Consultation on education proposals ends
Education in Shropshire is changing. For the last 12 months Shropshire Council has been busy talking to schools, governors, headteachers, diocesan directors of education, elected councillors and local communities to develop what this should look like.
Since 28 February 2011 consultation has been taking place on 10 individual school proposals to merge and close schools in the county.
As part of this consultation parents and the wider school communities were asked for views on the proposals and their solutions to the problems that these schools are facing. During this time the council has received over 850 consultation responses via email, letter, phone, the website, as well as holding consultation meetings for each school proposal.
The consultation ended on 8 April 2011 and the outcomes will be detailed in a report going to a meeting of the council’s Cabinet on Wednesday 4 May 2011. Cabinet will then decide if they wish to proceed with the individual proposals.
Councillor Aggie Caesar-Homden, Cabinet member for children and young people’s services, said:
“I would like to thank everyone who got involved in the consultation and let us have their thoughts and ideas about the proposals.
“I have attended all of the consultation meetings and I will be taking back the information gathered to the Cabinet. I want to stress that these proposals are aiming to provide solutions for the long term that aim to provide excellent education for years to come and redirecting resources into frontline education. No decisions have been made on the future of these schools, but I must make it clear that no change is not an option, and we need to address issues facing our schools.
“On Wednesday and Thursday last week, Cabinet visited all of the schools named in the proposals, which was very informative. We have also been working with a wider group of schools and governing bodies to encourage work on federations which were put forward in the proposals, and work is currently progressing well.”
