Church in clash with city council over plans to close failing school

Simon Bristow

THE Diocese of York has accused Hull Council of failing to follow Government guidelines over its plans to close a failing school early.

The council had planned to shut David Lister School in 2015 as part of a wholesale shake-up of secondary education in the city under the 400m Building Schools for the Future programme.

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But now the council and the Government want the school – which went into special measures in July 2008 – closed “as soon as possible” because of a rapidly falling pupil roll and problems retaining teachers.

The council’s Cabinet will meet on Monday to discuss a report recommending the date is brought forward to August 31, 2012.

But this date is opposed by the Church of England’s York Diocese, which sponsors the school where many David Lister pupils and their parents want to go – Archbishop Sentamu Academy.

The diocese wants David Lister closed a year later, on August 31, 2013.

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The academy, which is oversubscribed at its present site in Hopewell Road, with 917 pupils at an 891-place school, will move to new purpose-built premises in Preston Road in September next year, with capacity for 1,350 children.

It is expected it will accommodate most of the children leaving David Lister.

In a letter responding to the proposal, the diocesan director of education, Canon Dr Ann Lees, said the diocese did not support the closure date. She also warned that failure to manage the closure properly could have a “destabilising” effect on the schools which receive the David Lister pupils.

Dr Lees wrote: “It would be unwise to underestimate the challenges and extreme pressures the combination of the move and substantial expansion will create for the staff and students of the academy, the strain they will put on its resources and the consequent vulnerability of all it has achieved..to date.

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“It is surely in everyone’s interests to try and ensure that this strain is neither damaging nor too great to be manageable.”

The earlier closure would increase the rate of transfers, Dr Lees said, which may “overwhelm” the academy.

She also claimed the council had not taken its obligations under the Admissions Code of Practice, set by the Department for Children, Schools and Families “sufficiently seriously”, and was not properly taking into account the Fair Access Protocol (locally agreed guidelines) in considering the future destinations of David Lister pupils.

Parents and pupils, meanwhile, have accused education leaders in the city of misleading them over the proposed closure.

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Among the responses being considered by the Cabinet are comments from the parents of a girl who was doing well at David Lister and wanted it to stay open until 2015.

They believe they had been “lied to” two years ago and thought all David Lister pupils had been “guaranteed” a place at the new academy.

Another parent referred to a newsletter from David Lister’s previous headteacher Steve Cook, which referred to the academy as a “replacement” for David Lister.

In a report to the Cabinet, the council said: “The terminology in the newsletter is unhelpful and has given the wrong impression.”

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The report said a 2012 closure would be in the best interests of the David Lister pupils.

No one at the council was available to comment on Dr Lees’s letter.

Only 71 pupils will join David Lister in September, despite 270 places being available in that intake.

It currently has 824 pupils and a capacity of 1,350.

The school is currently run by an interim executive board.