Pre consultation on Free School Presumption for schools at Westland Heath, Sudbury and Boyton Place, North West (NW) Haverhill.
Suffolk County Council will soon be seeking applications from which to identify its preferred sponsor to run two new mixed gender mainstream primary schools for children aged 4 to 11.
There will be a new primary school in the Boyton Place development near Little Wratting, NW Haverhill and a new primary school in the Westland Heath development (formerly known as Chilton Woods), Sudbury.
The Boyton Place Primary School is due to open as a one form of entry (FE) primary school. The Westland Heath Primary School is planned to open as a one FE primary school. Both schools will open initially with reduced numbers and grow as the developments progress.
Suffolk County Council plans to launch a competition under the free school presumption legislation for both schools. We will invite proposals from Academy Trusts who wish to establish and run one of the new primary schools. The Council’s process meets the statutory requirements of the Education Act 2011.
The target opening date for both new schools is September 2028, however this may change due to demographics and/or build out rates of the new housing developments.
It may be necessary to limit the PAN at each school whilst the schools grow to ensure that the opening of each of the schools does not have a negative impact on their surrounding schools and to ensure that there are sufficient places for those moving into the area. The new primary schools and pre schools are already in design, therefore the successful sponsors will not have the opportunity to influence the design of the new schools. The designs will have progressed and could be at planning stage when the successful trusts are identified.
It is expected to cost approximately £8.4m to deliver a 1 FE school, however the final costs for delivering these schools are unconfirmed at this stage, as the design and surveys are not yet complete.
The schools will be funded in line with Suffolk growth funding, the guidance is available at https://suffolklearning.com/finance/schools-accountancy/school-funding/growth-policy/
The closing date for this pre consultation is Monday 16 February 2026 and we invite you to share views on these proposals prior to that date. Please send your comments to: schools@suffolk.gov.uk
