Academy status 'only option' for Ifton Heath Primary School
Campaigners today said a bid for academy status for Shropshire's Ifton Heath Primary School was now the 'only option left' to save it. Campaigners today said a bid for academy status for Shropshire's Ifton Heath Primary School was now the 'only option left' to save it. Shropshire Council's cabinet yesterday approved plans to close the St Martins primary school, despite pleas to keep it open. Under the proposals, its pupils will move to a new all-through school at the village's Rhyn Park Secondary School. Shropshire Council officers said the move would safeguard Rhyn Park and save money through 'significant economies of scale'. But campaigners said today a bid by the school to win academy status, which would free it from local authority control, was now the way forward. [24link]
St Martins parish councillor Neil Graham said he was 'disappointed but not surprised' by the decision.
He said: "I felt it was cut and dried from the start and I do believe academy status is the best path for Ifton Heath now. It is the only option left to save it now.
"I must stress I am not against Rhyn Park School and I think if the ethos is changed it can start attracting more students but I really want to see our village primary school and its secondary school doing well."
St Martins grandfather Terry Williams, whose five children all went to Ifton Heath and then Rhyn Park, said: "Ifton Heath is a great little school and there is not much wrong with Rhyn Park. If academy is the way forward, they should go for it."
Hayley Collier, who has three children at Ifton Heath, said she would move her children to Ellesmere or Gobowen if the academy status bid was unsuccessful.
Nicola Bradley, headteacher of Ifton Heath, told the meeting the school was progressing with a bid to the Department for Education.
She said: "We are seeking to move to academy status working in partnership with The Marches School and others. We are very excited by the collaboration."
Julian Cattley, chairman of governors at Ifton Heath, said the school had done a lot of work providing outdoor teaching for pupils through its forest school initiative, and it would take years to re-establish a similar project at the all-through school.
But councillors David Lloyd and Steve Davenport, whose wards cover the areas affected, said the plans were the best way to ensure long-term provision of education in the area.
By Iain St John
