Calls for long term education provision to be looked at in Whitby

North Yorkshire County Council is considering the closure of Eskdale School and moving people to Caedmon College

Author: Karen LiuPublished 10th Feb 2023

There are calls for education in Whitby to be looked at and improved in the long term.

It is as North Yorkshire County Council is considering closing Eskdale School and moving staff and pupils to Caedmon College.

Joyce Sangoe is from Whitby Community Network and said: "This has been erroded quite a lot over the last decade in particular, and now when children have to stay at school until they're 18 the issue now is that we have no skills training in Whitby. Whether we can get any academic A-Levels back, we have a limited range.

"We do need to make a proper and fuller assessment of where the schools should be located or where a new school should be built. There's lots of alternatives that could have been suggested and what we don't know is why this particular suggestion has been put foward, because to a lot of people it doesn't really make sense.

"We would have preferred to see a proper review done of all the education in Whitby not just this proposal to almalgamate the schools. What we're concerned about is obviously we've had Covid so the children have been at a disadvantage over the last two years. Now they've got the added worry of whether they'll be able to stay at the school they like.

"Kids have got travel a minimum of 20 miles plus to go to any other school so we would have preferred to see that investment go into full time education and adult education, because it's very difficult to get any more advanced training without travelling 40 miles a day plus to go to another area.

"This involves the entire community of Whitby and district, not just Whitby. The local Esk Valley railway is supported because we bring the children into school by train. Now we want that train to continue but if we don't have the children coming in on the train then are we at risk of losing that service?"

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