Council votes to close Shrewsbury’s Wakeman School
Wednesday 4th May 2011, 3:30PM BST.
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SHREWSBURY’S WAKEMAN School will close after councillors today unanimously backed plans to axe it under a shake-up of education in the county.
The announcement came as a huge blow to parents, pupils and teachers at the school who were awaiting the decision made at a meeting at Shirehall of Shropshire Council’s cabinet.
Campaigners had issued a desperate plea to decision makers to give the school a stay of execution while ideas for a possible federation could be investigated. However, councillors instead unanimously backed council officer recommendations to close it.
The plans will now go out to further consultation and will be rubber-stamped by full council in the summer.
Councillor Nigel Hartin pleaded with fellow cabinet members to call off the decision today to avoid what he fears could be a “horrible” mistake in closing the Wakeman.
But council leader Keith Barrow, said: “We have not gone into this to close schools. There is just one too many schools in Shrewsbury.”
The decision came despite Karen Moore, the school’s headteacher, claiming that dipping pupil numbers across the town was a “temporary feature”.
Pupils try to get their message across outside Shirehall before the meeting
Mrs Moore said: “Is the destruction of an Ofsted judged good school with outstanding points justified for the sake of an extra few pounds to other schools?”
Primary school teacher Alan Parkhurst, who has his own children at the Wakeman and Meole Brace School, said Shropshire primary schools would suffer if it closed.
He said: “Partnership working with the Wakeman is second to none and its arts specialism benefits the whole town. It’s loss will tear the heart out of Shrewsbury.”
But Councillor Mike Owen said the Wakeman was subsidised to a “significant degree”, placing a drain on the education system.
Councillor Aggie Caesar-Homden, the council’s portfolio holder for children and young people’s services, said “no change” was not an option for the Wakeman, with high numbers of unfilled places and low numbers of applications to join.
In this morning’s session at the Shirehall, council chiefs backed the move to press ahead with all schools recommended for federations under the latest plans. A proposal to create an “all through” school at Rhyn Park, St Martins, near Oswestry, was deferred to explore the plans in greater detail.
While an “amalgamated” school will be created in Shawbury, merging Shawbury Primary with St Mary’s Primary School.
Both sites will remain open, but Shawbury Primary School will close, with the decision on where to base the continuing school deferred for further discussion.
Meanwhile Buntingsdale Infant School, near Market Drayton, will be turned into a full primary after council bosses backed the proposal.
By Russell Roberts and Sam Pinnington
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This is a sad day and of no real surprise the labour and liberal council members who spoke on behalf of wakeman deserve a thank you and the damning silence of our mp is very sad as he was always complaining of being short changed under labour this is daylight robbery under the caring torys who don’t care for the future of our kids i hope they sleep well tonight as they have done a good days work and worth every penny.
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Do you know how many pupils opted to attend the school as their first preference this year? 15. There were 135 places available to be filled. Voting with feet methinks.
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Would you “choose” a school for your children which is rumoured to be closing? It’s amazing that 15 people chose it under these circumstances and that children have continued to transfer to it from other schools during this uncertain time – if the threat of closure is lifted, children will flood back. I’ve pledged to send my kids to Wakeman when they’re old enough and I know lots of other people who have too. From firsthand experience I know that The Wakeman is a fantastic school and fingers crossed it will still be here when my kids reach 11.
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Two things.
Firstly, when parents are being told from all corners that the Wakeman was going to close it’s a huge vote of confidence in the school that any parents chose it for next year.
Secondly, it is government policy not to close schools on the grounds of surplus places alone – it’s a bit more complicated than that. The statement from Councillors that it was a fact that Shrewsbury has one too many secondary schools is a political statement – there has been no comprehensive evaluation of the needs of the town in light of rising numbers and in fact, as is well known, if the Wakeman is closed we will have to spend tens of millions on a new school before the end of the decade.
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but how many decided not to with the threat of closure looming? Council have made the choice easier to shut it by making people turn away from it.
