THE STAKES have been raised in the battle to secure the future education of children in Redditch.
A joint statement has been issued by the borough’s Catholic pyramid of schools re-affirming their commitment to the current three tier system of education. Trinity High School has also confirmed it too will work within the current system.
The two are now working on a charter with their feeder middle schools to ensure closer collaboration and it is hope that this will be extended to their infant schools at a later date.
The move will come as a relief to many parents as concern and uncertainty grows over the future of education in the borough.
At the same time St Augustine’s plans to expand its intake from Walkwood Middle School to offer more pupils the opportunity to go there. The school, although Catholic in ethos, has an intake which is 65 per cent from non-Catholic families.
It follows the decision by the regional schools commissioner Pank Patel to grant Tudor Grange Academy and Ridgeway Middle School permission to move to a two tier, junior and secondary system.
However the board of directors of the borough’s Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Multi Academy warned that proposals to change Webheath First School Academy into a 5-11 primary would result in its pupils no longer having access to either Trinity or St Augustine’s at the end of Year 6.
This would mean that pupils would either have to go to Tudor Grange or Ridgeway, or to transfer to a middle school and apply to them at the end of Year 9.
Michael Dean, chair of the board of directors for the Multi Academy said: “We wish Webheath First School and other schools considering embarking on the new system well, but ask that all options are made clear to parents and carers who should be listened to as they have entrusted us to educate all children within the town of Redditch.”
Elsewhere there is concern at Astwood Bank First School, where there is consternation about having to go down the primary route to feed into a Ridgeway High School.
The school would need to expand to accommodate two extra years but late last year it had an application for funding to build additional classrooms turned down.
