Closure plans put role of middle schools right at centre of debate

THE future of middle schools in Yorkshire could be under threat with plans in place to shut down six of the remaining eight left in the county.

As teachers across the country celebrated the 40th anniversary of

middle schools this week campaigners in neighbouring Yorkshire communities are fighting to save their schools from closure amid a row over whether a three-tier education system works.

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The National Middle Schools Forum conference ended yesterday marking the role they have played in education since 1970s.

In the 1980s there were more than 1,400 middle schools across the country but now there are fewer than 250.

The latest threat has emerged in North Craven where education bosses want to close both Ingleton and Settle Middle Schools, which serve pupils from the age of 10 to 13, and move to a system where pupils go straight from primary to secondary school from 2012.

North Yorkshire County Council's director of children and young people's services, Cynthia Welbourn, said the changes were being recommended because falling pupil numbers meant most schools in the area were facing serious financial difficulty.

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The only other education authority in the region which still has middle schools is Kirklees, but plans are in place there to close four of these schools, Birkenshaw, Gomersal, West End and Whitechapel, which would leave just two remaining in Scissett and Kirkburton.

Kirklees's closure plan was dealt a blow when the Government withdrew its Building Schools for the Future cash earlier this year, which the council had intended to use to help fund a school reorganisation. The authority is now waiting to see if it will receive any capital funding to pay for its plans but remains committed to closing the four schools.

Under North Craven's three-tier system pupils currently move from primaries to the middle schools and then on to Settle College at the age of 13

Under the council's plans, which are being consulted on until the end of next week, primary schools and Settle College would be able to expand, increasing their budgets.

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The closure plan is identified as the preferred option in a council report being considered by councillors next month.

Other options include creating one secondary school with sites in both Settle and Ingleton or changing the middle schools intake from 10 to 13, to 11 to 14 which would still allow primary schools to expand.

Teachers and parents at both middle schools are campaigning to save them.

Settle Middle deputy head Ray Hampton said: "The county council officers initially proposed five models but with what seemed to be with the speed and efficiency of a bullet train, at a blink of an eye, five became one. The one that most people are aware of.

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"A potential problem with the 11-18 model is that fewer pupils, not more, will eventually be going to the 11 to 18 school.

"Options that do not include a base for secondary provision in the Ingleton area may result in larger numbers of pupils transferring at year seven to a neighbouring school in Cumbria."

Middle school teachers elsewhere have also defended their model of providing education.

Kirkburton headteacher Gary Johnson said: "We can provide specialist teaching which primary schools can't and we nurture children during the crucial age when they are going through rapid physical and emotional change."

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National Middle Schools Forum executive officer Nigel Wyatt said middle schools served rural communities particularly well as they prevented the need for pupils to travel further afield to larger secondary schools.

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