Baby boom gives city schools need; EDUCATION: Huge rise in birthrate means primaries will have to be built.

Byline: By Tony Collins

A NEW generation of primary schools will have to be built in Birmingham to cope with an ongoing baby boom, it has been revealed.

Birmingham is already feeling the effects of a rising birthrate with 2,000 more babies born in the city in 2007 than five years earlier.

And that is expected to increase over the next two to three years, with births due to rise by an unprecedented 5,000, partly due to more young women of child-bearing age making their home in the city.

Birmingham has already identified the need for a new primary school to be built in the Bordesley Green area.

But a spokesman for the city council said the likelihood was for a number of additional new junior and infant schools to be constructed as the baby boom eventually impacts on classroom places.

He said: "We are working to ensure that no child is left without a school place over the next five to ten years.

"Currently there are surplus places, mainly in schools towards the edges of the city, which should help absorb some of the growth in pupil numbers. Most of the growth in population, however, is expected to come from central areas of the city as the age profile of the communities there is much lower than average."

The spokesman said that, in the short term, this involved providing temporary classrooms in areas where demand was highest.

And, at the same time, five primary schools across the city would also be enlarged to provide just over 800 additional places - one of them being Thornton Junior in Ward End which is due to grow by 210 places by becoming a combined primary.

The brand newschool in Bordesley Green would create a further 630 places.

And the spokesman added: "In the longer term, we are aware that we will have to provide new schools."