Shropshire Schools' Future Prompts Church Meeting

Headteachers of South Shropshire's church schools have been called to a meeting to discuss their response to proposals from Shropshire County Council which put the future of many schools in doubt.

The 30 October meeting will also include Chairs of Governors and local clergy.

"I have sent an invitation to all forty two (42) of our Church Schools as there's already a lot of concern about the proposals from the Shropshire Authority," said Ian Terry, Director of Education for the Diocese of Hereford, which has responsibility in forty two Aided or Controlled Church Schools or two thirds of the schools in the South of the county.

"We take our responsibility for primary education in Shropshire very seriously and believe it's important to make a robust and realistic response to the Local Authority's proposals."

The proposals that the Local Authority has put out for consultation include a future where all schools will have at least four classes, that surplus places be no more than ten per cent of the capacity and that every pupil should have access to a school within six miles of their home or travel for no longer than forty five minutes.

"Given falling numbers of pupils and many surplus places, we recognise that some reorganisation is necessary," added Dr Terry. "But how that rationalisation takes place is currently causing concern for school staff and parents and this can also impact on the children. We need to get together and decide how we are going to respond to the Local Authority given there is some contradictions in the proposals."

Ian Budd, the Assistant Director of the Children & Young People's Division of Shropshire Council, will be at the meeting to state the Authority's case but will then leave those attending to discuss the issues raised.

It is hoped that those at the meeting will provide the framework for a considered response which has to be with the council by the 9 November.