Special school plans delayed

10:42am Thursday 3rd January 2008

THE next step in building a new Wyre Forest special school has been delayed, with education chiefs not due to discuss a key report until next month.

Worcestershire County Council cabinet members were due to see results of a final consultation for the district's future special educational needs provision on December 6.

Under the plan, Wyre Forest's current special schools, Stourminster and Blakebrook, would close in 2011 and be replaced by a single school operating at both existing sites, catering for pupils between two and 19.

The school would then move to a new building on land in Kidderminster known as The Elms, next to St John's CE Primary School and Baxter College.

Cabinet members will now not see the report until February because officers are costing up the revised plans following the consultation, which ended on October 19.

Alison Cartwright, county council service development manager for school systems, said: "There were some very good points which came back and we wanted to take on board.

"Cabinet members have said they would rather have all the information together to go back in February, rather than see the report now.

"We've written to people to explain we've listened to the comments in the latest consultation and are exploring options."

She would not comment further on the proposed make-up of the school before the document reached cabinet.

Speaking after the conclusion of the wider Wyre Forest Schools Review, Mrs Cartwright also said "a lot more" still needed to be done, including the completion of ongoing schools' building work.

County education chiefs' decision to close middle and all former first schools and reopen them as primaries without inviting competition would now have gone against new Government guidelines, which came into force early in 2007.

Mrs Cartwright would not comment on the legislation change in relation to the way the district review, which began in 2002, was carried out.

In a Worcestershire County Council schools review newsletter sent to parents and governors in December, it was stated the decision to close all or just selected schools would be "looked at carefully" in the event of any future education shake-up.

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