Potential schools closure concerns
Thursday 16th July 2009, 1:25PM BST.
A number of Shropshire primary schools may be forced to close because of funding pressures and population changes, warns a top level report.
The warning is contained in the findings of the independent policy commission, which has spent more than 12 months looking into the future of Shropshire primaries and examining how the network can be sustained.
The report calls on Shropshire Council to develop a vision for its schools involving stronger cooperation between them and the community.
The report came as Oakland School, in Bayston Hill, was due to close today after it was amalgamated with Longmeadow School.
But the report says: “The development of such a vision will not remove the need for difficult choices about individual schools, nor will it by itself solve the problem that there may be insufficient resources to sustain the existing network of schools.
“The commission believes that a number of schools may become difficult to sustain in the context of public expenditure pressures and population changes.
“If closures are necessary, they should be carefully planned in advance with the involvement of parents, headteachers, teachers, other staff and governors. The rest of the school network should then be able to plan a secure future in the context of the new vision schools.”
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