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Or this could just be a case of “1 secondary school too many in Shrewsbury” as acknowledged by a Liberal Democrat councillor at the meeting. The Wakeman takes over £350,000 every year away from the education of other secondary pupils in Shropshire. Could that be the daylight robbery in question?
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Good work from sam who has given good information to those of us who couldn’t go to the meeting good honest information thanks and good luck
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What a massive surprise the view of thousands of people many of them voters ignored, come the local elections remove the councilor and as many independents stand as possible.
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Here Here !!!!
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The councillors needed to make a decision based on the financial welfare of the education of Shropshire as a whole, not on the emotions of a few ….
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Total rubbish, since when did thousands amount to a few? what you mean is this decision was made by the select FEW.
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Signing a petition shoved at you in Asda is hardly an emotional experience. How many of those signing knew anything about the issues involved other than one woman’s daughter was being paraded in front of them as a sad case? (Which I am sure she is not, in actual fact.)
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Make sure they’re genuine independents before you vote for them.
A number of them are a bit sneaky and turn out to be connected with the ‘old gang’ of Lib/Lab/Con.
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Mr Finch, do I take it from the standards of your spelling that you went to The Wakeman? :-)
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Big fingers and an ipone prove a struggle, however my spelling is not the issue.
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You could also add the comical mis-spelling of ‘Hear, hear’ as ‘Here, here’ by ‘Len’ to that list…
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Don’t attack the person, win on the argument or not at all. The argument for the closure of Wakeman, or any of the other schools, is strong enough on it’s own. The report made it clear that the Wakeman is not a bad school, it’s just surplus to requirements.
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They are not guilty of mis-spelling peter they have simply said hear-hear and not here-here both are correct spelling but both mean different things.
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That makes way for the marina development…G & T doubles and envelopes all round!
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As usual, public consultation means let the people have their say then do what the developers want. This council has a long track record of going against popular opinion, whether it be on incinerators, car park charges or schools. I agree with Andrew above, its about time we kicked the major party councillors out and got some genuine independents who will do what the voters elected them to do.
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What developers? I thought I heard from the antis that the Wakeman can’t be sold because the building industry is in crisis, because it’s listed, because there’s a covenant on the building, etc. Can’t have it both ways, people.
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There was a covenant on the Gay Meadow ground but that didn’t stop the council giving it away to developers in exchange for money.
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If you think there is any other motive than to sell the site off to developers then you are living with the mushrooms, i.e happy to be kept in the dark and covered with ….
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You know where to cast your votes next time round
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In the ballot box?
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This is not over – we can’t allow Oswestry’s Keith Barrow and cronies to stamp on this wonderful school.
Interesting that Rhyn Park (Oswestry area) has had a reprieve – Rhyn Park has similarly falling intake numbers to Wakeman but unlike Wakeman has a £250,000 debt and has not had to put up with sustained rumours of closure for the past 3 years.
I wonder if this will be one of the schools that is set to benefit from the Wakeman windfall….and when population in Shrewsbury is rising and new school places will be needed in the near future.
This is just the beginning – they can’t be allowed to get away with this.
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Rhyn Park is the only school in its area. Wakeman is one of six schools serving the Shrewsbury area. If you were interested in the truth, or had even read the article, you would have said in your comment that the Rhyn Park scheme had been deferred to allow exploration – not exactly a reprieve.
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We ask councillors to make difficult decisions for us, when they do and not to peoples taste from what the offerings so far indicate it’s a case of “look-out incoming teddies”, what kind of people will we bring up if they think that nobody will ever say the ‘no’ word to them?
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What a silly comment ,it is a little more than not being able to accept no they have disregarded and have failed to listen to the voter from start to finish.
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Just because a few thousand express that they do not want school closures ignores the many more thousands who (a)are for them or (b) can’t be bothered.
Perhaps you could make a suggestion of how ‘we’ balance the books if every closure or reduction in service is withdrawn to fill the massive blackhole by the last administration, or is it a case of I’m alright Jack?
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I can see the last administration are going to take the blame for decades what a bore.
