FIVE schools in Northampton will have to undergo emergency expansions over the next few weeks to accommodate an unexpected increase in the number of children in the town.
Northamptonshire County Council this year received 134 applications for school places in the town after all the area’s 8,828 primary school places had been filled.
The applications mean mobile classrooms will have to be opened at Boothville Primary School, Bridgewater Primary School, Castle Primary School, Delapre Primary School and East Hunsbury Primary School.
Each school will take an extra 30 children and five new teachers will be taken on to teach them.
The county council’s cabinet member for schools, Councillor Andrew Grant (Con, Brackley East) said: “We plan some years ahead for school places. In doing so, we have access to birth rates telling us the numbers of children born in the county who will need school places some four years later alongside plans for new housing developments which will add to the school population.
“However, both this year and last year, we’ve seen a surge of applications for children who quite frankly hadn’t been factored into the town’s capacity needs.”
The unexpected surge in child numbers has only been seen in Northampton and the majority of the late applications have been made by families who have come to the area from eastern Europe.
Parents who did not get their child in any of their first three choices of schools can also apply for one of the new places.
Applications must be made to the county council by June 22.