Crunch time for Gloucestershire schools

​The future of three Gloucestershire schools will be debated at a crunch meeting this week.

Gloucestershire County Council’s cabinet members will will meet on Wednesday February 10 at 10am in Shire Hall to discuss proposals to close Bishops’ College and Central Technology College in Gloucester and replace them with an Academy.

They will also discuss the proposal to close Vale of Berkeley College from Septemeber this year.

The three options for Central Technology College and Bishops' College on the table are:

1.Take no action

2.Publish a statutory notice for the closure of Bishops’ College and Central Technology College with effect from 1 September 2010 contingent upon agreement to establish a new Academy; and confirm a commitment to support the establishment of an Academy in Gloucester as detailed in the report

3.Publish a statutory notice for the closure of Bishops’ College with effect from 1 September 2010, should it prove impossible to proceed with the proposed new Academy.

The meeting will be held in the Council Chamber and members of the public are able to attend, however space is limited and people who arrive first will be permitted entry.

Jo Grills, Director, Learning and Development, said: “The consultation has captured parents’ and pupils’ views on a new Academy for Gloucester and we have taken these views into consideration when preparing our report.

“These three options have been put forward for consideration by Cabinet who will have a thorough debate before making any decisions.”

The three options on the table for the Vale of Berkeley are:

1. Take no action

2. Publish statutory notices for the closure of the Vale of Berkeley College with effect from 31st August 2010

3 Defer the decision on whether to close the Vale of Berkeley College to the  meeting of  Cabinet in June to enable:

a. A full and detailed analysis of the Cooperative Trust proposal  presented by the school

b.Further analysis of where students who currently attend Vale of Berkeley would transfer if a decision is taken to close the school

The Cabinet report is available to view online now at www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/cabinet

Background information on the proposals and consultation is available at www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/nationalchallenge