High schools unite to fight sixth forms plans

Welshpool High School and Ysgol Llanfyllin have joined forces to fight plans to close their sixth forms in favour of a new facility in Newtown.

The schools have issued a joint press release (below) highlighting the issues that the move would cause, and have appealed to their paymasters at Powys County Council to re-engage with them to come up with a more suitable option.

Powys is concerned that sixth formers are heading across the border in search of better post-16 options, and want to improve the offering via two hubs at Newtown and Brecon.

But the following press release shows the schools are not happy with the move:

Having reviewed the PCC Post-16 Review document and considered the 3 options, the governing bodies of Ysgol Llanfyllin and Welshpool High School believe that neither the interests of our learners nor our communities will be served well by these options.

Currently, the Trisgol collaboration (Ysgol Bro Caereinon, Ysgol Llanfyllin and Welshpool High School) delivers post-16 education to 33% of Powys 6th Form pupils, of which Ysgol Llanfyllin and Welshpool High School provide 29% of Powys 6th Form pupils.

One of the arguments to support this review is the poor post-16 performance across Powys; however, is has not considered the significantly better ALPS performance of Trisgol, compared to Powys 6th Form. (ALPS = National A Level performance benchmarking tool).

Both governing bodies are aware and fully support the review of post-16 education in Powys; however, for the review to have such a considered outcome and openly declared preferred option, before directly considering the needs of learners and communities in North Powys, is very much placing the cart before the horse.

Both governing bodies feel unable to support the preferred option, and encourage other north Powys stakeholders to consider a similar approach, because:

• Beyond simply leaving Welsh Medium provision to one of the smallest providers, there is no coherent plan to address the key reasons for the lack of a broad Welsh Medium, post-16 curriculum in north Powys.
• The plan makes no consideration of the ease of access and close proximity of several well-established and stable post-16 providers, which are available to northern Powys pupils a short distance across the border.
• No consideration has been given to the risk of an increased migration of north Powys pupils across the border, which could reduce the size of Powys 6th Form by as much as 1/3.
• No consideration has been given to how a decline in pupil numbers - caused by post-16 students choosing to attend provision in Newtown or across the border - might affect the viability of existing schools in north Powys.

The governing bodies of Ysgol Llanfyllin and Welshpool High School request that PCC immediately engages, in a meaningful way, with both schools, their senior leaders and governing bodies.

Furthermore, both governing bodies respectfully request that key stakeholders in north Powys challenge both the methodology and outcomes of this review and call on their political representatives to actively engage with both schools so as to better understand the concerns and risks.

A statement from the Chair of Governors, Ysgol Llanfyllin, states: “A ‘town hall meeting’, arranged after declaring a preferred option, is neither a credible nor meaningful consultation with key stakeholders.”