Whitby amalgamation will have 'huge impacts' says former Eskdale School headteacher
North Yorkshire County Council is consulting on closing it next year
A former headteacher of Eskdale School in Whitby says a potential merger will have huge impacts on staff and children.
North Yorkshire County Council's consulting on closing it next year, merging it with Caedmon College due to falling pupil numbers.
Now, people in the town are campaigning to save the school.
David Bradley ran Eskdale between 1991 and 2005. He said: "It's been poorly thought through to actually put forward a proposal where you haven't actually involved the young people, families, guardians and carers and you simply put out a message at the beginning of the term immediately in the wake of young people in Year 6 having made their choices for secondary education.
"I'd like to see much more transparency in the whole process and most of all, I'd like young people and their parents to be consulted properly about what they want for Whitby. In the last seven or eight years, we've had a number of quick fixes and not of them have been satisfactory.
"We want the very best for our children. The parents want the very best for their children and it's not the best to put forward a proposal where you take them from three sites, you say you're going to amalgamate and you actually then put them onto two sites and expect them to go between the two sites for their education.
"If they're on what was traditionally called the Whitby Grammar School site and they're based there, in an hour long PE lesson it'll take them approximately 20 minutes to get to the playing fields at the old Caedmon site, 20 minutes of lesson and then they go back again and it's 20 minutes to get back to the original site. That's not a good use of learning time.
"It would make much more sense to have two 11-16 schools, which would suit those young people coming from small primary schools, it would be very beneficial because they could work in collaboration, collaboratively and competitively."
North Yorkshire County Council has started a consultation for people to have their say.
Christina Zanelli and Su Crossland, Co-Chairs of Governors at Whitby Secondary Partnership, said: "At the end of the Autumn term following consideration as a Governing Board we decided to ask the Local Authority to commence a consultation process on our proposal to amend the structure of the Whitby Secondary Partnership.
"Our proposal to NYCC is that Caedmon College Whitby and Eskdale School amalgamate from 1st September 2024. Amalgamation is a proposal to technically close one school (or more) and enlarge an existing school, to accommodate all pupils. The remaining school would retain its original registration number and age range. Our proposal would result in the technical closure of Eskdale School and the Eskdale site.
"The newly amalgamated school is proposed to operate from the Normanby and Scoresby sites from 1st September 2024. There is an opportunity to rename Caedmon College Whitby as part of this reorganisation process and as part of the proposal this is something governors propose to do ahead of the amalgamated school proposed opening on 1st September 2024.
"This consultation will involve both schools and that staff from both schools will be part of an enlarged staffing structure to fit the needs of the newly amalgamated school and to meet the needs of delivering a curriculum fit for the future.
"The reasons for this proposal are three linked factors: low pupil numbers, significant financial challenges at both schools and an imperative to give the best education and curriculum to the young people of Whitby.
"Currently both schools are subject to a financial warning notice from the local authority and this limits any spending that can happen, a considerable amount of the schools budgets is spent on maintaining the sites when it could be spent on curriculum and teaching and learning resources to benefit the students education.
"We want to express that this in no way has been an easy decision for the governors to make, and we do acknowledge that this can be a very emotive topic, however in order to ensure that we can deliver a fit for purpose education to the young people within the community for the generations to come we feel it is the right decision.
"It will be our priority to ensure that we support all staff and students through any change and will be sensitive with how and when information is presented. A newly amalgamated school will provide the opportunity to develop a broader curriculum, with far more choice over subjects to study and access to a wider range of experiences both in and out of the classroom that currently aren’t available to us.
"We firmly believe that the future of the secondary provision needs to be able to adapt to the world around us and the climate that we find ourselves in given the financial constraints and instability that needs to be resolved in order for us to deliver on the quality first education Whitby children deserve.
"As is stated in the parent/carer letter we need to ensure that the current education we provide to our students remains at its highest, students will still be able to complete courses they have begun and work towards those final assessments in those subjects in both 2023 and 2024 and that we are focused on the current job in hand for the good of our students and the community."