Nottinghamshire County Council is proposing to lease a primary school site near Newark to an academy trust for three years after the school closes at the end of August.
Caunton Dean Hole Church of England Primary School, on Manor Road in Caunton, is scheduled to close on 31 August 2026.
The council has identified the buildings and land as a possible satellite facility providing additional places for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
Adaptation work is already being carried out at the site ahead of the proposed change of use.
Under the plans, Community Inclusive Trust would take over the property from 1 September 2026 under a three-year lease. The trust currently operates Newark Orchard School.
The new facility would provide SEND services under a separate service-level agreement between the trust and the county council.
The lease would be granted at a peppercorn rent and would be based on the council’s standard academy lease, with the trust taking responsibility for repairing and insuring the property.
The trust would only be permitted to use the site to provide education for SEND pupils under the accompanying service-level agreement. The lease would end automatically if that agreement was terminated.
Community Inclusive Trust would not be allowed to transfer, assign or sublet the property without the council’s written consent. Internal and non-structural alterations would also require prior approval.
The county council would retain access to undertake any further adaptation work agreed between the parties.
An existing informal arrangement allowing Caunton Parish Council to use part of the property would continue throughout the lease.
Any additional sports facilities needed by the academy trust would have to be arranged separately with the owner of those facilities.
The county council’s report says a different use or disposal of the site could have been considered following the primary school’s closure. However, the authority said a need for a SEND satellite school had been identified.
The proposed lease is intended as an interim arrangement. The report states that a more permanent location for the provision may be sought in the longer term.
Consent is also being sought from the Department for Education because granting the lease is legally classed as disposing of former school land. Under the Academies Act 2010, government consent is required where land has been used for a school within the previous eight years.
No separate financial implications have been identified in the report beyond the proposed lease terms, including the peppercorn rent.
The freehold ownership of the site and the lease would pass into the future Nottinghamshire unitary authority arrangements from 1 April 2028 as part of local government reorganisation.
The council’s Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Asset Management has been consulted, while the local county councillor for the Muskham and Farnsfield division has been notified.
Approval has been recommended under powers delegated to the council’s senior property and assets officers. The report does not confirm that the lease has yet been granted, and the arrangement will also depend on the necessary Department for Education consent.
