Private school’s academy bid will delay local review

Jun 20 2008 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

A BID by a leading private school in Wirral to become one of the Government’s flagship academies will delay plans by the local authority to review secondary education in the borough.

Birkenhead High School had sent letters to parents last year saying talks with government education officials over the switch were in the early stages.

The Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST) which oversees the running of the school, said they had reached agreement with the Department for Children, Schools and Families on the change to the school status – they are negotiating over potential sponsors, said to be a university.

If, as seems likely at this stage, the plans are approved it means the school will abandon more than a century of academic selection, possibly by September 2009.

The controversial move led to the near-by Birkenhead School, an independent selective fee-paying boys school, announc-ing it will become fully co-educational from September 2008 across the age range.

But the proposed changes also mean plans by Wirral Council to begin a review of secondary school places across the borough, due to start next week by exam-ining the Birkenhead and Bebington areas, will be put off.

The council is required by the Govern-ment and the Audit Commission to moni-tor surplus school places, keeping them below 10% for the whole of the borough and below 25% for any individual school. The overall surplus for secondary schools is 11%, forecast to rise to 21% by 2013.

At next Thursday’s cabinet meeting members will hear the next stage is the identification of options for consultation in the Phase 1 area to reduce the surplus – potentially by closing some schools.

But the council says the situation has been complicated by the possible estab-lishment of an Academy at Birkenhead High School for Girls and introduction of the National Challenge by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Last night Cllr Phil Davies, cabinet member for children’s services and life-long learning, said: “If Birkenhead High School is successful in its bid , this is likely to impact on both secondary and primary schools in the area. It seems prudent to await the outcome of the feasibility stage of the academy process and further details on the National Challenge before making recommendations for options to proceed to consultation in the Phase 1 area.”

In a report to the cabinet Howard Coop-er, director of children’s services, said: “The Office of the Schools Commissioner have suggested they be allowed to appoint an independent assessor to work with the authority to examine the wider implica-tions of the proposed Birkenhead High Academy.”

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