School Organisation: Wilkes Green Infant and Junior Amalgamation Final

Overview

At the request of the Interim Executive Board of Wilkes Green Infant School and the Governing Body of Wilkes Green Junior School, Birmingham City Council, as the Local Authority for Birmingham, is consulting on a proposal to amalgamate Wilkes Green Infant School and Wilkes Green Junior School to create one all through primary school with effect from 1^st May 2019.

In order to amalgamate the schools it is necessary to

• Discontinue Wilkes Green Infant School
• Alter the lower age limit of Wilkes Green Junior School.
• Expand Wilkes Green Junior School to  accommodate pupils of infant school age.

This will result in the amalgamation of both schools to form an all through primary school.

Wilkes Green Junior School will be proposing to change its name to reflect the change to the age range and amalgamation.
All pupils from the infant school would have the right to transfer to the primary school unless they wanted to seek other arrangements.

Why your views matter

There is a statutory process that we must follow to make these sorts of changes to schools.

We have completed the informal stage of the consultation. During this stage we received 104 responses. Of the 104 responses 97 were in favour, 3 were against and 4 either didn’t specify or didn’t know.

The Local Authority has considered the responses and has decided to move to the next stage of the process which is the formal consultation stage, also known as the representation stage.

We are keen to receive your views on this proposal. All comments received during this stage will be forwarded to the decision makers.

Full details of the proposal and how to make comment are provided in the final proposal document attached to this webpage.

What happens next

Within two months  of  the  end  of  the  representation  period  a  report  will  be produced with all of the comments received and this will be passed for consideration by the decision makers (Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and Culture jointly with the  Director for Children and Young People) Should the decision makers not come to a unanimous decision the proposal will be passed to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator for a final decision. It is only at that point that we will be able to say with certainty that the two schools will be amalgamated.

What will happen if this proposal is rejected?

If a decision is taken that the two schools should not be amalgamated, then the existing infant and junior schools will continue to be separate schools.  A course of action will need to take place to address the improvements needed at the infant school.

How can I make my views known?

We invite all interested parties to give us their views and comment on this proposal.

Any comments must be received no later than 7^th February 2019.

We will keep you updated on the "we asked, you said, we did" section of this page at the end of the consultation.

We thank all respondents for taking the time to make comments, it is greatly appreciated.