A roadmap for the future of education of 11-16 year olds in Barrow will be considered at a meeting of Cumbria County Council's Cabinet next week (February 5th).
Cabinet will be asked to consider the responses to the public consultation 'Planning 11-16 education for Barrow' which ran from Friday, 12 October 2007 and looked at five possible options for schools in Barrow. The paper being considered by Cabinet recommends that members proceed with 'Option 4', which involves replacing Alfred Barrow, Parkview and Thorncliffe with a new Academy on the Parkview School site and enlarging St Bernard's Catholic High School and Walney School to provide 1,000 and 900 places respectively.
Just over 540 responses were received as part of the consultation process - a response rate of 4.7% and broadly in line with similar consultations on secondary education in Carlisle (6.6%) and North Copeland (4.1%). The consultation revealed that people think there is a clear need for change, with 67% of respondents agreeing that secondary education provision in Barrow needs to change and just 24% saying there should be no change. When asked which of the five options they prefer, Option 1 (four secondary schools) was the most popular with 39% of the vote followed by Option 4 with 27%.
Although Option 1 emerged as the preferred one in the consultation process, Cabinet is being recommended to support Option 4 for the following reasons:
- The capital resources (£36m) required to deliver Option 1 would not be available for 8-10 years - meaning the desire for change could not be delivered.
- Option 1 does not address many of the local concerns expressed about loss of local control and influence as a national competition would be run to determine which education provider would run the school.
- Option 4 can be implemented over the next 2-4 years. It involves significant capital investment (£30m) in enhancing the existing facilities and introducing brand new ones.
- Option 4 offers the opportunity for innovative and transformational change in the short term and addresses the surplus places issue.
- Option 4 was the preferred outcome of the vast majority of governing bodies, key partners and stakeholder organisations.
If Cabinet agrees to adopt Option 4, then it will kickstart a process which is likely to involve closing Alfred Barrow, Parkview and Thorncliffe schools in August 2009 and replacing them with an Academy operating in the existing buildings until a new building is completed on the Parkview site - which is expected to be completed in September 2011.
ENDS
Media enquiries to Gareth Cosslett, News Manager on 01228 606332
Notes
In autumn 2005 Cumbria County Council set up the School Organisation Forum under the chairmanship of former head teacher Roger Alston to carry out a major strategic review of education in the county.
The review is taking place because the number of school age children is going to fall considerably over the next 20 years - meaning one in three classroom places in the county will be empty by 2017 unless something is done now. The school reorganisation is designed to ensure Cumbria has the right number of schools of the right size in the right place and with buildings fit for education in the 21st Century.
- In all around 11,500 copies of the consultation document were distributed or made available. They were aimed at parents of primary and secondary age pupils, parents of pre-school children in the area, school and college staff and governors, neighbouring schools, local county and borough councillors, other partner organisations and the general public.
- The consultation exercise also involved meetings for student councils, staff and governors at each of the five secondary schools. Additionally, student council meetings and joint staff and governor meetings took place at George Hastwell School, Barrow Sixth Form College and Furness College. A series of informal parents’ meetings and drop-in sessions were ran and a meeting of Work Based Learning providers in the area was held. In addition, four Neighbourhood Forum meetings took place during the consultation period. In total around 40 meetings or drop-in events were held as part of the consultative process.