Oatlands Preparatory School is planning to add two extra classrooms this year and six more in coming years to allow it to offer schooling up to Grade 7 level.
Oatlands Preparatory School is planning to add two extra classrooms this year and six more in coming years to allow it to offer schooling up to Grade 7 level.
Oatlands parents were told of the school's plans in a meeting on Wednesday. As Grocott's Mail reported on January 21, Oatlands was informed last year by Victoria Primary School that from 2014, the school could not guarantee placement for all Oatlands girls entering Grade 4 – more or less a given in past years.
The reason is that Victoria Primary opened an extra Grade 1 class this year, upping their intake which will – in four years – greatly increase the number of Grade 4 pupils, in turn reducing its capacity to admit children from other schools. "We were gravely disturbed by all this," said Oatlands principal Rosaria de la Mare at the parents' meeting.
"The governing body of Oatlands was faced with the option of restricting its annual intake, so that all girls completing Grade 3 would be able to continue at VP," she added. "Sadly, there are already many applicants to Oatlands each year who cannot be accommodated and therefore the governing body felt that the option of expanding the school to Grade 7, introducing Grade 4 classes from 2014, was preferable," said De la Mare.
This year, the school plans to build two extra classrooms – one for an additional Grade R class, one for Grade 2s. The school has already stretched to accommodate extra pupils in all its Grades: There are now three classrooms each for Grade R, Grade 1 and Grade 2, and two for Grade 3.
Six additional classrooms are to be added at a later stage. Parents at this week's school meeting welcomed the school's plans, with some raising their concerns about the school's capacity to accept more pupils.
There are 270 pupils enrolled this year and, because of lack of space, 90 children had to be turned away. In a bid to address an overwhelming number of applicants, Victoria Girls' High is also planning to expand its premises.
