Lympstone School – expansion plans

Lympstone School – expansion plans

The Parish Council welcomed Mrs Christine McNeil of the Education Department at DCC to the meeting to hear how education for Lympstone children was likely to be provided in the coming years. Mrs McNeil explained that Lympstone was part of the Exmouth Learning Community and that DCC needed to look at education provision from a strategic perspective, taking into account any planned housing development.

Unfortunately, this is not going to help Lympstone School very much as any expansion will probably be based in Exmouth Schools for the foreseeable future. Cllr Richard Eastley commented that when he was a Governor, the School had around 90 pupils, now it has 185 but there has not been any permanent expansion in premises to cope with this increase in numbers.

The Head and Staff do a fantastic job with our young children, but they deserve more from our Education Authority. Cllr Jim Bailey was strong in his condemnation that DCC had not invested in education in Lympstone for many years.

The school has now gained a measure of independence from DCC and is moving forward with plans for its own expansion by using the site of the Church Rooms. The Parish Council is fully supportive of this as this is the only area of land that will allow any expansion of provision at the school.

The Governors and the Head are exploring plans for use of the Church Room site, as well as considering further provision of temporary accommodation within the school site. They would like to thank the Parish Church PCC for their offer to lease the land to them, and for their financial contribution to this very important project.

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