into the Academy reception.

You can also ask any questions via email at [email protected] 

The deadline for all responses is midday on Friday 16th May 2025. 

Thank you, we look forward to hearing your views.