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Stokey- If this was genuinely about balancing the books and it makes economic sense to close The Wakeman because numbers of children in Shrewsbury are dropping like a stone as we keep being told, why are no Shrewsbury primary schools on the closure list? In fact, it’s my understanding that one Shrewsbury primary has recently been granted money to expand. If primary schools here are full, surely all of our secondaries will be full very soon too. In which case, how can we possibly save money by closing The Wakeman?
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Andrew, how many signatures would the petition have got if it said “sign here to take £350,000 per year from other schools to give to 350 pupils in a school a couple of miles from five others”? Or, “sign here to raise your Council Tax”?
Councillors have to consider more than just their emotional reaction when making decisions on behalf of the community as a whole.
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You honestly believe the spin that other schools will benefit from these school closures?? I have spoke to two heads from non threatened schools who found that amusing.
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‘SchoolsOut’ -You seem to know an awful lot of detail about a wide range of the schools threatened with closure and are toeing a very particular line – how is life at Shropshire Council?
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Forget New Marina maybe they can use it as New Council offices as they won’t to sell the New one.
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This building would make a good hotel with its views and location, plus where the playground is could be a carpark, sadly thats prob not what it would become.
Anyone know if its a listed building?
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Yes, parts of the Wakeman, certainly the belltower, are listed. There is also a covenant on the building.
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If it’s listed, English Heritage don’t know about it. That’s not to say that it shouldn’t be preserved, though. So what is this covenant, then – there doesn’t appear to be anything on the Land Registry.
I think we need to see the evidence on this one.
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An utterley predictable decision in the end – but just the start for the campaign. The word ‘consultation’ has once again been misused in the course of local democracy. I wish democracy could be exercised at the next trip to the ballot box, but unfortunately the majority of councillor’s responsible, who have been very badly advised and misinformed by the education department, for the closure are beyond the reach of the thousands who signed the petition to keep this much loved school open. Vive la Wakeman!!!!.
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What do you expect? It’s ideal for development as a block of luxury flats. Children and education are bound to come second to money.
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Don’t get mad – get even.
Use the ‘Freedom Of Information Act’ to find out which councillors voted for the closure. Then when the 2013 council elections come round – Vote them out!
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HERE HERE !!
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Kat,
I think the phrase you’re struggling for is ‘Hear, hear’…
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Or vote to keep them in!
Not everyone is against expenditure cuts, I was brought up to live within my means.
I too have a vote, even though some of you lot think you should be the only ones to be listened to.
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Not against cuts, however many school closures are questionable .
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You don’t need a Freedom of Information Act – voting at Cabinet meetings is published on the Council’s website. But I’ll save you even that trouble (or indeed the trouble of reading the article) because it says in the first paragraph above that they voted for it unanimously. That means everyone on Cabinet voted for it.
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its a bloody disgrace
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No, it’s called a democracy. Some you win, some you lose.
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‘Democracy’ doesn’t mean ‘they won an election and can do what they want’. Democratic government makes rules and laws for us all to comply with. The rule of law is detailed and specific and it includes the fact that there are detailed and specific things that the council were required to do in the consultation on the school closures. They appear not to have complied with the guidelines on closing schools. The council can’t just do as they please, they have to follow the guidelines. How much of our money will they have wasted if they are told to go back and start again? Can they be surcharged so we don’t have to pay for their mistakes.
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The Cabinet may have voted to continue with its plans to close The Wakeman, but it has still not answered the fundamental questions about the consultation raised by Teresa Adams in the Star on Tuesday. These were added to at yesterday’s meeting by Councillor Andrew Bannerman who detailed the large amount of “baffling”, “misleading” and “fictitious” information in the report on which the Cabinet based its decision (his words). The decision may have been passed, but if the Council has, as it appears, fallen short in its statutory duties, don’t count on it remaining. This is not over.
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I would like to wish the Wakeman School all the very best in its fight to stay open, sadly I feel that darker forces are operating against you as they did nearly 25 yrs ago when I was privileged to be part of the How Campaign which again had to fight the Councillors falling roles.The Wakeman School is a prime piece of real-estate and Councillors in this town have already decided the building future.
The Shirehall with its pupil placement policy has not helped the School achieve its full potential over the last ten years resulting in fewer pupil uptake each year with I believe its lowest number at the start of 2010 year.
