SURREY County Council’s cabinet has signed off plans to expand Farnham Heath End Secondary School by an additional 30 places per year.

Council chiefs agreed to Heath End’s expansion plans at the November 28 cabinet meeting in response to the “significant increase in the demand for school places in the Farnham area”.

This, the cabinet member for education Mary Lewis explained, reflects “increases in birth rates in the area and the consequent increase in the primary age population”.

Just last week The Herald reported that Heath End teacher Nick Phillips was stepping down at the end of the term for health reasons, to be replaced by current Weydon co-head Stuart Maginnis.

Heath End, which was handed a ‘required improvement’ rating by Ofsted in February 2016, also joined the high-performing Weydon Academy Trust in April 2017 in a bid to reverse its fortunes.

Commenting on these changes, Mrs Lewis said she was “confident” that the expansion and Heath End’s new executive head “would give impetus to improvements for the future”.

A report to Surrey’s cabinet laid bare the demand for secondary places in the Farnham and Ash areas, forecasting that in five years time there could be a deficit of more than a hundred school places locally.

The report adds that Weydon has been expanded “to its fullest extent” in recent years and All Hallows, as a Catholic school, takes 60 to 70 per cent of its pupils from outside of the county and so is not a suitable option for expansion.

As such, cabinet members approved the business case for the expansion of Heath End School from 190 places per year for children aged 11 to 16 across seven forms of entry (950 places), to 220 places per year and eight forms of entry (1,100 places).

The expansion is expected to come into effect from September 2018, and will be accompanied by the creation of a new sports hall and additional dining space, classrooms, science and ICT facilities, subject to planning permission.

Heath End School, in partnership with the county council, consulted parents on the proposed expansion in October last year - but this solicited just 21 responses; eight supportive, nine negative and four neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

The potential cost of the expansion has not been disclosed by the county council.

However, Surrey has revealed that at least part of its funding for the project will have to be sourced through “council borrowing”.