Ensuring there are sufficient school places to meet parental demand is a statutory duty for councils. This means that councils must make population and pupil forecasts in order to anticipate changes in demand. Where additional places are required the council is responsible for securing them. This applies to maintained schools, voluntary controlled schools, voluntary aided schools, free schools and academies.
Every year the council is required to make a school capacity (SCAP) return to the Department for Education (DfE). This includes information about the number of children on roll in each school planning area by age, as well as details of the capacity of schools.
The data from the SCAP return has, over recent years, identified building pressure on primary places in the golden valley.

On 27th October 2022, Herefordshire Council agreed to rebuild Peterchurch Primary school on its current site, with an investment of over £10m.

The rebuild of the school will increase the capacity of the school from 105 to 140 and will include a Nurture Hub which will accommodate a further 8 learners. Increasing the capacity of the school, will help reduce this pressure on places in the golden valley.

There is an increasing need for SEN spaces. The proposed Nurture Hub will provide a flexible space that can be adapted to support the needs of the Golden Valley and the wider county. The hub can be used to give dedicated support to additional learners, for example, with social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs and/or low level autism.