TWO new schools are likely to be opened in Enfield to cope with the rapid increase in secondary school pupils in the next ten years.

Enfield Council is proposing setting up the academies as well as looking expand nine existing secondary schools to cope with nearly 1,000 extra pupils anticipated by 2020.

A planned new academy in the Meridian Water housing development could be doubled in size and another school, on a site yet to be identified, is planned.

And the council is looking at extra classes at Broomfield School, Lea Valley High, Highlands School, Edmonton County School, Kingsmead Academy, Bishops Stopford and Oasis Academy Enfield to cope with the increase.

A ten-year strategy is due to be agreed by cabinet at a meeting next Wednesday, as the council faces up to needing 4,815 secondary places but only having 4,100 under current arrangements.

The plan also assumes that the Bell Lane site in Ponders End currently occupied by the Oasis Academy Hadley will be kept as a school once the academy moves to its new building in South Street.

The council is also looking to expand St Ignatius School or Enfield Grammar in 2019 by one form of entry, and either St Anne’s School or Enfield County School by the same amount the year after.

The plan, drawn up after a summit meeting of secondary headteachers in September, is the borough's response to the cancellation of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) funds by the Government.

Under BSF, existing schools would have been expanded and a new school created in 2015, but the money evaporated when the whole fund was axed.

The report to councillors concedes the demand for places may increase with future housing developments, but the strategy does not take into consideration the impact of new Free Schools that may be set up.