Plans to merge two Harrogate primary schools have taken a step forward today after county councillors agreed to move proposals to the consultation stage.
North Yorkshire County Council met today to discuss a proposed merger for Woodfield Community Primary School and Grove Road Community Primary School, with parents set to be asked for their views when the consultation opens on December 2.
The schools sit just half a mile apart, but have very different Ofsted ratings, pupils numbers and finances.
Grove Road is rated as “good” by Ofsted inspectors, while Woodfield is judged “inadequate” and currently in special measures.
Woodfield has also failed to find an academy trust willing to take it over.
Due to pupil numbers determining the level of funding that a school receives, it is forecasting to be almost £333,000 in debt by 2024 due to the 49 pupils currently enrolled.
At Grove Road, the school is currently operating at capacity with almost 300 pupils and is forecasting a budget surplus by 2026.
Speaking today, councillor Patrick Mulligan, executive member for education and skills at the county council, described the proposed merger as an “exciting opportunity” for both schools and said the authority would listen to all comments during the consultation:
“We are confident it will achieve the best possible provision for all pupils, and importantly ensuring that the Woodfield site continues to be used for education of the wider community.
“The proposed amalgamation would be achieved through the technical closure of Woodfield School, and the enlargement of Grove Road School through future use of the Woodfield site.”
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A new leadership team was appointed at Woodfield when it was placed into special measures in January 2020 and an Ofsted monitoring report has since said “effective action” is being taken to remove the worst-possible rating.
However, Cllr Mulligan said these arrangements were only ever temporary and that the merger has been proposed as the school still faces an “uncertain future”.
He said:
“The two governing bodies carefully considered the proposals before half term, and both agreed to ask us to start a consultation.
“We have worked together with the schools to assess how education provision within the Woodfield community could best be preserved.
“Families, staff, and other members of the local community will have opportunities to consider the detail of the proposals during the consultation period.”
The consultation will run until January 22 next year before a final decision is made by the county council three months later in April.
If approved, the merger would create a single primary school operating on both school sites from September 2022.
County council meets today to discuss fate of two Harrogate primary schoolsThe plans for Woodfield Community Primary School to merge with nearby Grove Road Community Primary School have been met with fierce backlash from some parents.
Woodfield was put into special measures by Ofsted in January 2020. Any school judged “inadequate” by Ofsted is required to become a sponsored academy but Woodfield failed to find an academy willing to take it on.
At the meeting today county councillors will discuss whether the merger should move to a consultation period from December 2. It has already been discussed by the governing bodies of each school.
The consultation stage would last until January 22, next year with a final decision taken by the executive board in April.
Woodfield Primary School has been under-subscribed for years, according to a county council report. It currently has 49 pupils and Grove Road has 292.
New format for the schools
The Woodfield site would initially operate as a nursery for children from both schools while Grove Road would cater for children from reception to year six.
Then from September 2023, all nursery children and reception pupils would be based at the current Woodfield site, which would eventually accommodate all key stage 1 pupils. All key stage 2 children would be based at the current Grove Road site.
The county council report says if the proposals went ahead, there would be 350 primary school places available across the two sites of the amalgamated Grove Road School.
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The report spoke of the future of staff at Woodfield school:
“The county council is the employer for staff at both Grove Road Community Primary School and Woodfield Community Primary School and the Governing Bodies will seek to protect employment as far as possible for staff currently employed at Woodfield.
“A separate HR consultation process for staff and their professional associations will commence in the spring term and the Governing Bodies will most likely propose an internal transfer of staff from Woodfield to Grove Road.”
A primary school in Ripon has been given a new buddy bench to mark anti-bullying week.
Moorside Primary School received the bench from the company Annington, which has been refurbishing former Ministry of Defence homes nearby.
Children who feel sad or anxious can sit on the bench as a signal to others that they need a friend to speak to.
Made with sustainable wood, the buddy bench is engraved with the following poem:
“We sit, we chat and ask each other questions. We leave as friends, with all good intentions.”
Claire Rowett, the headteacher at Moorside Primary School, said:
“It’s so important to create a safe and caring environment for children so that they are able to talk about their feelings, especially during such uncertain times.
“A shy or anxious child may struggle to ask someone else for support, which is why the buddy bench is such a vital tool in teaching the children what to do when they feel lonely.
“We are very grateful to Annington for donating the bench to us.”
The new buddy bench.
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Annington is one of the largest private owners of residential property in the UK, with over 40,000 homes across England and Wales.
Louise Saunders, sales and marketing manager at Annington, said the company strived to support local communities, adding:
“We are proud to gift the buddy bench to Moorside Primary School, and we hope that the children will be able to use it to create new friendships and feel more confident for many years to come.”
Anti-Bullying Week is organised by the Anti-Bullying Alliance and takes place from November 15 to 19. This year’s theme is “one kind word.”
Pupils and staff at Kell Bank Primary School near Masham will bid farewell to their school for good with a walk, hand in hand, around the playground.
Today is the last day of term and as North Yorkshire County Council has issued a closure notice for August 31, the 200-year-old school will not reopen.
Over the past few months, the school has been celebrating its history and local impact, culminating in a memory exhibition last week and a ceremony to plant a tree and dedicate a bench yesterday.
