Can’t see video? Update Adobe Flash Player
Video may take a moment to load. Return to Video Index
Pupils, parents and staff from the Wakeman School set up a crime scene outside the Shirehall today as part of their protest against the closure of their school.
Shrewsbury’s Wakeman School will close in August 2013, Shropshire Council decided today.
Members of the council’s cabinet voted to shut the school despite hearing pleas from parents, staff, and pupils, as well as councillors who argued that its strong education results should have spared it from the axe.
But the cabinet agreed with the recommendations to close the school on the grounds of sustainability in the long term.
The school is expected to post a loss of about £160,000 by the end of this financial year.
Campaigners said their battle to save the Wakeman would continue.
- Full story, reaction and analysis in Thursday’s Shropshire Star
Most Commented
- Shropshire Council will face £8m redundancy bill
- Clampdown on Shrewsbury chuggers
- Bishop's gay marriage views do nothing to support bible teachings
- Letter: Alcohol price plans annoy me
- Planners ordered to stay on Newport visit bus
- Letter: Angered by close encounter of the furred kind
- Letter: No sense in overseas job adverts
Shropshire Star on Twitter
Keep updated with the latest breaking news and content on our Twitter feed.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Shropshire Star and Express & Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
Entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new Shropshire Star app
Download the Shropshire Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
shropshirestar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
Old news now. Look it’s going to shut so put up with it, most people in Shrewsbury are not bothered anymore and there are plenty of other schools to go to. Get a grip please…
Report abuse
Not in a few years though when all secondary schools will be bursting at the seeas. A couple of years with a few surplus places versus £35M on a new school – do the maths Dean.
Report abuse
In a few years time we will have more academies and better facilities. There sre more than enough schools in Shrewsbury, if you look t the bigger picture the Wakeman school was always looking like it was going to close for a number of reasons, including the fact that it’s a pretty old building and not worth the cost of completly rennovating it. Add mediocre grade results and standards and you can’t blame them for closing it.
I think it’s the right decision and will save money practically.
Report abuse
Have you read the report, Dave? a long read, I will admit, but it shows quite clearly that the pupil numbers bandied about by WWW are nonsense. No new school is needed.
Report abuse
Yes, SchoolsMonitor, I have read the report. Have you read the guidance on closing schools? The person who wrote the report doesn’t appear to have. Is it you?
Report abuse
The information about projected pupil numbers doesnt come from being ‘bandied about the WWW’, it comes from Shropshire Council’s education department at The Wakeman’s consultation evening. It was the Council’s education department who announced that a new school would be needed. Are you suggesting they don’t know what they’re talking about?
Report abuse
If you went to the consultation meeting at school you would have heard a new school will need to be built in the next 5 to 10 years at the cost of 35 million plus this is a sad day as the council will make 4 0r 5 million on school and playing field and the playing fields will get planning permission so more overpriced housing not for locals as they can’t afford it as wages in shropshire are poor.
Report abuse
As a democrat, but not the parent of a child at Wakeman, I don’t expect everyone to agree with every decision, but I do expect them to get their facts right in their arguments. p6, para 7.1 – “the figures utilised in 6.4 demonstrate that…there is no requirement to construct a new school as a result of the proosal to close Wakeman”.
Actually, as the result of a previous school closure proposal in another county, I have read the guidance on school closures. But if I hadn’t, most of it is in Appendix F. Just because you don’t like the outcome doesn’t mean that the answer is wrong. It looks to me as if Shropshire Council have done their homework on this one.
Report abuse
A closure of a school for a child is the same as a redundancy for an adult. You would fight to keep your job wouldn’t you? And if places were falling so rapidly then why was Belvidere allowed to expand two years ago when it was so bad and their attitude to Special Needs so disastrous that we had no choice but to move our child to the Wakeman (and my child was not the only one).
