Education chiefs rule on schools shake-up

Mar 20 2008 by Laura Sharpe, Liverpool Daily Post

EDUCATION chiefs have made a decision on the future of secon-dary schools across Liverpool after a huge consultation ended.

Teachers and parents were among those consulted on £170m proposals to shake-up high school provision across Liverpool.

Under the proposed scheme six schools will be rebuilt, two will be merged, one will merge its primary and secondary schools, 10 will be refurbished and 12 will see their pupils places reduced.

The results of the consultation which involved sending booklets to parents, carers, staff and governors of every school in Liverpool was heard at a council meeting this week.

Almost all of the 1,800 people who replied between October and December last year gave their backing to the proposals.

There was opposition to the merger of New Heys Community Comprehensive, Allerton, and St Benedict’s College, Garston, seen by some as a dilution of Catholic-ism in the south of the city.

More than 40% disagreed with the merger, citing loss of a faith based school, academic perform-ance and disagreements on the size and site of the school.

Yet the Diocesan director of schools, on behalf of the Catholic Archdiocese, said they backed the scheme to create a joint Catholic/-Church of England voluntary aided school on the St Benedict’s College site.

There was also disagreement over the reduction of admission numbers across all schools, with respondents worried about a national population rise with the influx of Polish and other Eastern European migrants who were said to opt for Catholic school places.

There are 30,272 secondary aged pupils in Liverpool, but this figure is expected to fall to 21,447 by the year 2018, a reduction of 8,825.

The governors of Notre Dame Catholic College said there was widespread resistance to relocat-ing the school adjacent to Everton Park Sports Centre.

The provision of a Muslim school in Toxteth to cope with an increasing Muslim population was suggested by the chair of St Silas’ CE Primary School.

Some parents felt all schools should be secular, but others expressed a desire for a Muslim school in the city.

Schools in the Clubmoor, Crox-teth and Norris Green neighbour-hood weren’t included in the review because of problems with crime and community cohesion.

More time will be set aside to discuss the future of school provision in those areas.

Councillor Paul Clein, executive member for childrens services, said: “These proposals are going to be beneficial because there will be less children to compete with.”

Details of the consultation are available on the council’s website.

laurasharpe