farelmeson: Flagship Hull school faces axe after just eight years

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Flagship Hull school faces axe after just eight years – may train energy workers

HULL'S flagship Endeavour School could be closed and transformed into a training centre for "green energy" workers.
The Mail can exclusively reveal plans to shut the school – which only opened eight years ago – and turn it into a skills academy to train the city's future workforce.
Senior figures have revealed there is a "strong case" for the school's closure, because of too many surplus places in Hull's secondary schools.
A report recommending its closure is expected to be put before the city council's
cabinet shortly.
If the cabinet decides to go ahead with the closure, a three-month consultation will take place with the public before a final decision is taken.
It could close as early as summer next year.
The �15 million school, in Beverley Road, opened in a blaze of publicity, with space for 1,200 pupils. But it has been beset by problems, including falling into special measures, and currently only about 600 children attend.
Almost half of the city's secondary schools have more than 25 per cent extra places.
The problem of surplus places has further exacerbated by a potential 600 places being made available through proposals for the Hull's first "free school", the McAuley College Academy.
The creation of extra places means even fewer parents are likely to send their children to Endeavour.
Education officials are considering closing Endeavour because it is not part of the multi-million-pound Building Schools For The Future programme.
Carl Minns, leader of Hull City Council, told the Mail: "The council is looking for the best way to make sure Hull's children have the right skills for future jobs."
However, he would not be drawn on specific plans to close Endeavour.
When it was opened, Endeavour was widely labelled as Hull's flagship school and was expected to lift the authority off the bottom of the GCSE league tables.
However, it was placed in special measures in March 2005.
It was removed from special measures in September 2007, but fell back in last year.
If the decision is made to close the school in favour of a skills academy, it would be ideally placed to best serve the needs of the city.
It would be used to train Hull's future workforce, and could potentially be run by Hull City Council or sponsored by a major company.
It would become a vocational school helping to train youngsters for jobs in Hull's renewables industry, for jobs created by Siemens and other companies.
John Ranby, chair of governors at Endeavour, told the Mail any decision to close the school would be wrong.
He said: "The school has never been better positioned. Look at the results last year. They were the best ever and we are building on that.
"I don't think the McAuley Academy will necessarily have a drastic effect. There is still the need in this area for a school."