Report abuse
The people making decisions about education in Shropshire do not all have educational backgrounds or expertise, they are being advised mainly by officials who despite being in senior educational positions are themselves not again from educational backgrounds. One of the initial grounds for the closure of the Wakeman was to take into account performance and OFSTED inspection, however as its recent inspection declared it a Good school and the 2011 GCSE results were excellent the goalpost for closure needed adjusting. If anyone with any educational insight had been involved they would have recognised that this was not a school to consider closing, but to be nurtured and supported, allowing it time to grow again rather than set sights to building new schools in the future. This is not ‘old news’ and represents the thin end of a devisive wedge. Could it be now the Wakeman, next the Grange rapidly followed by Sundorne in order for the new super school to be built on the northern outskirts of Shrewsbury.
Report abuse
i am head boy at wakeman, i was at shire hall today and i gave a speech during the meeting. i’ll be long gone by the time it closes (if it does; we still have an appeal) but you think i wouldn’t care!? a lot of people are still bothered, try all the pupils at the as well as their entire families! For 2 hours today we gave excellent reasons to keep the school open but they didn’t listen. i have never been more angry at anyone. the other schools are nothing like wakeman and moving school is never easy, especially when your forced too! how dare you “get a grip please” you obviously have no idea so do us all a favour…
Report abuse
It’s a good school and lots of people I know are bothered.
Shropshire Council has allowed rumours to spread unchecked about The Wakeman closing and have then used falling numbers as an excuse to close it. It’s not on.
Particularly when the Council knows that there won’t be enough secondary school capacity without it.
Shropshire Council is wasting money on this closure and if Wakeman wins the appeal Shropshire Council will have to pay out a whole lot more to repair the damage it has caused.
Report abuse
Let’s hope the cuts being put in force don’t effect you Dean,the impact it’s having on the children and the family’s i should know because my daughter goe’s to the school.Oh and if David Taylor doe’s read any of the comment’s on here i suggest that you go for an eye test as i think you are being very short sighted about this,oh and how long after if the school should close will houses/flats will be put up???? i hope you can sleep at night .
Report abuse
Oh im sorry, it doesnt matter about peoples livlihoods and students who have to walk miles to get other schools. Not to mention 8,000 signatures that were received. Get a grip please..
Report abuse
8,000 people sign the petition in Shrewsbury, on my reckoning that means ~92,000 aren’t bothered, not what you would call a ringing endorsement is it?
Perhaps the extra walking will help with the obesity issues we have amongst the youth of today, out of every negative comes a positive.
Report abuse
Most of the signatories will be staff and associated leeches with a direct financial benefit from the school.
Just shut it and move on.
Report abuse
The information that a new secondary school will be needed in the town within the next 5-10 years came from the Council’s education department at the Wakeman consultation meeting – it’s not speculation, it’s policy.
The consultation process has been hopelessly inadequate and their processes will be examined by a higher authority – the ombudsman and the School’s Adjudicator are both likely to be involved. Hopefully the money the council have thrown away on this maladministration can be surcharged against the Cabinet and not left for the rest of us to pay.
Report abuse
i still think it would make the basis of shrewsbury darwin university
Report abuse
Sounds good to me, atcham jack. Seems to me that the reason young people leave Shrewsbury is not whether or not there is a school by the English Bridge, but that there isn’t a decent Higher Education facility. How about the Star running a positive campaign for Darwin University – a Higher Education College involving the Sixth Form College and SCAT as well as the Wakeman site.
Report abuse
Can hear echoes of ‘Told you so’
Face it folks times are changing and yes we now need to look at building the super schools of the future and get our useless education system up to scratch with the rest of the world.
Report abuse
The economy is doing so well Dean, yes, lets rebuild them all.
Report abuse
It isnt old news for the people this is going to affect. Some of you people need to grasp the concept of empathy for your neighbours. Its a sad day for Wakeman pupils and staff and i wish them all good luck for their future.