The threat of closure by Shirehall is and will have a detrimental effect on the pupils school achievements with this threat hanging over them and I think that the Committee members should be served with papers to take legal proceedings in respect of lack of safeguard to pupils well-being and education. How can a small number of local Councillors come to a balanced decision in respect of a so called consultation when they have already decided the outcome. I hope that the Head teacher Karen Moore can see the wood through the trees put pressure on these Councillors by letters e-mails daily, get Daniel K involved take the school to London. Get Central news involved, become a nuisance to these so called people in power. You have a beautiful building and sports fields, newly built gym millions spent on this School in the last few years even flood defence. Make as much noise as you can why should a small amount of Councillors who really don’t care about the outcome,more interested in self gratification on the greasy political pole. Saving money to what end forcing pupils to travel to another area increase the traffic, the pollution ,the upheaval, and stress on youngsters at a most important time in there lives. if you need to shut a school just to show you are on the game the join Meole and Priory together save the money with one site and develop the Priory site for house building. PS Is the Wakeman School a listed building food for thought. PS excuse my spelling and punctuation as I was dragged up and didn’t have the opportunity to go to a School in such a wonderful setting as Wakeman .
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What would Daniel K do if supporters of the other schools asked him to represent them because they would lose out on badly needed income if The Wakeman stayed?
There are more people who haven’t signed the petition than those that have, a case of the tail wagging the dog.
I would have thought that with the cameras out the other day when Wakeman stormed Shirehall someone would have had the foresight to ensure that students were immaculately turned out, from the pictures I have seen it does not give a very good impression. I suppose that’s evidence of the standards these days and a lack of control by the staff at the schools. The first type of discipline is self discipline.
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Barbara what a pompous oik you are, clothes do not fool anyone dear in 2011.What and who are you basing your standards on in fact yours may be a lot lower than most, what a judgmental & shallow person you are.
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36 years as a school teacher, 12 as head…….dear.
Judgemental, yes, shallow, no.
You seem to know very little about a great many subjects, perhaps if you were to work a little harder you could become a real expert.
At present you seem to be the inferior type
Ex = Has been
Spurt = A drip under pressure.
Now be a good boy and learn your ten times table for Monday as taxing as that may be for you…….
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Oh dear and a bully in the school staff room I bet .
Going on the years you have stated I assume you are now an ex teacher/head? thankfully the most important word here, so basically an oap so sorry in the uk of 2011 you haven’t even got an opinion wotrh listening to.
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Andrew you must stop talking to and about yourself!
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WHAT A SAD reply from a member of the teaching profession. Daniel K is there to help all the Schools instead of sitting on the fence.Petition numbers 1 or 2000000 is a means of letting others know what are your wishes as I expect you used boxes of chalk to tell others your wishes …Storming the Shirehall where were you dear lady a class full of kids doing there best to save a school they love sat under the gaze of Lord Hill.THE FIRST ACT OF SELF DISCIPLINE IS NOT HOW YOU ARE TURNED OUT BUT HOW YOU CONDUCT YOURSELF AND FROM WHAT I SAW THEY DID THERE BIT. Sadly your self discipline in your replies are very infantile ..and smacks of a little bitterness. Still it takes all sorts ..Im a sad old git with no education and poor grammar.
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SCHOOLS OUT you seem to have gained from the education system the covenant means it was given for the use of education to shrewsbury is oswestry as big as shrewsbury the torys didn’t want to close them last time as the council was about to be chucked together in the sham that is shropshire council my kids will have to travel over 3 mile to the new school and unlike a lot of parents i haven’t got a chelsea tractor and i also give a dam about the environment mrrs thatcher stole the milk the cabinet stole the schools a very sad day.
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3 miles, hardly going to hurt them, might burn a bit of that playstation fat off too.
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Three miles (plural) is not going to hurt them, in fact it will probably make them healthier, it’s called exercise. Mrs (single ‘r’) Thatcher may have removed the free milk, it didn’t do me or anyone I know any harm.
