The council has signed a £12.07m build contract for 300 extra places. Cabinet agreed in 2023 that the extra pupils would start in September 2026, not 2028.
Herefordshire Council has signed the building contract for the expansion of Aylestone School in Hereford, at a price of £12,067,028.21. The council announced the appointment on 17 September and said the school will take its first enlarged Year 7 intake in September 2028.
When Cabinet approved the scheme, it expected those pupils to start in September 2026, which is now.
The council’s news release names Morgan Sindall Construction’s Central team as the appointed contractor and gives a figure of £13.6m for the investment. The record of officer decision that actually awarded the work, signed on 1 September by Corporate Director for Children and Young People Tina Russell and published on 17 September, is more precise on both points. It awards a JCT design and build contract to Overbury plc, the fit-out business that says it is part of Morgan Sindall Group plc and shares the group’s registered office at Kent House, 14-17 Market Place, London, per Companies House. And £13.6m is the budget, not the price of the work.
What the £13.6m is actually spent on
The decision record breaks the budget down:
- construction: £10,913,292.32
- refurbishment works: £471,148.63
- pre-construction services agreement costs: £665,228.26
- early enabling works: £17,358.99
- professional fees and surveys: £1,000,000.00
- internal fees and charges: £200,000.00
- council contingency: £332,971.79
Those first four lines are the contract. The money comes from the Department for Education’s Basic Need Grant, £13,105,000, plus a further allocation of £495,000.
The date has moved twice
The Cabinet decision of 23 February 2023 set out to approve the expansion “to accommodate additional pupils admitted from September 2026 in response to rising numbers in the city”. It agreed the school should grow to five forms of entry, 150 pupils per year group, “at a cost of not more than £13.1m including fees and contingency”, subject to planning consent.
Planning consent arrived on 19 January 2026. Announcing it, the council said the first intake into Year 7 would be from September 2027, under planning reference P251073/PSI. That release still used the £13.1m figure.
Eight months later, the date is September 2028 and the figure is £13.6m.
Neither the January nor the September release mentions that the date has changed, and neither gives a reason for it.
What the school gets
The scheme adds 300 places, 60 in each year group. Aylestone is an 11 to 16 community school on Broadlands Lane, off Aylestone Hill, and it is close to full: Get Information About Schools records a capacity of 450 and 443 pupils on roll, with 30.5% of pupils eligible for free school meals.
The building work covers:
- a new sports hall with changing facilities
- a two-storey teaching block with six classrooms, a music room and practice spaces
- internal remodelling of existing buildings
- a widened access route, and a drop-off and pick-up area for vehicles
The council’s reasons for the scheme are blunter in the decision record than in the press release. A feasibility study found that increasing capacity leaves the school “under-provided for accommodation in several areas”: under-provided and under-sized general and specialist teaching spaces, no suitable sports hall, and too little administration, storage and toilet space.
Why not Whitecross, and why not Kingstone
The record is unusually candid about the two schools the council would rather have expanded.
Whitecross High School “would have been the preferred option, as there is a significant shortage of capacity at the school”. It was ruled out because the school sits inside a Private Finance Initiative contract. The landlord was willing, but expanding would have pushed up the annual unitary charge the council pays the PFI contractor. A clarification dated 1 September 2026 in the decision record puts a number on it: at the time it was estimated at £450,000 of additional revenue cost per year, index linked.
Kingstone High School was explored in detail and remains an option for a future expansion. The September 2026 clarification explains why it was not used now: Kingstone has seen a drop in numbers since the original consultations, the housing developments in its catchment are small, and it is south of the city, “so not where we need the places currently”.
What residents said, and what was not answered
Two public consultations ran on the scheme, one in the summer term of 2023 and one in July 2024 on the designs. The record summarises the objections:
- increased traffic, and with it parking and pedestrian safety, on Aylestone Hill and Broadlands Lane
- increased pollution and the effect on the natural environment
- concern about expanding a school that Ofsted had judged Requires Improvement
- a lack of investment in other oversubscribed schools
The record says traffic and environmental impact “will be looked at in greater detail in the design stage”, and that after the 2024 consultation “concerns remain around the traffic implications for Aylestone Hill and Broadlands Lane”. The council’s January planning release said the widened access and drop-off area “can be implemented if required, depending on the outcome of the Safer Routes to School scheme”, so that part of the scheme is not guaranteed.
On the Ofsted point, Ofsted’s own record shows Aylestone was judged Requires Improvement at its last three full inspections, in January 2018, December 2021 and July 2024. Behaviour and attitudes and personal development were both judged Good in 2024; quality of education and leadership and management were Requires Improvement. Ofsted stopped giving schools a single overall grade in September 2024.
What it means for you
If your child is in the current Year 5 or below and you live in the north of the city, this is the scheme that is meant to create the secondary places. On the council’s latest timetable the first enlarged Year 7 intake is September 2028, which is the intake for a child in Year 5 this school year.
For anyone applying sooner, nothing changes: Aylestone’s admission number is unaffected until the building is finished. Applications for a September 2027 secondary place close on 31 October.
If you live on Aylestone Hill or Broadlands Lane, the construction traffic comes first and the drop-off area comes later, if at all. Contact for the project named on the decision record is Annie Ahearne, Programme Coordinator, at annie.ahearne3@herefordshire.gov.uk.
You can see the approved drawings by searching planning reference P251073/PSI on the council’s planning search, and our Hereford planning news page tracks the applications that matter locally.
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