Council votes to close Shrewsbury's Wakeman School

SHREWSBURY'S WAKEMAN School will close after councillors today unanimously backed plans to axe it under a shake-up of education in the county.

The announcement came as a huge blow to parents, pupils and teachers at the school who were awaiting the decision made at a meeting at Shirehall of Shropshire Council's cabinet.

Campaigners had issued a desperate plea to decision makers to give the school a stay of execution while ideas for a possible federation could be investigated. However, councillors instead unanimously backed council officer recommendations to close it.

The plans will now go out to further consultation and will be rubber-stamped by full council in the summer.

Councillor Nigel Hartin pleaded with fellow cabinet members to call off the decision today to avoid what he fears could be a "horrible" mistake in closing the Wakeman.

But council leader Keith Barrow, said: "We have not gone into this to close schools. There is just one too many schools in Shrewsbury."

The decision came despite Karen Moore, the school's headteacher, claiming that dipping pupil numbers across the town was a "temporary feature".

Mrs Moore said: "Is the destruction of an Ofsted judged good school with outstanding points justified for the sake of an extra few pounds to other schools?"

Primary school teacher Alan Parkhurst, who has his own children at the Wakeman and Meole Brace School, said Shropshire primary schools would suffer if it closed.

He said: "Partnership working with the Wakeman is second to none and its arts specialism benefits the whole town. It's loss will tear the heart out of Shrewsbury."

But Councillor Mike Owen said the Wakeman was subsidised to a "significant degree", placing a drain on the education system.

Councillor Aggie Caesar-Homden, the council's portfolio holder for children and young people's services, said "no change" was not an option for the Wakeman, with high numbers of unfilled places and low numbers of applications to join.

In this morning's session at the Shirehall, council chiefs backed the move to press ahead with all schools recommended for federations under the latest plans. A proposal to create an "all through" school at Rhyn Park, St Martins, near Oswestry, was deferred to explore the plans in greater detail.

While an "amalgamated" school will be created in Shawbury, merging Shawbury Primary with St Mary's Primary School.

Both sites will remain open, but Shawbury Primary School will close, with the decision on where to base the continuing school deferred for further discussion.

Meanwhile Buntingsdale Infant School, near Market Drayton, will be turned into a full primary after council bosses backed the proposal.

By Russell Roberts and Sam Pinnington