A secondary school in Carlton will get improvements to its outdoor sports facilities as part of a plan to bridge the school’s pupil deficit gap.
Carlton Academy on Coningswath Road has been handed £219,260 by Nottinghamshire County Council to create a new games area.
The project will see new fencing, goal posts, basketball facilities and a spectator area, is “essential” for the academic trust to go ahead with its expansion plans.
The school is for ages 11 to 18 and it includes a sixth form. The latest inspection by education watchdog Ofsted in 2022 rated it as ‘Good’.
Pupil data shows a projected gap of 147 school places by September 2026, rising to a projected shortfall of 201 by 2030.
The school’s initial feasibility report found that – by demolishing unfit space on site and building a new teaching block – the number of pupils per year can possibly increase from 230 to 270.
Papers say this essentially gives an extra year cohort’s worth of pupils, spread across years seven to 11.
This means the wider expansion plans could provide 200 additional school places.
But because the pupil shortfall is expected to rise to 201 by 2030, the wider expansion plans aim to address this number completely.
The council says the new games area is needed as “significant areas of the school’s playground/free association spaces will be unavailable” while the expansion is built.
This means the new sports area will be built before any expansion works begin.
The money for the works and expansion will come from a developer financial contribution – known as a Section 106 agreement – from the large Chase Farm housing development off Arnold Lane in Gedling.
It was previously recommended that £4 million be allocated to the school’s expansion. In January 2025, £1.17 million was approved to go towards the design stage.
