Plans to merge Felixstowe's two high schools into one new superschool for over 1,800 students are being recommended to be given the go-ahead at a Suffolk County Council Cabinet meeting next Tuesday.

The council is planning to close Orwell and Deben High Schools, to be replaced by one new secondary and sixth form (age 11 - 19) school, on the Orwell site between Maidstone Road and Walton High Street. The proposal is part of the government's national Building Schools for the Future (BSF) initiative, involving the rebuilding, remodelling or refurbishment of secondary schools across the country, focussed around changing the way that learning takes place.

A total of 564 parents, carers and local residents responsed to a 12-week consultation during the autumn. Of those who responded, just over half (53%) said their preference would be to keep the two schools, with 47% saying there should be a single secondary school for Felixstowe and Trimley. Two thirds of those who responded (67%) said one school with 1,800 students would be too large. Six out of ten said that they were concerned (22%) or very concerned (37.5%) by the loss of parental choice of school if Deben and Orwell became a single school.

In a report to be discussed by the council's cabinet on 13th January 2009, Phil Houghton, BSF Programme Manager for Suffolk County Council, has said that the main advantage of one large school would be the ability "to pool resources in order to offer the widest possible educational offer", and that it would also "offer the greatest opportunity to provide a range of services and facilities that go wider than the curriculum". 

The headmasters and governors of both Deben and Orwell High Schools support the plans for one new school.

Rob Cawley, headmaster of Deben, had said the new school should be on a brand new site, possibly north of Walton High Street or north of the Dock Spur Road and Candlet Road. However, council officers have said that in initial feasibility work undertaken on these sites, "none were considered to be feasible given the particular challenges each would provide".

It has been proposed that there would be improved access to the new school on the Orwell site from Walton High Street.

The projected capital cost of the new superschool is £31.2 million, and it could cater for 1,900 students, to accommodate housing expansion over the coming years. This would be about the same size as, or just slightly larger than, each of Kesgrave, Farlingaye (Woodbridge) or Copleston (Ipswich) High Schools, and somewhat larger than Northgate (Ipswich).

The council's cabinet is being recommended to authorise the closure of both Deben and Orwell schools and to run a competition as soon as possible to seek a new provider to operate the new single school. Mr Houghton said, "Opting to run a competition offers the opportunity to identify a new provider, such as an Educational Trust or faith organisation, that could bring fresh ideas to driving educational attainment and building on existing achievements". It is understood that a private sector partner could become the major shareholder (80%) of a public-private partnership to build and run the new school, together with the council and Partnerships for Schools.

Instead of running a competition, the alternative would be to close one of the two existing schools and to enlarge the remaining school to become the single school in the town.

61% of those who responded to the consultation said they preferred the second option, of no competition, with 39% preferring the competitive tender option.

Concerns raised over the size of the new school have led to the suggestion to create a model of ‘schools within a school’. Mr Houghton said, "There would be, say, four schools within the umbrella, each running its own timetable and thus instead of having one school of approximately 1800, there would instead be four schools each of 450. This means that pupils benefit from the personalised nature of being within a smaller ‘school’ and at the same time benefit from the fact that a large overall establishment could deliver the widest possible curriculum and opportunities for all pupils." Both schools are currently using a successful 'vertical tutoring' system, with each tutor group including students from each of the school years.

If the proposals are approved next Tuesday, the council's cabinet will look at the results of the competition and any other comments and objections, before deciding on 2nd September 2009 whether or not to close the schools. Mr Houghton said, "The proposed implementation date for any statutory change is September 2013, coincident with the proposed availability of new buildings under the BSF programme."

See the full report for the Cabinet meeting at the Suffolk County Council website (in the Committee Papers database):
http://www.suffolk.gov.uk/CouncilAndDemocracy/CommitteesAgendasReportsandMinutes/

VIDEO 10/10/08: Interview with new Deben High School Headteacher Rob Cawley
VIDEO 12/09/08: Interview with Orwell High School Headteacher Peter Tomkins

24/12/08: Council To Consider Super-School Consultation
22/09/08: Consultation To Look At Schools' Future
21/07/08: New Super School Proposal