ONE OF Taunton’s secondary schools will soon be able to teach 1,200 pupils after being given permission to expand.

Bishop Fox’s School, located in the south of the town, currently caters for 915 pupils from Taunton and the villages south of the M5.

Somerset County Council has given the go-ahead for the school to grow, so that it can accommodate a further 285 pupils from September 2020 onwards.

With Taunton’s other secondary schools already “full to the rim”, this expansion will provide sufficient space for secondary pupils in the town until September 2022.

The expansion was unanimously approved by the council’s cabinet at a meeting in Taunton on Wednesday morning (December 19).

Head teacher Kerry Tonkin, who was in attendance, issued a written statement ahead of the meeting expressing her support for the project.

She said: “I can confirm, on behalf of the school’s trust, our full support for the expansion of our school.

“The trust recognises the need to respond to the increase in secondary pupils forecast from 2020 onwards, and is pleased to be working with the local authority to provide secondary schools places for the young people of Taunton.”

To accommodate the extra pupils, two additional teaching blocks will be constructed and the existing dining room area will be expanded.

In a survey conducted in November, 91 per cent of parents of existing pupils said they were in favour of the expansion.

Liz Smith, the council’s service manager for schools commissioning, said in her written report that the school was better placed to expand than other secondary schools in the Taunton area.

She said: “Castle School is part of the Castle Partnership Trust and the trust is not willing to expand. The site is landlocked and the trust strongly believes additional pupils will impact on standards.

“Taunton Academy is part of the Richard Huish Trust and currently ‘requires improvement’, according to Ofsted.

“While the site is physically capable of an expansion of 150 places,  it would require the approval of the regional schools  commissioner, which is unlikely to be forthcoming with a ‘requires improvement’ schools.

“For school place planning purposes, Heathfield School is now mostly treated as a planning area in its own right, given the significant housing in its catchment area and its position on the outskirts of Taunton.

“Further places here will be required in this area for the continued growth of Monkton Heathfield.”

Councillor Faye Purbrick, cabinet member for education and transformation, said: “I am delighted to bring forward another project to bring additional school places in Somerset.

“We continue to see growing demand, and this will meet our requirement for secondary places in Taunton until September 2022.”

Julian Wooster, the council’s director of children’s services, admitted the work needed to expand the school would cause “significant disruption” – but said he was confident the project would be completed on time and on budget.

He said: “We have delivered schools within budget and have been complimented by the Department for Education on that. We have been asked to share our expertise with other authorities.”

Ms Tonkin added: “A lot of hard work has gone into the impact that this will have on the school day over the next 12 months.

“We are pleased to help the [council’s] team find additional places, since the rest of Taunton is pretty much full to the rim.”

Councillor Bill Revans, who represents North Petherton, asked whether the council was still intending to deliver a new secondary school in Monkton Heathfield in the coming years.

He added: “My children all went to Bishops Fox’s school and did excellently – it really is a superb school.”

Council leader David Fothergill said a new secondary school in Monkton Heathfield could be delivered through the Housing Infrastructure Fund, if the council’s joint £83M bid with Taunton Deane Borough Council and Sedgemoor District Council was successful.

Ms Purbrick added: “I am talking to everybody I can who should be giving us money for new schools.

“We will look in every place and argue for every penny.”