Baby boom pressure on schools.

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. In the longer term, it would mean new schools.

And, at the same time, five primary schools across the city would also be enlarged to provide just over 800 additional places.