Plans approved for extended teaching and dining facilities at Mortimer Community College in South Shields

South Tyneside Council’s Planning Committee has approved an application for Mortimer Community College at Reading Road in the West Park ward.

The application, submitted back in 2023, sought permission for a three-storey teaching block extension and a single-storey dining extension to help accommodate more students.

Plans for the school were previously shared with parents and aimed to increase the school’s admission number from 1,050 to 1,200 by 2028.

A design and access statement prepared on behalf of the council as applicant said the plans represented a  “proactive response” to the “ongoing increase in demand” at the school.

After being put to the vote at a Planning Committee meeting on March 11, 2024, the plans won unanimous support from councillors.

The plans include two additional technology rooms, new additional toilet provision, four new ‘general classrooms’, provision of two new science labs within the existing school and extending art space into the new extension footprint.

Plans also include new “circulation space” and staircases, as well as the extension to the existing dining space, the re-alignment of a service road and parking to accommodate the new teaching extension and new car parking bays.

Elsewhere, the plans include new external dining areas and canopies, new fencing and gates and new soft landscaping and replacement trees.

The design and access statement adds: “The school caters for pupils between 11-16 and is a mixed secondary school with up to 1,050 pupils.

“The college is currently 7FE and the proposal is to expand to 8FE, resulting in an additional 150 places, providing a maximum of 1,200 students.

“A significant number of the school buildings appear to have been constructed in the 1980s with a significant rebuilding taking place in the 2000s as part of the STaG (South Tyneside and Gateshead) development of schools.

“The school is an Ofsted ‘Good school’ following the last inspection undertaken in September 2019 […] the school has been over-subscribed in the main year of entry at an average of 211 per cent of PAN (published admission number) over the last four years.

“To proactively respond to the ongoing increase in demand, the local authority has agreed to increase the roll [sic] at the school, with a maximum of an additional 30 pupils per year group”.

Receive a news round-up, as well as breaking news alerts, when you sign up to the Shields Gazette’s newsletters

Funding for the school extension was recently allocated in South Tyneside Council’s capital spending plans for 2024/25, which were approved at a budget meeting on February 22, 2024.

Those behind the school extension previously said the proposed site was “chosen by the school and local authority to provide a connection to the existing gable of the newer, three-storey teaching wing”.

Elsewhere, the dining extension’s position was “dictated by the proximity to the existing dining facilities and kitchen”.

The design and access statement also noted that the school intends to increase staffing numbers and that parking bays would be “modified and extended to accommodate this increase”.

Council documents confirm the development would see an increase of 10 staff to 162 staff members.

For more information on the planning application, visit the council’s planning portal website and search reference: ST/0699/23/LAA.