A MERSEYSIDE school which was promised a £6.5m rebuild now faces closure as part of a massive shake up of primary school education.

Knowsley Council is drawing in £22m to revolutionise primary schools in the borough.

The plans come in response to the Government proposals for its capital programme.

This will see £7bn invested in primary schools over the next 15 years with up to 50% across the country being rebuilt or refurbished.

Knowsley is in the vanguard of authorities working to refit its schools using this money.

A council statement said: “The investment will enable primaries across the borough to develop further as centres of the community.”

However, concerns have been expressed about the apparent change of heart regarding Greengates Primary School in Halewood – one of 10 earmarked for closure by Children’s Services. The new school, which opened in September, 2006, after the merger of Roseheath and Ne w Hutte primaries, was looking forward to moving to new premises by 2010.

But yesterday it emerged that St Mark’s Catholic Primary School and Greengates had been identified for closure.

A new joint Christian primary school is to be established on the site of Greengates School.

And Greengates will still incorporate children with special needs from the Southern Primary Support Centre. Sources close to the special needs school said: “The whole deal looks to be much bigger than we previously thought, but we still want to see the level of support and monitoring that the pupils get now.”

A council response said: “Although Greengates was previously identified for rebuild, this proposal has arisen out of falling pupil rolls at St Mark’s and Greengates Schools, as well as concerns about standards and performance at Greengates School.”

Schools earmarked for closure

KNOWSLEY’S plans include:

New school for Stockbridge Village by amalgamating existing Brookside and Nine Tree schools.

New school on the site of the South Huyton Centre for Learning, amalgamating Sylvester and Mosscroft schools.

New school for Huyton, amalgamating Roby Park and Park View schools.

A new joint RC/CofE school in Halewood on the site of Greengates School. This will see the closure of Greengates Community Primary, St Mark’s RC Primary and the Southern Primary Support Centre.

St Agnes’ RC School in Huyton identified for closure.

Cherryfield Community School in Kirkby has also been marked for closure.

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