Plans to close Whitby's Eskdale School revealed in shock letter to parents

A letter from the Whitby Secondary Partnership to parents this evening (Jan 4), on the first day back after the Christmas holidays, said that it proposes to amalgamate Eskdale with Caedmon College Whitby, from September 2023, with the new school set to operate from Caedmon’s Scoresby and Normanby sites – with the former the current base for Whitby Sixth Form.

The proposal would result in the technical closure of Eskdale and the school site.

It is not the first time Eskdale has battled such proposals – in 2016, a decision on whether to shut the school was suspended by North Yorkshire County Council following extensive campaigning.

The partnership cites three reasons for the proposal:

low pupils numbers“significant” financial challenges at both schoolsand an imperative to give the best education and curriculum to the young people of Whitby

At the end of last term, the partnership’s governing board decided to ask North Yorkshire County Council to begin a consultation period on a process to amend the structure of the Whitby Secondary Partnership.

Tonight’s letter, signed by executive headteacher Jamie Henshaw and co-governors Christina Zanelli and Su Crossland, said before the consultation process can begin, approval has to be given by Annabel Wilkinson, North Yorkshire County Council’s Executive Member for Education and Skills, with a decision scheduled for February 7.

If consultation is approved, there will be an initial six-week public consultation period, from February 20 to March 31, where all stakeholders can comment and a public meeting will be held, or via a Frequently Asked Questions document which will be published an updated.

There may even be an opportunity to give the newly amalgamated school a new name.

The letter concludes: “We want to assure you that our main priority remains to deliver a quality first provision to the community of Whitby and that during this consultation phase, the focus of all staff will be on the continued delivery of a good quality of education across the schools within the partnership – the students and their education will not in any way suffer due to this proposal.”

What do you think about the proposal? Email [email protected] with your views.