Report abuse
Thank you, Laura, but don’t feel too sorry for those of us affected by this decision. It was hardly a surprise and is very unlikely to stand. The Council has never had the justification it needs to close The Wakeman, and therefore had to produce a proposal and consultation that it would be generous to describe as ‘full of holes’. I can’t see how anyone independent could compare Government policy and the statutory guidance on school closures with what the Council has produced and allow today’s decision to stand. Now that the decision is made we can move on to get The Wakeman the impartial hearing it has been denied and get this closure decision overturned. Watch this space. Long live The Wakeman.
Report abuse
Schools Monitor, there are lots of things written in the Cabinet report – not all of them correct as you well know.
Report abuse
No surprise here this council has probable had it lined up to be sold off to be converted to apartments for a long time.
Report abuse
You can have this arguement for years… Good school, bad school, school needed closing. But the real fact is, the fact that the council quite obviously don’t give a damn about is that the people they are hurting through closing the school, are REAL people. Teacher’s that love working at Wakeman, who have worked there for years and who think of Wakeman as a second home to them. Pupil’s whose families have been going there for centuries, who chose the school for it being small or who went to Wakeman because we are the only school who would take them on and make them into the best person they could be. Former pupil’s who now have no secondary school that they can say to their children and grandchildren, ‘That was my school’! Most of all, you are hurting what would have been the next generation of Wakeman pupils. You have taken the choice of a small school away from children who deserve that choice.
Yes, Wakeman may not have had the best overall GCSE results in Shropshire but we take in children of ALL abilities and help them to acheive the highest grade they are capable of. Whether that be an A* or a E.
I am ashamed of our world, that it has got this sick. Where money matters more than people and what is best for them.
I am ashamed of our council.
Report abuse
I, like Schools Monitor, am a democrat too. I’m also an Independent Policy Consultant. I believe in good, local democracy. That is why I have been advising the Wakeman over the last few months as they’ve prepare a case should they have to go to appeal.
The decision to close The Wakeman isn’t democratic – a good democracy is dependent upon polititians and the public servants put in place to serve them exercising honesty, integrity and good judgement and following the rules and regulations put in place to guide them on their way.
Report abuse
In the same news coverage – £1million of taxpayers money spent on Shrewsbury riverside public art. An amount that would have subsidised the ‘losses’ at the Shrewsbury riverside school for 8 years.
Report abuse
It doesn’t matter if it’s the right decision or not. All the big players in the town have once again sat round the table, lot’s of brown envolopes have changed hands, someones got a new conservatory etc etc, you know the score…
who gives a damn about the kids education, or the logistics of actually getting your child to another school miles away? As long as there’s enough money in the pot to pay the fat cats their six figure salaries, and the odd million-pound ‘work of art’, everythings ok yeah?
Shame on you all.
All the very best to all those affected.
Report abuse
And nobody has mentioned the huge development value of the Wakeman site….
This isn’t about saving money, it’s about MAKING money at the cost of disruption and distress for pupils and parents.
Report abuse
Hello,
my name is abbey sorrell and i am a student at the wakeman school.I have aspergers and the school always help me.This school is like a big family . My mum and 2 best friends are in the photo. I am really sad that it is closing. This is my story. In year 7 i was not at the wakeman school. i was severly bullied and by the winter holidays i was suicidal.The staff (i wont say names) didnt help at all. By the winter holidays in year 8 i decided to move to wakeman. On my first day 4th january 2011 i made many new friends i had never had friends before so this was great. The school have supported me in every way possible and i will do all it takes to keep it open even though the council have voted against it. For once in my whole life im not being bullied and i am actually happy please do not take this good place away from me i didnt want it to be the summer holidays i am finally calm and destressed. Please help the appeal and stop this madness because WHY WASTE WAKEMAN WHY WASTE WAKEMAN!!!!
Report abuse
Dear Abbey,
Thank you so much for what you have written- it shows how precious this wonderful school is. You’re right, The Wakeman isn’t just a building, it’s like a big family, and so many of us are proud to be part of that family and to stand by you. You deserve to have friends and lovely teachers and the chance to be happy and get good grades and the Council is wrong to try to take that away from you. I promise you that I will continue to do all I possibly can to help to try to save The Wakeman.
