TUDOR Grange Academy has cancelled its Year 7 intake this September after only eight pupils applied to go there – despite the school had 180 places available.
At Year 9 level just 43 children applied to go to the Woodrow Drive school, which had 280 places available, however that intake will continue.
The financial implications for the school are massive, blowing an estimated £1.6million hole in the academy’s annual budget.
The repercussions are already being felt with a major ‘restructure’ underway at the school, with ancillary staff fearing job losses and teaching staff being seconded elsewhere.
The first parents of those children who had been accepted by the school to start in Year 7 heard of the decision was a letter from Babcock Prime, the company which handles schools admissions for Worcestershire county council.
One angry mum said: “It’s so unfair on the students as they’ve been accepted already and now they are going to have to find another school – that’s if there are any places left.
“They’ve put us in a really difficult situation.”
This is the second year running Tudor Grange Redditch has been hit by disastrously pupil uptake and a former Redditch headteacher described the situation created by the school as ‘an absolute mess’.
“It’s very sad really – you have an organisation like Tudor Grange which has been the catalyst for change in Redditch. They have instigated this and now they are not going through with what they have created.
“It’s incredibly diffficult for parents – we now have a mishmash in Redditch and these days you no longer have a county council that can sort it out as academies can do anything they want.”
Jodie Bolter, principal at Tudor Grange said: “This does not affect how we operate the rest of the school: strong leadership and care for students is excellent and outcomes remain strong when performance is compared to schools nationally.
“The Trust have supported the school in controlling costs and this will need to continue.
“We understand some nervousness about the future of the school if numbers remain low. Some staff have taken secondments to other schools in the Trust and, through Tudor Grange Teaching School, to schools outside of the Trust to enable us to manage costs whilst student numbers are low. This is a strategy we will continue to use.
“We do not perceive that there is a risk to the quality of education we can provide and we remain optimistic, on behalf of the parents and students who have invested their faith in the school, that we can recruit sufficiently in the longer term.”
Driving force
TUDOR Grange Redditch was one of the driving forces behind the introduction in Redditch of the two-tier system of education in competition to the borough’s already highly successful three tier system.
The move was facilitated by the then West Midlands Schools Commissioner Pank Patel with local MP Karen Lumley hosting a number of meetings with headteachers at her offices in Redditch to discuss the issue.
However the move was not popular with Redditch parents – last year just 19 pupils applied to join its 2016 Year 7 intake out of 180 places and just 58 at Year 9 out of 280 places.
Speaking yesterday, Mrs Lumley said: “The decision to allow Tudor Grange to go Secondary was taken by the Regional Schools Commissioner without my prior knowledge, consultation or agreement.
“I didn’t agree with the decision and within hours of finding out I was on a train to see the Commissioner to express my severe concerns – and this is the result.”
The current regional schools commissioner Christine Quinn was unavailable for comment.
