Parents at a Runcorn school have issued a plea over its future amid a planned shakeup of education in the town.
Halton Council is currently consulting on a radical overhaul of Runcorn’s primary school system, blaming falling birth rates for a surplus in pupil numbers.
The council stresses that no decisions have yet been made, but the options shortlisted, are:
- Closure, federation or merger, including through
academisation, of The Holy Spirit Catholic Primary
School, St Edwards Catholic Primary School,
Woodside Primary School and Brookvale Primary
School. - Recommend to the Wade Deacon Trust to consult on
the closure of Weston Point Community Primary
School to enable the merger with Westfield Primary
School. - Consulting on the closure of Westfield Primary
School if a merger with Weston Point Primary
does not go ahead. - Recommend to The Heath Family Trust to consult
on the closure or merger of Bridgewater Park
Primary School and Palacefields Primary Academy.
But parents at Woodside have issued a plea to the council to leave their school as it is, saying it is ‘more than a school but a family’, saying that beyond just delivering an education to their children – staff had also provided support during tough times, such as family bereavements and illnesses. They also said the school had been somewhere their children finally felt settled, having previously not been able to do so at other schools.
Mum Louise Hughes has had three children at Woodside, with two currently still there and one having now moved on to the Raise Academy.
She said: “We travel further than we need to because we chose this school.
“They’re citing that the school needs closing or merging based on falling numbers, because there’s too many empty tables. Our kids aren’t just a number in their statistics they’re our children. It will impact them mentally, socially, academically.”
The parents also say Woodside is not like other schools because of its level of SEND provision. Jennifer Eves has had four children go through the school over the years and said Woodside was ‘the backbone of Halton Lodge’.
“I’ve been coming to the school for the last 24 years. All my children have been through this school, they’ve all done fantastically well.
“One of them has got ADHD and autism and he’s has been supported all the way through school. They’ve nurtured him and helped us through the assessment processes, they supported us through three family losses within a seven month period.”
Terri Mullen has two children at the school. She added: “The staff treat the kids like a little family.”
Louise added: “We’re all a family, not just the kids.”
A council spokeswoman said the council ‘had a responsibility’ to ensure a sustainable, high‑quality education system with enough appropriate school places for every child in Halton.
She said: “In Runcorn there are 1,279 more primary school places than children in the Runcorn area – reflecting a wider national trend of falling birth rates – and even when taking account of new and planned housing developments in Runcorn, it is expected that this gap will widen over the next few years – this is creating challenges for some schools.”
She said the council had been working closely with school leaders and education partners across Runcorn to ‘understand the challenges’ and to consider solutions that would ensure children in Runcorn ‘continue to receive an excellent education and that schools can afford to keep running well’.
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She added: “It is important to be clear that no decisions have been made at this stage.”
A consultation is now open and an online survey is also open where people can have their say. It can be found here:
https://online1.snapsurveys.com/Interview/aca2471a-79c8-48ac-86d9-1700d8ba1f6b
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