Bishop's Castle primary school to hold fire on academy trust bid

Bishop's Castle Primary School has agreed to halt its application to join the Hereford-based Bishop Anthony Educational Trust, or BAET, until more information on joining other multi-academy trusts in the area has been considered.

The move has come after governors at Bishops Castle secondary school The Community College expressed shock and concern at its feeder school's announcement, calling a town-wide public meeting at the SpArC Theatre to discuss the matter on Friday.

BAET is linked to the Diocese of Hereford and oversees nine schools including Ludlow Infant and Nursery School, Bitterley CofE Primary School, Morville CofE School and Hereford Academy.

But schools in the Bishop's Castle area have been working together for three years as the South West Shropshire Learning Trust – not an academy trust – and Jim Sparkes, chairman of governors at the Community College, said it would make more sense if they all became part of the same multi-academy trust together.

Speaking after Friday's meeting, Jane Carroll, chairwoman of governors for Bishop's Castle Primary School, said the school had agreed to hold fire on a decision.

She said: "After Easter South West Shropshire Learning Trust will call public meetings in Bishop's Castle and Clun and invite various speakers from multi-academy trusts, or would-be trusts, and invite parents to hear what they have to offer."

She said they were also waiting on a proposal to form a new multi-academy trust for Shropshire that 30 schools were currently interested in.

"That will be ready to look at this side of Easter. That will cover the whole of Shropshire but it's difficult because you don't know what you're getting into, it's going to have no track record.

"At the end of this it will then go back to the governors of each school to decide what they are going to do."

Jim Sparkes at The Community College had stressed that the rural schools around Bishop's Castle would be better off in the same trust so that they could share staff and resources without competing.

But Mrs Carroll said she still didn't see why that had to be the case.

"From our point of view it very much depends which other schools are in the trust," she said, adding that the primary would be better off with counterparts of its own size or bigger to share practice with, rather than much smaller schools.

But Heather Kidd, Shropshire councillor for Chirbury and Worthen, who has been both a teacher and a governor at The Community College, said it would divide the primary from its nearest neighbours.

She said: "You can't share staff and resources if you're in another trust.

"We've all got tight budgets and the best thing we can do is share.

"My children have had a good education locally and I expected my grandchildren to.

"It's important that we work together and not against each other to make sure that happens."