Love from Helen
Report abuse
Thank you.
Report abuse
Abbey, this is life i’m afraid and only the tip of the iceberg of things to come as you grow up and see how live evolves and changes.
There are plenty of other good schools in Shrewsbury which most of your friends will now be going to, so you won’t be alone. At leats you will have your mates with you.
Report abuse
To Dean (who replied to my darling Abbey),
I’m afraid that you don’t realise that the ‘standard’ for schools for children like Abbey is actually not that good. Hence why this is her 5th school. A school that doesn’t put the effort in for children with SEN are life-stoppers. One of your ‘good’ schools in Shrewsbury nearly completely undid Abbey (and her family as a result)through not recognising her needs or that she was truly being bullied. We also know that not all the secondaries can cope with any more SEN children AND there is a higher than average percentage at Wakeman for good reasons. NO-one at the council has bothered to actually think about the effect on them and whether they can be suitably accomodated at other schools. There are also a good few ASD children. Autistic people often find crowded places very stressful and they have now been told that they have to leave a calm, caring environment for a crowded and busy one. This policy would not allow them to reach their full potential – in fact they may lose all chance of a decent education. Someone needs to remember the governments motto – EVERY CHILD MATTERS!!!!!!
Report abuse
Thank you for all the support from many people. Aka Helen fletcher, teresa adams and schizoid mum. You will know how I am and I will do ANYTHING to keep that EPIC school open. When I say anything I mean ANything OK.
Report abuse
nice brown envelope back handed to the council included?
People who say they will do anything to keep the school open are wasting their time.
The wakeman school will close, end of. The decision will not be changed so get over it please.
Report abuse
What a surprise.First of the Councils cunning plan which could work out as follows:-
1.Close the Wakeman
2.Sell off the playing fields off Underdale Road for development. At present they receive greater protection from potential development due to the school link.
3.Relocate, what Council services that remain following the outsourcing of as many services as possible,to the Wakeman School and use as the new Council offices
4.Staff and general visitors to use Abbey Foregate car park, raising car park revenue.
5.Demolish the Shirehall and sell land to national housebuilder for very substantial housing development.
6.Potentially include Ambulance Station in development site and relocate it elsewhere probably on land owned by Council
7.Develop the overflow car park on London Road
for either residential or retail use.
8.Invest substantial amount of revenue received on schemes in Oswestry
Odd that such a huge amount of new housing in the area may mean the remaining schools could not cater for increased numbers but thats life.
Report abuse
They cannot build on the playing field. Why? It used to be a council tip and therefore unsafe for housing! It was investigated a good few years back, of course the council can rail road it like they did with the covenant placed on the Gay Meadow site.
Report abuse
terrible decision motivated by greed and making yet more unwanted flats for shrewsbury, they wouldnt have done this if wakeman was a modern concrete building on the outskirts of town but this is a developers dream, will make about 20 high end yuppy flats worth about £180,000 each! nice work for someone there, oh and it just needs planning permission from shropshrie councillors again, hmmmmm… suspicious…
Report abuse
Shropshire Council has just voted to close The Wakeman from 2013. We’re told that the school will be wound down with no new year 7 children joining the school in September 2012.
However, Shropshire Council’s website includes information about the choice of secondary schools for children who will go into year 7 in September 2012 and one of the options is The Wakeman. There is a date for the Open Day for children to look round The Wakeman to see if they want to choose it.
It seems to me that Shropshire Council is preparing for the possibility that The Wakeman might be staying open, however they’ve voted. Good luck with your appeal, Wakeman, it looks like even those in Shirehall doubt their decision will last.
Report abuse
Could it be that they just haven’t got around to it?
