Abbeydale Grange to close
The decision to close decision to close Abbeydale Grange School was approved at by the Liberal Democrat controlled Sheffield Council at the cabinet meeting on 9 December 2009. Paul is severely critical of this decision.
When the issue was debated in the Town Hall last week, Labour Councillors called for the threat of closure to be removed and for support for the proposals for a Co-operative Trust, linked to the development of 14-19 year old provision, made by the Governors of Abbeydale Grange. However, this proposal to save the school was dismissed by Lib Dem Councillors, with Council Leader Paul Scriven slamming the performance of Abbeydale Grange, despite an independent report from Hallam University challenging Council figures and describing the schools performance as comparable with others in the city.
The school’s closure has been a contentious issue for many months with the Lib Dem Council’s entire consultation process being widely accused of being riddled with flaws and meaningless after the Council only consulted on closing the school. Many impassioned representations have been made by pupils, parents, teachers and the local community. The Campaign to Save Abbeydale Grange School, lobbied numerous council meetings, protested on the Town Hall steps and gathered over 1,000 signatures for a petition.
Paul Blomfield said:
“Today’s decision by the Lib Dems’ to close Abbeydale Grange is a sad day for education in our city, but it comes as no surprise. It’s been clear for a long time that the Lib Dems were planning to close the school regardless of what everyone else said.
“The message I’ve repeatedly heard from parents is that they feel the Lib Dems haven’t listened to them, and I think they’re right to feel angry. The Lib Dems’ ran a sham consultation and failed to look properly at all the options to keep the school open. Then they dismissed an excellent report by the Governors outlining a positive and realistic future for the school. The least that the parents, pupils, teachers and governors should have expected was an open minded and fair consultation process which clearly did not happen here. The Council owes them an apology because they deserve better than this.”
“Abbeydale Grange has a unique role in Sheffield’s family of schools and there are plenty of unanswered questions about how the Council plans to replace the expertise of the school and protect the interests of pupils. Neighbouring schools will also rightly feel worried by today’s decision as it will have a massive impact on the number of pupils they will be expected to provide places for.”
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