Agenda and draft minutes

There were no items of Urgent Business.  

The Leader of the Council considered a report, which set out proposals from the governing bodies of St Mary’s Church of England (CE) Infant School and St Mary’s CE Junior School, with regard to the closure of the Junior School and the enlargement of the Infant School from its current age range of three to seven years of age to three to eleven years of age. The objective of the proposals was to establish a single primary school, which would be called St Mary’s Church of England Primary School.

It was noted that no objections had been received during the consultation period and that several parents had expressed their support for the proposals.

RESOLVED:

1. That the closure of St Mary’s CE Junior School be approved with effect from 11 January 2013.

2. That the enlargement of the age range of St Mary’s CE Infant School, from its current age range of three to seven year (including nursery aged children) to three to eleven years of age, to form an ‘all-through’ Primary School encompassing children from Reception to Year 6 and nursery aged children be approved with effect from 11 January 2013.

Alternative Options Considered

As part of the governing bodies’ deliberations regarding the future of the schools a number of options were considered. These included retaining the current arrangements and keeping separate infant and junior schools; becoming an academy; hard federation; closing both schools and putting forward a proposal to open a new school and; the proposals set out in the report.

Following the governing bodies’ consideration of all the options, the proposals to close the Junior School and to enlarge the age range of the Infant School, as detailed in the report, were put before stakeholders, including staff and parents and carers, from January 2012. Since that time, taking into account representations made as part of that consultation, no alternative options have been considered.

Reasons for Decision

St Mary’s CE Infant School has recently (November 2011) been judged to be an ‘outstanding’ school by Ofsted Inspectors.  Its Key Stage 1 (KS1) results for its pupils are at or above national and borough averages and the school has been judged to have outstanding leadership.  In contrast, during the same month St Mary’s CE Junior School was placed into Special Measures by Ofsted Inspectors (November 2011) with concerns expressed with regard to leadership, teaching and learning. 

Following the Ofsted reports the governing bodies of the two schools appointed the existing Head of the Infant school to be interim Head of the Junior school.  This appointment followed the retirement of the Head teacher of the Junior School at the beginning of 2012. 

Having considered a number of options for the future of the two schools the governing bodies resolved to publish statutory notices on the closure of the Junior School and the enlargement of the age range of the Infant School to include KS2 pupils (aged eight – eleven).  This decision followed consultation carried out with stakeholders on the future of the schools,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

There were no new items of Urgent Business.