Wakeman School could become a national centre of excellence in……..conspiracy theories
Report abuse
disgraceful short termism in 5 years time we will need to build a new school now
muppets
Report abuse
Wakeman to close in 2013 ?, that decision was made from day 1. Meetings, marches, protests & petitions were a waste of time,the school never stood a chance.Shropshire Council had already made the decision and have stuck by it, all the consultations and public meetings were there to satisfy the public and give them hope whilst the closure had been signed off by all concerned. I am just sorry that so many people have been mislead and genuinely believed there was a scrap of hope to save the school. Welcome to the real world people, this council stinks !
Report abuse
Steven with your grasp of realism and understanding of how the council works you should think of standing for the council as you seem to have a good grasp of reality which is missing from the controlling group and cabinet we need more people to stand up and fight for shrewsbury unlike those in the cabinet who roll over to the powers to be in oswestry and ludlow,i could copy and paste your comment and change the name as i agree 100% with your comments good to see alot of opposition on these pages not moronic it’s got low pupil numbers shut it i for one want my kids taught in under 30 pupils in a class when i went to school 36 or 38 was the norm and my education was not full of good memories.
Report abuse
Yet again another decision made by this council with no regard to the impact on people. It’s about time they learned that it’s the people who put them where they are in the first place – and we can get rid of them as well.
Report abuse
Alas you are forgetting the ‘impact’ as you put it on other people, those taxpayers who pay to keep all these establishments open, if there aren’t enough pupils to go around then you cut the cloth accordingly, whilst I appreciate that you may well be a taxpayer as well is it not democracy that my voice is heard as loudly as yours?
Looking at the ‘evidence’ on comment 4, it appears that roughly 8% of the Shrewsbury population could be bothered or want The Wakeman to stay open, are we saying that 8% should be heard and the other 92% sit on their hands in silence?
If nothing else this whole episode will be educational to all concerned to show that things don’t always go the way you want and that you have to bite the bullet.
Good luck to all those affected by the closure, you’ve done your best and lost, c’est la vie.
Report abuse
I wholeheartedly agree, life isn’t always the cakewalk that we would choose it to be, life is a constant education sharing success with defeat,advantage with adversity.
I’m surprised that the 8% (pro Wakeman) haven’t yet cast you as a spawn of Beelzebub for expressing your views in straightforward English……and French.
Time to look to the future for the pupils and staff at a new challenge and not back in anger at what might have been.
Report abuse
UP to people to voice concern when the local elections come around , unlike the past i think people will have long memories when we come to the local and national election time lib dem mp’s and councilors will be as rare as a dodo if i were them i’d fill my boots now.
Report abuse
Andrew-
I’m appalled by the things that the coalition is doing to our country, but have to say that it’s very unfair to lump Lib Dem Councillors in Shropshire with their colleagues in Wsstminster. Many Lib Dem councillors (Miles Kenny. Andrew Bannerman, Nigel Hartin, Beverley Baker, Roger Evans, Peter Philips….) have done all they can to stop this terrible decision going through. We need more councillors like them, not less.
Report abuse
So more of these councillors would have spent more money that we haven’t got. I pay more than enough into the county coffers to keep too many wastrels cosy. Tough times require tough decisions and fortune will favour the brave.
Report abuse
SJK-
Sorry if I didn’t make myself clear- I didn’t mean that we need a greater number of councillors altogether, but that when we get the chance we should vote for those like the Lib Dems who have supported The Wakeman.
Report abuse
I quote from the document that Shropshire Council prepared for the public consultation on the Wakeman closure (page 50 of the report that went to Cabinet on Wednesday). They are talking about future housing development:
“None of the likely development areas are close to Wakeman and in all cases there is another school more conveniently placed to take pupils.”
Enlighten me Shropshire Council, but I’m not aware of a secondary school more conveniently placed than The Wakeman to serve the Gay Meadow housing. Spring Gardens, The Flaxmill and Coton Hill aren’t too far away either.
Shropshire Council’s justification continues:
“If there is further significant development to the west of the town, there is a case to develop a new or
extended secondary school to serve that area. Pupils from development in that area would be more than three miles from The Wakeman School.”
