A WORCESTER school is refusing to reveal the number of redundancies that have been made among its teaching staff.

Bishop Perowne CE College launched a consultation on redundancies among teaching and support staff back in April, citing "budgetary constraints".

That process has now been completed - but headteacher Mark Pollard is refusing to say how many teachers have ended up taking redundancy.

A spokesman from a PR company used by Mr Pollard could not provide a reason why the information is to be kept secret from the public.

The school had initially said it would reveal what was happening with the redundancies as soon as the consultation period was over.

However, a statement later put out from Mr Pollard merely says there had been no compulsory redundancies amongst teachers.

He said at risk staff had either secured new positions in other schools or taken voluntary redundancy.

Mr Pollard said the number of contracted teachers in the school has increased for September 2016 - but refused to say by how many.

He did reveal that a small number of compulsory redundancies have been made among support staff including one part-time teaching assistant, one member of site team and a part-time lunchtime supervisor.

Mr Pollard said: “Following the consultation about overstaffing of teachers in certain subject areas, I am pleased to confirm that there have been no compulsory redundancies amongst teachers.

"At risk staff in subject areas where the school was overstaffed have either secured new positions in other schools or have taken voluntary redundancy.

“The school has continued to recruit in order to deliver the changing curriculum focusing on academic qualifications and has successfully filled all vacancies with high quality subject qualified staff, including lead practitioners in the most crucial areas of maths and English.

"We can reassure all students and parents that the number of contracted teachers in the school has actually increased for September 2016 and now better matches the curriculum we are delivering."

Mr Pollard blamed the cuts on ever-increasing budgetary constraints from Worcestershire being one of the worst funded local authorities for education in the country.

He said the school had done "everything possible" to reduce costs through natural means and voluntary redundancy.

He added: “The review and restructure of support staff means the school is far better placed to support students in improving literacy and numeracy skills.

"We have a dedicated team who are now trained to work intensively with students to improve achievement in these areas and our pilot programme this academic year has shown they are having huge impact.”

As an academy, Bishop Perowne CE College is outside of the control of Worcestershire County Council and is funded directly by central government.

Ofsted inspectors said Bishop Perowne CE College requires improvement after an inspection in January 2015.

A monitoring inspection since then found the college had an effective action plan to improve.