The number of schools opened in England between 1980 and 2007 are given in the following table. To date, there are some 52 schools proposed to open in 2008, though, of course, this figure is subject to change.
It must be noted that, prior to 2002, school details were recorded on three separate databases which did not demand school opening dates. Therefore, while the figures given are correct as recorded, they should be viewed within this context.
Year of opening Number opened 1980 1— 1981 1— 1982 1— 1983 1— 1984 1— 1985 1— 1986 1— 1987 1— 1988 1 1989 1 1990 1 1991 6 1992 6 1993 2 1994 1 1995 48 1996 136 1997 76 1998 86 1999 133 2000 124 2001 153 2002 118 2003 126 2004 129 2005 128 2006 138 2007 186 Total 1,599 1 No data Source: EduBase
The figures include schools that opened as a result of the amalgamation or merger of two or more schools; schools that have closed but reopened as voluntary schools with a religious character; and schools that have opened in local authorities that have moved from a three-tier to a two-tier system.
(2) how many schools in each local education authority have been built since the Education and Inspections Act 2006 came into force; and how many plans for new schools to be built have been drawn up since then;
(3) what percentage of schools that decided to rebuild at least 70 per cent. or more of their existing floor space were rebuilt with private finance initiative funding in each of the last 10 years, broken down by local education authority;
(4) which local education authorities have made plans to rebuild less than 70 per cent. of their floor space of schools since 1997;
(5) what percentage of the schools which have decided to rebuild less than 70 per cent. of existing floor space of schools since 1997 was funded by (a) a design and build conventional capital and (b) private finance initiative funding;
(6) how many local education authorities have made plans to rebuild at least 70 per cent. or more of the existing floor space of a school since 1997, broken down by local education authority.
We hold only some of this information centrally.
Earlier this year we collected data from all education authorities on their schools building investment. This includes, for instance, the number of new schools built each year over the past 10 years, either as additional schools or as replacement of existing schools, by each authority. This is the one area where the data we hold relate directly to one of these questions.
The data also include the numbers of schools where authorities have renewed over 80 per cent. of the floor area of schools, and where they have renewed from 50 per cent. to 80 per cent. This information is available in the House Library.
The information we requested was on completed projects, not on local authorities’ plans.