15 schools facing axe in switch to two tiers

EVERY middle school in Wyre Forest is set to be axed and four first schools closed in the biggest education shake-up for 30 years.

Headteachers at high schools have also been warned to improve grades or risk losing their sixth form status.

Long-awaited recommendations involve going back to a two-tier set-up of primary and secondary schools to replace the current three-tier arrangement.

The massive £150 million re-organisation proposals, which would be be implemented in September 2007, will be put before county councillors on Monday.

The move - which comes after a year of protests from parents, governors and headteachers - would see first schools becoming primaries, taking pupils aged four to 11.

Some would simply convert to primaries while others would take over nearby middle school buildings.

Four first schools, however, have been judged unsuitable to make the change to primary. Education officers behind the plans said Areley Common, Lea Street, Stone and St Barnabas would all close for good, causing uproar amongst campaigners.

The recommendations would see existing high schools at Bewdley and Stourport retained, but taking children from age 11 instead of 13.

However, a question mark hangs over the three high schools in Kidderminster.

The cabinet at Worcestershire County Council - due to vote on the plans on Monday - has been given clear-cut proposals for first and middle schools by county officers, but will have to decide whether Kidderminster should have two or three high schools.

The three-school option involves keeping Baxter College and Wolverley High on their existing sites with King Charles I either staying where it is, or moving to a new site.

The two-school route involves scrapping Wolverley and keeping Baxter College and moving King Charles to a new location.

Officers prefer the latter option, effectively giving Kidderminster an "east" and "west" school taking more than 1,400 pupils each - at the expense of Wolverley.

In another twist, all high school heads were this week warned grades must get better or they will be stripped of their sixth form status - leading to a new-build sixth form college serving the district.

Furthermore, the shake-up proposes to make Baxter College a Church of England school as council bosses attempt to redress the loss of four C of E middle schools.

The plans - which will mean job losses - come as part of a drive by the county council to improve Wyre Forest standards which, officers believe, are being hampered by spare places and an outdated three-tier system, brought in back in 1974.

The move brings the two-tier system - the dominant model of education throughout the UK - back into Wyre Forest after an absence of more than a quarter of a century.

The changes would see a total of six district schools close for education purposes.

Although most of the district's 11 middle schools would be used to some degree to take extra pupils from their new primary school neighbours, two would be out of commission.

Sion Hill and Sladen are highly unlikely to be used to help carry the load of new primary schools, officers have said, adding to the four controversial first school closures.

Existing primary schools, Bayton, St Ambrose and St Wulstans would be unaffected.

The cabinet is being being asked on Monday to vote on moving to a two-tier system. Members will also be able to state a preference on the Kidderminster high school set-up.

The proposals could be voted through or go out for public consultation with a final decision being made in October.