Whitby schools amalgamation: Town Council calls on governors to ‘immediately withdraw’ amalgamation plan

Whitby Town Council’s clerk, Michael King, has written to the town’s Secondary Partnership’s board of governors asking that they “immediately withdraw” their formal request for the amalgamation of the Whitby secondary schools.

Mr King, who wrote to the board following a resolution at the town council’s annual assembly in March, also asked that the board contact North Yorkshire Council and “tender their resignations”.

Unlike regular town council meetings, the annual assembly gives members of the public who are on the town’s electoral register, the chance to vote on resolutions.

The letter asked the board to call on the council’s executive member for education and learning, Cllr Annabel Wilkinson to “formally appoint an interim board of governors for the Whitby Secondary Partnership” and for the board to subsequently “tender their resignations, along with all other members of the board of governors, from the Whitby Secondary Partnership board of governors”.

However, according to a report prepared for a full meeting of the town council on Tuesday, May 2, no response was received from the board.

A consultation is currently ongoing ahead of a final decision by North Yorkshire Council in June which will decide whether Eskdale School and Caedmon College Whitby will be amalgamated.

The four-week consultation will close at 5pm on May 25, 2023.

If the amalgamation is approved, it would result in the technical closure of Eskdale School and the Eskdale site from August 2024 and would mean an increase in the planned admission number for the amalgamated school from September 2024.

After the annual assembly, the town council was also tasked with contacting Cllr Wilkinson to call for a review of education in Whitby.

The executive member for education, Cllr Wilkinson, responded to the letter, stating: “There is no plan to have an independent enquiry.

“The direct responsibility for taking action to improve education outcomes lies with governing bodies and academy trusts.”

She added: “The council retains many duties and responsibilities with regard to its maintained schools and has a role alongside all schools in relation to safeguarding of children.”

Last week North Yorkshire Council also confirmed to the Local Democracy Reporting Service that no enquiry is planned despite calls from campaigners.

The Keep Choice in Whitby and Save Eskdale School Group said that “if there had been a fair, honest and transparent consultation” the outcome of the decision would have been “very different”.

The resolution from the annual assembly concludes that “Whitby Town Council fully supports Whitby parents and carers in their strenuous opposition to the proposed amalgamation of Whitby’s secondary schools” and states that “this formal opposition [is] to be included within the present consultation process”.