Free school will be based at Bruche and Hillcock Lane (From Warrington Guardian)

Kings School Woolston to have new site at Bruche and Hilcock Lane

8:00am Friday 29th June 2012 in News

THE row over where a new free school in Woolston will be based is over after a site was officially confirmed.

Kings School Woolston will open in the infant building of Bruche Primary School in September for two years.

It will then move to new buildings on the playing fields of Hillock Lane in 2014.

Johnny Scotland is a former head boy at Woolston High School.

He has been heavily involved in the free school project and welcomed the confirmation on Friday from the Department for Education.

“It’s very exciting, it feels like we’re nearly there.

“We have got the school site so we can move forward.

“The site has always been the issue.

“Everything is in place now and this is the final piece of the puzzle.”

Admission numbers have yet to be confirmed for the new term, with 120 places available.

Mr Scotland said class sizes may not be known until the free school is set to open.

“I think once we have got going people will be queuing up.

“We have filled places with parents who say they want them but we won’t know until September.

“We have been assured we will open regardless.”

Recruitment for the free school has been focused on the Woolston and Padgate communities, added Mr Scotland, who denied that children at other high schools have been approached.

It will be headed by Shane Ierston, currently associate vice president at the Ormiston Bolingbroke Academy in Runcorn, and run outside of council control.

Controversy has surrounded the site application with Warrington Borough Council accusing the DfE of bullying and threatening plans for special needs provision.

The executive board approved the application for Bruche Primary School and Hillock Lane to be used, before the decision was called in by party backbenchers.

The conflict appears to now be over.

Warrington Borough Council has confirmed that the sites have been agreed.