Is this the fantasy new school that Shropshire Council is now claiming they have never referred to? Using Shropshire Council’s own ShropMap to measure distances from the development area in the west to which they refer, it is within 3 miles of Wakeman. Maybe, like Shropshire Council, I should have used an elastic band to do my measuring.
If Shropshire Council has such a good case to close The Wakeman, why have they published misleading and inaccurate information? And why are they not referring the decision for external scrutiny to prove to the people of Shrewsbury that they have made the right decision.
Report abuse
Abbey,
I will continue to do all I can to help Wakeman’s appeal.
Best wishes,
Teresa
Report abuse
tragic all for a million pounds, whilst they waste so much of my money on “climate change advisors” and “community development officers”
cut the back office LEA not the schools!
Report abuse
And to add to blue boy’s point, does Shropshire Council have back office staff that deal with equal opportunities – if they do, they don’t seem to be fighting the corner of the children who are forced out of other Shrewsbury schools by bullying, or who have special educational needs and who blossom with the help of Wakeman’s fantastic staff.
Without Wakeman, these children will not be given the chance to reach their potential and build a solid grounding for their lives ahead.
Report abuse
so there is to be no shrewsbury university and the property developer friends on or close to the planning committee win the day. oh what a suprise. another black day for shrewsbury
Report abuse
Keep fighting Wakeman, someone needs to give the council a bloody nose we are trying at Barrow!
I could not beleive Aggie Ceasar Homden apparently you let yourselves down because if you had come up with a coherent plan for saving the school this may have changed their minds but you didn’t so it’s all your fault and they have nothing to do with it, she has the middle name of a roman I didn’t realise she was pontious pilot as well!!
What everyone fails to grasp is that this is just the start, these highly paid self serving people will close many more schools over the next few years this is just the start, Governing bodies around the county need to apply for academy status and put these people out of work!! That would save a few pounds in fact Mr Taylors salary would go some way to plugging the future so called defecit at the wakeman.
Report abuse
Thank you, Greg. We’re not going to give up. Good luck to you and all at Barrow, too.
Report abuse
What Aggie Caesar-Hom failed to say, Greg, is that Shropshire Council ignored or scuppered every alternative put forward by The Wakeman.
I think Shropshire Council’s chickens may come home to roost, lets hope so.
Report abuse
sad
Report abuse
I was a student at Wakemans in 1948 and have always been proud of attending this school. I am angry that such a beautiful and functional building is to be lost to future students. Planning Committee should not just think of the present, but more of the future in say 50 years. It is one more beautiful building that is part of the history of the town – please keep up the fight to save it. Although I have lived in Australia since 1965 my affection and pride at attending this school has never diminished. There would be many other past students and teachers who would share my feelings.
Report abuse
“A beautiful (and functional) building”
I must have been missing something all these years………………………………………nope.
I haven’t heard of Prince Charles or the National Trust leaping to the defence of the architecture or trying to get it preserved as a national treasure.
Report abuse
What a monumental blunder! Hundreds of homes are being built NEXT DOOR to the Wakeman School and hundreds in other parts of the town. Did it ever occur to anyone on the council that some of these families moving into the area might have children of school age?
Report abuse
Matthew – according to Shropshire Council’s report to Cabinet on the Wakeman closure “None of the likely development areas are close to Wakeman and in all cases there is another school more conveniently placed to take pupils.”
You must have imagined the housing being built next to the Wakeman. Either that or you failed to see the other, better school that is between the Gay Meadow site and Wakeman…..
Report abuse
Perhaps Matthew’s view was blocked by the large board advertising the housing under construction. Oh, but that can’t be right either- the board features a big picture of a family but according to Shropshire Council, new housing isn’t expected to bring children to Shrewsbury…
It seems to me that someone is suffering from short-sightedness and could do with an eye-test. Although possibly not Matthew.
Report abuse