'Save our schools'

The county council consultation document released earlier this month outlines possible mergers among first schools - whether the current structure of first, middle and high schools is retained or replaced by just primary and secondary schools.

Headteachers insisted standards in their schools - which have uneven numbers of surplus places - were already high but added proposals are still in their infancy and open to debate.

Each of the 46 schools in Wyre Forest will have three meetings - for staff, governors and parents - to discuss the document. The county council will be represented at all of them.

Jan Willetts, headteacher of Kidderminster's Lea Street First School which could merge with nearby St George's or St Mary's first schools, dubbed the proposals "far-reaching".

She said: "We have to fight for our school because we feel what we provide to the children is first class. We think we've got a great deal to offer."

Mrs Willetts admitted the school - with 124 pupils - was short of its 150 capacity but said Lea Street was at a disadvantage because it did not have a nursery.

The governors have launched an action group to fight the merger proposals. Governors' chairman David Wase said: "These are three good local community schools and they all deserve a future serving their communities."

Wilden All Saints CE First School headteacher Joy White echoed these comments.

"We feel that our school is particularly unique being a Church of England school in a rural setting.

"We would be extremely disappointed if the school closed because it's an integral part of the village and it has been for 120 years."

Mrs White added places at the school for September had been over-subscribed.

However, Liane Billingsley, her counterpart at Stourport First School - with which Wilden may have to merge - said: "This is consultation.

"It doesn't mean to say these plans represent the best way forward."

Stourport First is just five pupils short of its 225 capacity.

Following a meeting at St Barnabas First School in Kidderminster - which could merge with Marlpool First - governors stated: "Everybody agreed to fight against this.

"The parents feel very strongly that small schools have a uniqueness that must be cherished.

"An action committee was set up to maintain the status quo."

And parents at Stone First School, which may have to join forces with Spennells First in Kidderminster, have vowed to save the school.

"A school is not just about numbers. The community spirit and the extra-curricular activities are brilliant," said Jayne Peters, of Dotterell Place, Kidderminster.

Two-tier plan is option

for schools

ONE of the most divisive issues in the education review is whether Wyre Forest should stick with a first, middle and high school system or go two-tier.

Middle schools are set to be hardest hit if a primary and secondary system is adopted and Worcestershire County Council has already suggested Wribbenhall Middle School could be absorbed by an enlarged Bewdley High.

Worcestershire Middle School Headteachers' Association is lobbying county councillors on the review.

It stated: "Children's welfare, personal development, behaviour, attendance and attitudes to school - as well as provision for pupils' social, moral, spiritual and cultural development - are recognised by Ofsted as being major strengths in middle schools."

It added middle schools could stretch nine-years-olds more than primary schools and they maintained 13-year-olds' interest in learning - whereas in the "traditional system" the age group is becoming "disaffected".

Wribbenhall Middle headteacher Janet Bickerton declined to comment on the proposed changes, saying the school was focussed on raising standards.

Review leader Colin Weeden said the county council has no preferred structure and added massive investment was needed whatever the outcome.

He said: "It's not easy to say or prove any one system is better than the other.

"At the end of the day the real thing is the quality of the management and staff in a school and the ethos of a school.