New proposals to close Hornby High School, which are being fought by locals, will be discussed by Lancaster City Council’s Overview and Scrutiny committee later this month. The renewed proposals to close the school come just a year after the County decided not to proceed with plans to close it and Skerton High, after fierce opposition from parents and staff.
Lancashire County Council began a four week consultation on the future of the school in light of falling admission numbers earlier this month, after announcing proposals to close it on 31 August 2009.
On Wednesday 28 January, representatives from the county council will appear before the Overview and Scrutiny committee to discuss issues arising from the proposals, just before the county’s consultation closes.
Writing on Hornby High’s web site, Head Caroline Jackson describes the County Council’s proposals as “unwelcome” while the Lakeland Echo reported earlier this month that parents of pupils at the school have hit back at criticisms, claiming that it provides an unrivalled environment for children with special educational needs, and offers a safe, secure environment for them to develop.
” There are no new reasons for doing so,” she argues. “It is still a matter of finance and numbers only. Whatever the LEA suggests, we are still performing well. Government produced value added figures for 2008 put us in the top 20% of schools.”
In its online consultation documents the County Council points out Hornby High School, which has some 142 pupils, is the smallest secondary school in Lancashire, and the number of children seeking places at Hornby has fallen in the last few years.
“Nationally, the government recognises that education is vital to our success and society,” says County Councillor Vali Patel, cabinet member for schools. “In 2008 the government launched the National Challenge, and requires every secondary school in England to ensure that by 2011 at least 30% of pupils achieve at least 5 good GCSEs including English and maths. Performance at Hornby was well below this benchmark in 2008.”
However, Jackson is confident the School “should easily exceed” its target when it comes to improving its English and Maths results this summer.
“The LEA gave us a budget for three years and a promise of time to overcome the negative effects of the last closure announcement and to establish and develop our Federation with Skerton Community High,” she says. “They have now let parents and pupils down by their proposal to go back on this plan. For the children’s sake, we need to make sound plans to turn this seeming disaster into an outstanding opportunity for their education.”
The meeting will take place at Morecambe Town Hall and starts at 6.00pm and members of the public are welcome to attend.
A campaign early last year to save the school from closure got incredible support from parents and local people with what was seen as an innovative proposal to form a ‘small schools’ federation’ between Hornby and Skerton leading the County Council to rethink its plans.
• Link to Lancashire County Council’s Consultation Documents
Responses to the consutation must be received by 30 January 2009
• Read a Report of a Meeting that discussed 2007 Closure proposals for Hornby and Skerton (PDF) (as HTML)
• Read the school’s official profile on direct.gov