WITH the summer holidays almost behind us, parents and children have been rushing to get ready for a new school year.

While the bustle of buying school uniforms, dodging the latest stationery craze and frantically ensuring your child’s new shoes conform to the school regulations hasn’t changed, where children go to school in Colchester certainly has.

Thanks to a continuing boom in the town’s population, Essex County Council has had to think long and hard about delivering new school places across the spectrum.

Ten years ago, many parents had a good idea which school their child would be going to, with a small amount of choice in each area.

But the past five years have seen not only a huge boost in much-needed school places but also new schools.

Colchester has seen the arrival of Camulos Academy and Braiswick Primary School for primary children, while St John’s Green saw the expansion of a second campus and others have had new classrooms built to keep up with demand.

Secondary schools have also seen their fair share of new space.

The Stanway School created 300 new spaces thanks to an expansion, which included new laboratories, design and technology rooms and space for art and drama.

And Philip Morant School and College has also grown to take create a further 300 places.

It has been a huge undertaking for Essex County Council.

Ray Gooding, Essex County Council’s cabinet member for education, said: “We have an excellent track record of investment in new school places in Essex, including spending millions on new places in Colchester as part of our ten year plan for the county.

“Our investment is in response to significant growth in the town and subsequent increase in the demand for school places.”

So far it has spent hundreds of millions of pounds on bringing 1,724 new school places to Colchester.

But it is far from over.

This month **SEP** will see 875 more primary places created with a further 720 secondary places.

Fast forward to September 2019 and Paxman Academy will be opened on the site of the former Alderman Blaxill school in Shrub End, delivering 900 new school places to the surrounding area.

A consultation is currently taking place to gather residents’ views.

And as new homes are still earmarked for Mile End and Stanway in the coming years, more schools are due to be built.

The Chesterwell development is set to see a new academy created which will serve local children aged from reception class through to when they take their GCSE’s.

Trinity College will be run through a partnership of Manningtree High School, Colchester County High School for Girls and the Gilberd School.

Although a final date on when the school could be built has yet to be decided upon, it is thought the primary school site could be started within the next three years.

Stanway is also due to see a new primary school built at the Lakelands site. Originally intended to open this year, it has been pushed back as the building of new homes has slowed.

Essex County Council also plans to expand Stanway Primary, Stanway Fiveways, St Michael’s Primary and Home Farm to cope with the demand.

Mr Gooding said: “This year we have seen work completed on a number of schools and I am extremely proud we will be able to welcome new pupils at the start of the 2018/19 term.”

“Expansion projects and new builds such as these will give families more choice of schools in the area and ensure that more parents can be offered their first preference of school for their child.

“We will continue to monitor growth in Colchester, as we do in all areas of the county, to ensure there are sufficient school places moving forward and that every child has access to a high quality education.”