Rugby councillors give views on school closure plan
County councillors serving the Rugby area have given their views on the proposals to close Bishop Wulstan Catholic School.
They have called on Warwickshire County Council’s Cabinet to drop plans to close the school and instead look at alternative suggestions including the opening of a Catholic Academy in the town.
The proposals to close Bishop Wulstan were made in January because falling numbers threatened to make the school unviable. During the consultation period, the Archdiocese of Birmingham has revealed plans to open a Catholic Academy serving children aged between 3 and 16 in the town.
Members of the Rugby Area Committee had previously heard details of the Archdiocese’s proposals.
The committee, formed by all the county councillors serving the Rugby area, passed a unanimous resolution calling on the Cabinet not to close Bishop Wulstan and to carry out a rapid evaluation of the new scheme.
Cabinet meets on Thursday this week to decide its next step. Members will consider three alternatives: to shelve the plans to close Bishop Wulstan completely, proceed with the current proposals, which involve launching a statutory consultation on the closure plans, or to look at the Archdiocese scheme.
Cllr John Vereker, Chair of the Rugby Area Committee, said: “The need to maintain as much choice as possible was in itself a point. We see the provision for Catholic education as an important element of that choice. We noted also that parents of other faiths currently value Bishop Wulstan as a first choice. There is already a Sikh and Muslim presence among the pupils at the school"
“The prospect of attracting pupils arriving to live in the Rugby area from Eastern Europe and Portugal, and children from Northamptonshire should all help the school, which has just had a new sports hall built and been awarded business enterprise specialist status.
“The school is increasing its efforts to market itself to non-Catholics who did not realise that they could send their children there. We were impressed at the progress made to achieve the highest possible standards. Bishop Wulstan has been part of Rugby for a long time and we wouldn’t want to lose a part of the town’s history. We are recommending that the Cabinet rejects the closure plans and urgently considers alternative proposals.”
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