Education in Whitby
A Letter to the Editor by MIKE WARD, former Chair of Eskdale School Board of Governors and prominent Scarborough Borough Councillor.
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The vision must surely be outstanding education for all students in Whitby.
To achieve this there should be a strategic plan but, has there been, or is there one?!
Is there, or will there be, a new consultation on the vision for education in Whitby?
I am sure those in charge are now doing their best but if so, how long are parents/students expected to wait for any update?
Whitby has been let down for many years.
It needed a purpose-built 11-16 Comprehensive School as far back as the early 70’s.
Whitby has missed out on funding and any funding that has been available has, more than often, been wasted.
Secondary education has been, and is currently, based on buildings rather than educational need.
Outstanding education may only have been achieved, in Whitby, at most in part and never consistently.
What is clear is that there is outstanding education in the surrounding areas.
With changes in Secondary transport now in place, no one could possibly blame students/parents up the Esk Valley or along the Yorkshire coast now moving to their nearest school even if that might be outside of North Yorkshire.
Good/Outstanding education is now available to some students who used to be in the Whitby School catchment area.
Would it be in the best interest of those students to stay at Whitby School, and therefore pay for transport, whilst those there try to improve standards and provide a school to be proud of?
The system reached another crisis point a couple of years back and, once again, needed a strategic plan for education in the area but it was never put in place or, if it was, certainly wasn’t communicated properly.
An opportunity was lost.
The proposal to close Eskdale was purely a cost cutting exercise and no, fit for purpose, long term plan for educational provision was put in place.
Once again, we reverted to a split site school scenario with a failing 6th Form.
Most might accept that an 11-13 lower school is a better option than an 11-14 lower school, however split site schools have consistently failed.
The crisis we have has been compounded by various issues: –
Falling school numbers.
Buildings in need of repair.
Parental/student choices at 11 and again at 16.
Teacher, subject specific, vacancies
Numbers could now drop still further in September as Stokesley, Lawrence Jackson (Guisborough) and Freeborough (Brotton) would give some students outstanding options.
There is also the ongoing possibility that Whitby parents/students opt to go to Scalby, Pickering or Fylinghall.
An issue which must be confronted is that of a 6th Form.
Despite investment it has been shown that a combined 11-18 school in Whitby is unviable.
A Whitby 6th Form can’t offer the opportunities and choices available outside of the town.
Students have voted with their feet and are now, or will be, attending Scarborough, Guisborough, Middlesbrough, Pickering, Stokesley etc.
The only remaining hope for post 16 education in the town is for a hub linked to Scarborough 6th Form or the TEC College which could offer a limited timetable in the Town, in addition to their main bases in Scarborough, with students splitting time between sites.
The focus must be on 11-16 education and how that can become outstanding.
Whitby needs one fit for purpose secondary school site.
With the estimated intake and no 6th Form the Mayfield Road site could house all remaining students from September but is that site really fit for purpose, even with investment.
A relatively straightforward option would be to move all 11-16 students to that site in the short-term meaning the Airy Hill site could close and be radically redeveloped, to accommodate 700+ students within a 6–12-month timescale.
North Yorkshire would need to ringfence some if not all the monies gained from the sales of Eskdale School and the Mayfield Road sites to ensure that Whitby School has a building and facilities to be proud of, with the staff delivering outstanding education for our students.
WHITBY STUDENTS DESERVE BETTER.