The ceremony began with a leaver’s service at St Paul’s Church in Healey before the students, staff and parents walked down to Fearby Village Green.
Beatrice and Rev. David Cleese cut the ribbon to dedicate the bench and tree
An oak tree and bench, dedicated to the school, is now in place. Youngest pupil Beatrice cut the ribbon with Rev. David Cleese, a long-standing governor.
The memory exhibition included items spanning the past 100 years as well as photographs and entries from previous headteachers’ diaries.
School governor Laurie Hoyes, who helped organise the three-day event, said they welcomed around 200 people in total.
Mr Hoyes said:
“Children, parents, staff and governors will be saddened when today comes to a close, but we are pleased we had the opportunity to give thanks for the 200 years Kell Bank School has educated the children of our community.”
Past and present pupils trying out the new bench on Fearby Green.
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The six remaining pupils will be moved to different schools; the two Year 6s are going to secondary schools in Ripon and Bedale.
For the younger children’s ease and wellbeing their parents chose similar small, rural schools; two are going to Thornton Watlass Primary School and the other two are moving house so will be attending schools elsewhere in the district.
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Bilton Grange Primary School applied last year to the Condition Improvement Fund, which awards grants to schools for capital projects.
A school spokesperson said it was “brilliant news” it had been chosen and more detailed plans on how the funding will be spent would be discussed next week.
Bilton Grange is one of five North Yorkshire primary schools that belong to Yorkshire Collaborative Academy Trust, which together received £1 million. The other four schools are all outside the Harrogate district.
The CIF fund is designed to keep schools safe and in good working order. This includes health and safety issues, building compliance and poor building conditions.
Aspin Park Academy in Knaresborough got a new roof and fire safety system after it received £500,000 from the fund in December 2019.
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The Bilton and Knaresborough schools both worked with Leeds property consultants Eddisons to secure funding.
Since 2016, Eddisons has raised more than £100 million in successful CIF bids on behalf of schools and colleges.
Ian Harrington, building and project consultancy head at Eddisons, said:
First-choice primary school for 95% of North Yorkshire families“The CIF projects really are essential to creating a better learning and work environment for both students and staff at schools and colleges across the UK.”
In North Yorkshire, 95% of families have secured their first choice of primary school for their child.
Today, many families will have breathed a sigh of relief after receiving news of where their child will attend primary school in September.
A total of 94.91% of families received a place at their first-choice school and 98% got one of their top three preferences.
One Stray Ferret reader said she was “over the moon” her daughter had been offered a place at their preferred school.
Another got in touch to say their child would also be starting at their first-choice school in the next academic year, but remarked that her child had grown up so fast as they still “seem too little”.
Similar high percentages were seen in March when older children received their high school places. Nine out of ten children in the county secured a place at their first-choice high school.
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Stuart Carlton, corporate director of children and young people’s services, said:
Harrogate primary school joins catholic academy trust“We are pleased that so many families continue to gain the first preference from their choice of schools and that the percentage remains consistently high.
“As a local authority we work hard with all North Yorkshire schools to ensure they deliver the highest standards of education so that families who are not given first preferences can still send their children to good schools.
“We wish all children starting primary school in September all the best and hope they experience a happy and exciting start in their new schools.”
St Robert’s Primary School has today become the third school in the Harrogate district to join a catholic academy trust based in Leeds.
The primary school, on Ainsty Road in Harrogate, is now part of the Bishop Wheeler Catholic Academy Trust.
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Harrogate and St Mary’s Catholic Primary School in Knaresborough already belong to the trust, which now has 11 schools in north and west Yorkshire.
St Robert’s has 276 pupils, aged 5-11. Although many are catholic, it admits children of all faiths.
Headteacher Jill Collins said:
“The support and care we have been given over the last year shows how the trust will enable St Robert’s to continue providing an outstanding Catholic education to our children.”
The school was rated ‘outstanding’ in its latest Ofsted inspection. Chair of governors, Dr Matt Blackamore said:
“We are so pleased to be joining our fellow Catholic schools in the Bishop Wheeler Trust and we are looking forward to working closely with them to continue providing great education together.”
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Darren Beardsley, interim chief executive of the trust, said bringing another school into the trust helped to fulfil the vision of the Bishop of Leeds, the Right Reverend Marcus Stock, of a family of schools working together to share resources and raise education standards.
The trust is named after Bishop William Gordon Wheeler, who was Bishop of Leeds from 1966 to 1985.
It is one of five multi-academy trusts in the Diocese of Leeds. It plans to expand in the next few years to include 18 Catholic schools in the area.
Vandals target Bilton primary schoolPolice are appealing for information after vandals damaged Richard Taylor Church of England Primary School in Bilton yesterday.
A classroom window was smashed and the roof of a wooden pavilion damaged.
North Yorkshire Police is appealing for anyone who may have seen people on the school premises since it closed last week to come forward.
The force said in a statement:
“The school has recently suffered a number of incidents of anti-social behaviour, all of which has caused alarm to the school community.”
A member of staff at the school told the Stray Ferret it had found empty vodka bottles on the premises.
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Anyone with information can contact North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 2, and ask for Geeta Maharjan. You can also email geeta.maharjan2@northyorkshire.pnn.police.uk
Alternatively, contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Quote reference number 12200241866.