PS
There’s an ‘n’ after dam, and ‘torys’ should be spelt ‘tories’.
C- Must try a lot harder !
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I would like to add if these people such as Barbara choose to enlighten us all on the role they have played or do play in society that they be a little more honest and give a full name and possibly the School they work at or worked at . If they do not then unfortunately we do have have the problem of a possible fantasist entering the debate.
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Oh you’ve found me out! My real name is Heinrich von Schmitt, I’m a 71yr old brickie with no qualifications and an out of date library book and a dog called milly-band.
So what gives you the right to question me or anyone who has spent their valuable time to respond to a forum, then again what have you done in this world that anyone should take any notice of your tunnel vision views?
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Please tell us what you do. Other than the usual response as to running a business. That covers a multitude of possibilities. I would like to know so as to ensure that I never employ you or your small company. What ever you might do.
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Couldn’t afford it Rupt now toddle off back to nutwood:)
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Interesting that you have opinions on both my ability to afford what ever it is you do, and where i Live.
You have demanded to know what it is that Barbara does before you will listen to her opinion.
Why are you so reluctant to let people know what you do?
Tell us what your background is, that enables you to have an opinion on almost everything, coupled with your snide ability to take shots at people?
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Oh Robert please it was a joke I do not believe for one minute you live in nutwood or that you are short of the queens coin.
my argument with regards Barbara was I treat a one name post with the same contempt as a name and address withheld pointless.
As for my back ground I have had many jobs over the years nothing to beneath me in order to save the country on benefit payments,many paying low to average wage. I also believe it is never to healthy to stay in the same job for to long a period.
As to now not that this forum should be a place to promote a persons business for five years we property manage peoples holiday lets, second homes,etc and we also promote leisure and event days in the midlands .
Now as to why I have an opinion on everything does not every one if asked?? I just express mine even if I am not asked its called living in a free democratic country. I only give an opinion I am sure it is ignored on many occasions as is anyone from the road sweeper to the prime minister . On occasion if a person is rude i will try to be rude back but with some humor as not to come over as some type of bullying oik.
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Realist, Twiggo, Adam, Jam, Schools Out, Len, Anon, HM, OW, Peter, C Nickle, Matt, Fuggle, Nova Burgo, Reabrook, Kat, Phil , How Campaigner of yesteryear , Barbara, Jamie, Red Ed and Jo, your views are quite irrelevant because you have failed to include your full birth names and current cv.
Andrew Finch, what exactly is your expertise in all this?
Clifford Stokes, educated from 5-16 at a variety of schools in the UK and Germany.
Other than that no speciality other than a sense of fair play.
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No expertise in this field , however a tax payer and having children in the education system allows me to comment.I would also add I have also seen the negative side to what happens to a village and the children from the school which closes. Very questionable whether closures have a positive affect on the community and those who use the service and live in that community,although we may have a positive side in the most extreme cases.
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Unless any of those writing here are still at school then we are all presumably tax payers who may have or have had children/grand children in the education system, accordingly should they not have their views listened to?
Good debate encourages good governance and as soon as you decry any view that does not follow with yours you potentially destroy any hope of it.
Several of us can probably relate back to the village school days aka the good old days, but life goes on, we painfully lose some things in order to gain others. It’s part of life education, sometimes we can’t have everything we would want and sometimes we are told ‘no’ to wants. We’ve all seen how a child can become a spoilt brat when the only word they ever hear is ‘yes’.
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I’ve honestly tried to listen to both sides of this problem and I still don’t see a valid reason to shut the school, there are a lot easier areas the council can cut back on than education, it’s all very well everyone commenting who have left school and have jobs and made a life but what about the children for the future when the town gets bigger and it all goes pear-shaped as there’s no school to house the pupils in?
If in 10 years for example the population of Shrewsbury dramatically decreased then fine, a proven basis of declining children would prove too obvious for anyone to combat.
However, a generally ‘rushed’ (I say rushed very lightly as I know this has been a couple of years of rumour) decision surely is not the answer in a time of economic downfall where money is tight.
At the end of it all, some things have to be above money I’m afraid.
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