Questions and answers
The proposal is to close St George’s Roman Catholic High School as part of the wider re-organisation of Roman Catholic High Schools in Salford.
Here we explain the proposals and give answers to some of the questions which are likely to be raised.
Building Schools for the Future is a new capital investment programme introduced by the Government to support the transformation of secondary education. The intention of Building Schools for the Future is to provide innovative and inspirational spaces to support education with a view to the next 30 years and beyond.
The Building Schools for the Future programme provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to invest in the educational chances of the children of Salford whilst providing state-of-the-art facilities for the wider community.
Salford City Council is planning to make some major changes to many of its secondary schools over the next few years. As part of our Building Schools for the Future programme we have been consulting on proposals for the city’s Roman Catholic high schools. Currently, there are four such schools:
| School | Current places | Proposed places |
|---|---|---|
| All Hallows RC High School | 600 | 750 |
| St. Ambrose Barlow RC High School | 750 | 900 |
| St. George’s RC High School | 550 | 0 |
| St. Patrick’s RC High School | 900 | 900 |
Our view is that we will need fewer places in Roman Catholic secondary schools in the future. We are proposing to reduce the places over the next few years from 2800 to 2550 across the city. We believe that this is too small a number for four high schools and our plan is, therefore, to:
Close St. George’s RC High School
Expand St. Ambrose Barlow RC High School from 750 to 900 places and spend a large amount of money on refurbishing it
Rebuild All Hallows RC High School on a new site in the Pendleton regeneration area. The school would increase its places from 600 to 750
Spend a large amount of money refurbishing St. Patrick’s RC High School
A professional survey has been undertaken by Salford City Council to assess the condition of the building fabric at all high schools. Each element of the school building has been assessed according to its current condition. The assessment for St. George’s RC High School concluded that:
- Around £1.2million would need to be spent just to bring the building up to a good standard of repair, with no transformation. This figure is based upon a technical evaluation of the school buildings.
- Far more would have to be spent on the building to make it suitable to deliver education in the long term.
- A refurbishment of the existing building would not be value for money.
- A new school for 550 pupils requires a minimum of 30,000m² of team games provision. Current team game provision at the school is 7,726m², approximately 22,000m² below the minimum requirement.
- The restricted site impacts not only on formal provision for sport but also the informal and social space for children.
- Ideally a site should be significantly above the minimum requirements.
If our current plans are implemented, there are a number of options being proposed as alternatives to St George’s RC High school:
- St Ambrose Barlow RC High School (completely refurbished and increased in capacity by 150 places) or
- All Hallows RC High School (completely rebuilt and increased in capacity by 150 places) or
- Walkden High School (completely rebuilt and increased in capacity by 300 places) or
- Harrop Fold School (which will have been completely rebuilt by September 2008)
This depends on which other schools parents choose to send their children to and where the children live. It is true that pupils whose parents want a Roman Catholic education for their children in Salford may have further to travel, although a number already travel a fair distance to attend St George’s RC High School.
It is now a statutory requirement to look at traffic implications as part of the planning process for any new school building. In particular we will be exploring the possibility of using the Yellow Bus scheme run by Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive to provide good daily transport for pupils, minimise traffic increases and to make travel to school as economical and environmentally friendly as possible.
Since June 2006, numerous meetings have taken place with the Diocese but unfortunately we have not been able to agree a way forward. Wider consultations also took place last year when the proposals for the whole Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme were discussed.
Salford City Council suggested that specific provision could be made for Roman Catholic pupils within the PFI build at the Harrop Fold school. This could have included provision for:
- A chaplaincy
- A faith room
- Representation on the governing body
- Adjustments to the Religious Education syllabus
- This option was rejected by the Diocese.
The plans to rebuild Harrop Fold had been agreed before Salford was allocated additional funds as part of the Building Schools for the Future programme. Halting the rebuilding of Harrop Fold would have:
- incurred substantial financial penalty charges to Salford City Council
- involved a complete redesign of the school
- been unlikely to be financially viable as the cost of two new 600 place schools with some separate facilities would be greater than the cost of one 1200 place school.
- required a renegotiation of the funding for the school with central government
As a consequence this would have delayed the opening of Harrop Fold by two years and would still not have provided a transformed provision.
We are proposing to increase the number of places at other Roman Catholic schools on the basis that St George’s RC High School is proposed for closure. If St George’s RC High School does not close then we will not be able to expand capacity at the other schools or to invest as much in their buildings.
The governing body of each voluntary aided school determines the admissions policy. However, the planning that has taken place for future RC provision across the city will mean that there will continue to be a place for every Roman Catholic pupil who wants one.
BSF is a city wide programme. The government’s intention for BSF is to create ‘transformational change’ leading to inspiring buildings to support the education of our children and their communities for the future. If we spend money just on upgrading current building stock, this will not achieve transformation and will be unacceptable to central government because it would not achieve the central purpose of BSF.
The proposed closure date for St George’s RC High School is September 2012. Plans would be made to minimise any disruption to the education of young people, particularly in years 10 and 11.
a statutory consultation that closed on 30 November 2007. Details of the next stages will be published when available.
This page was last updated on 06 December 2007
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