Petition Launched to Save Whitby's Eskdale School

Whitby Secondary Partnership is proposing to close the Eskdale School site in September.

In a letter to parents this week the Whitby Secondary Partnership outlined a proposal to amalgamate Caedmon College Whitby and Eskdale School amalgamate from 1st September 2023.

The Partnership says the plan would result in

"the technical closure of Eskdale School and the Eskdale site. The newly amalgamated school is proposed to operate from the Normanby and Scoresby sites from 1st September 2023."

The letter also says that Caedmon College could be renamed as part of the proposed change saying:

"There is an opportunity to rename Caedmon College Whitby as part of this reorganisation process and as part of the proposal this is something governors propose to do ahead of the amalgamated school proposed opening on 1st September 2023."

The Partnership say the reasons for the proposal are three linked factors:

"low pupil numbers, significant financial challenges at both schools and an imperative to give the best education and curriculum to the young people of Whitby."

The Whitby Secondary Partnership have asked North Yorkshire County Council to carry out a consultation on the proposed changes, the council will discuss the request for a consultation at a meeting on February 7th.

In response to the suggested changes a petition has been launched to try and "Save Eskdale School". Over 500 people have already singed the Change.Org petition. The organisers say:

"In 2016 NYCC tried to amalgamate Eskdale school and Caedmon College. We fought for the children to have choice, now in 2023 we find ourselves in the same position.

Children need choice. With all the new builds the children will be cattle, and some will fall through the gaps very easily.

Please help a second time and give our children the choice ."

The petition can be found at https://www.change.org/p/save-eskdale-school

The full letter sent to parents reads:

"Dear Parents/Carers,

Firstly, we hope that you have had a peaceful and enjoyable festive period and that the start of 2023 has been all that you hoped.
As you are aware back in 2019 the Whitby Secondary Partnership was formally established to provide a working partnership between Caedmon College Whitby, The Whitby Sixth Form and Eskdale School. This partnership has the aim to provide a quality first provision for all the students and the community in Whitby and the surrounding area,

At the end of the Autumn term following consideration as a Governing Board we decided to ask the Local Authority to commence a consultation process on our proposal to amend the structure of the Whitby Secondary Partnership. Our proposal to NYCC is that Caedmon College Whitby and Eskdale School amalgamate from 1^ September 2023. Amalgamation is a proposal to technically close one school (or more) and enlarge an existing school, to accommodate all pupils. The remaining school would retain its original registration number and age range. Our proposal would result in the technical closure of Eskdale School and the Eskdale site. The newly amalgamated school is proposed to operate from the Normanby and Scoresby sites from 1st September 2023. There is an opportunity to rename Caedmon College Whitby as part of this reorganisation process and as part of the proposal this is something governors propose to do ahead of the amalgamated school proposed opening on
1st September 2023.

The reasons for this proposal are three linked factors: low pupil numbers, significant financial challenges at both schools and an imperative to give the best education and curriculum to the young people of Whitby.

Before the consultation process begins approval has to be given by Clir Annabel Wilkinson, the Executive Member for Education and Skills at NYCC and this decision is scheduled to be taken on Tuesday 7th February. If consultation is approved there will be an initial 6 week public consultation period during which all stakeholders will have opportunity to comment on the proposal and a public meeting will be held. We write to notify you now so that, as parents of existing pupils across the Federation, you are aware that we have asked for this process to be initiated.

There will be a number of questions that you might have and we will work to ensure that as many of these are answered at either the public meeting held during the consultation period between 20 February and 31 March or via a Frequently Asked Questions document which will be published and updated as necessary.

We will write to you again following the NYCC Executive Member meeting in February with details of the timeline to the consultation process and with further information about the proposed new amalgamated school.

Should you have any questions in the meantime please email questions@wsp.org.uk we might not be able to answer all questions and we will need to await the outcome of the meeting on 7th February.

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 anyway suffer due to this proposal."