Whitby secondary schools merger plan: governors outline reasons for proposal and future plans

Their plan, announced on the first day back to school after the Christmas and New Year break, would result in the technical closure of the site at Eskdale, which this year marks its 70th anniversary.

Su Crossland opened the lunchtime consultation meeting by saying with numbers reducing across both Caedmon and Eskdale sites, it meant a reduction in funding too.

She said Eskdale currently had 406 students on its roll, out of a capacity of 550, and Caedmon 783 students with a capacity of 1,530, giving a surplus of more than 40 per cent, which meant a reduction of more than 40 per cent reduction in potential funding.

Christina Zanelli, who is also CEO of Yorkshire Endeavour Academy Trust and Head of Lealholm School, said: "School budgets have never been as challenging as they are currently.

"It’s a difficult decision, I want to make that clear.

"The governors thought long and hard and it’s not a decision that’s been taken lightly.

"We have turned out some incredible children and we know the strength of feeling there is but we have not got a choice about it.

"We can’t provide the best quality of education with the limited resources we’ve got, it just isn’t possible.”

She said the merger plan was “creating a really exciting opportunity” by pooling the schools’ resources together.

The governors said the amalgamated school would have seven to eight classes of 23-24 pupils in each year group within key stage three, and nine classes in each key stage four year group.

Their presentation also outlined the reasons for choosing the Scoresby site for the new amalgamated school – which would have a new name – stating that the Normanby and Scoresby sites are less than half a mile apart which makes the playing fields and all-weather pitch at the Scoresby site more accessible to students being educated on the Normanby site, while also minimising travel time for staff moving between the two sites.

The governors also believe a larger amalgamated school would be able to offer a broader curriculum “with wider opportunities and development of skills” with a seven-year ‘road map’ of both academic and vocational courses.

A new Inclusion Hub would be provided under a new pastoral and inclusion structure, bringing together the SEND teams, alternative provision (education outside of school) and Targeted Mainstream Provision.

Once questions were opened up to the public, several alternative suggestions were made and one man, Noel Barrett, suggested that the final “momentous” decision should be made by an independent inspector, not the county council.

A second meeting is to take place at the Pavilion tonight (Mar 8) at 6.30pm, with campaigners planning to march to the meeting from Clara’s.

The consultation runs until the end of March.

The county council executive will then consider its response on April 18 and a further four-week consultation could then run from April 27 to May 25, with the final decision due on June 20.