Newport grammar school in £2 million expansion as it widens admission area to whole of Telford

A £2 million expansion will see it given a new teaching block and an increase of more than 150 new pupils.

The school has today began a consultation on plans to extend its premises and increase the number of pupil places by 25 per cent at Year 7 level.

Following the recent announcement that the government will invest £50 million in grammar schools, Haberdashers' Adams will apply for funding to build a new teaching block to accommodate an additional 30 pupils in Year 7 from September 2020 onwards.

Headteacher Gary Hickey said: “Alongside the growing need for grammar school places, we want to be able to extend our work on social mobility by providing opportunities for even more children from disadvantaged backgrounds. We are therefore proposing to widen our attendance area to include the whole of Telford.

“I passionately believe in the power of the grammar school system to aid social mobility and to allow the most able pupils to achieve their potential."

Full details of the school’s plans can be found at adamsgs.uk/proposal2020

It will be the biggest expansion of pupil numbers in the school's history – and children from across Telford will be made a priority.

In September 2020, the number of pupils taken into the school's first year will increase by 30. This will continue every year for five years.

Priority was previously given to boys applying from the Newport area, but this will now be extended to the whole of the Telford & Wrekin borough.

Mr Hickey said the move will help increase social mobility in the town.

"Four years ago when I became the head we introduced the admissions area to Newport," he said. "I was concious that a school should serve its community and Adams had moved away from that – we were bussing in literally hundreds of pupils from quite a long way away, and I felt that Adams had become divorced from our local community.

"We had 100 places every year in September, and we were having six or seven pupils from Newport. We just didn't think that was fair. So we're delighted that after the outreach work we're now into 30 from the Newport schools.

"Because of the success of that, we want to extend that attendance area to include all of Telford. We're not going to work in wards or divisions, we'll expand to all of Telford. That will mean is that any boy who takes the test and lives within the Telford & Wrekin boundary, if they pass the test they will get priority.

"This opens the door to more choice. There are fantastic schools in Telford, but this opens up a avenue of possibility for these children and their parents."

A small amount of bus pass bursaries will be given out to some pupils from disadvantaged families who would otherwise struggle to travel to Newport.

"We don't think any form of social or financial barrier should ever stop someone getting the education of their choice," Mr Hickey said.

"Adams will make a significant difference in terms of social mobility for the children of Telford."