Rural primary schools set to be reorganised under council plans

The changes come as pupil figures in rural schools continue to fall, with neighbouring schools forming federations.

West Burton primary school, near Leyburn, is set to be formally closed with pupils instead being split between two nearby schools.

Younger children will attend Bainbridge Church of England Primary, which will be renamed as an infants school. Those aged seven and older will attend school in Askrigg, which will be renamed Askrigg Voluntary Controlled Junior School.

Each school will welcome around 15 pupils a year, council figures show, and headteachers are looking at staggered start and finishes to the school day so siblings attending different schools are not impacted by journey times.

Schools near Reeth, also in the Yorkshire Dales, are also due to be reorganised. Reeth Community Primary School will become infants only, while older children will attend Gunnerside Methodist (Voluntary Controlled) Junior School, some 5.8 miles away.

Similar changes are planned for Middleham Primary School. Children aged four to seven will instead attend school in Spennithorne, some three miles away, while those in Key Stage Two will attend the newly named Middleham Junior School.

The proposals are set to be discussed at a meeting of North Yorkshire Council’s Children and Young People’s Service next week.

A bespoke home to school transport package is also set to be launched for pupils under the new schools.

Eligibility for transport will be decided under “the nearest gate in the federation,” council documents show, with the school federations also providing inter-school transport.