Last night the Oldershaw School Trust Board met to discuss all matters, opinions and feedback connected to the consultation over proposed closure of the sixth form.

After due consideration, the trustees voted to proceed with the closure of the Oldershaw Sixth Form, agreeing that there was a lack of financial viability and that the trustees could no longer justify the high subsidy required to support it, preferring instead to reinvest this money to enhance the 11-16 provision. They will now submit the full business case to the Department of Education at the earliest opportunity. This business case in the current climate of national closures of small sixth forms is seen as a formality, and the trust’s legal advisors expect the trustee decision to be fully ratified by the Department of Education.

This in effect means there will be no Year 11 into Year 12 in September 2024. Year 12 will go into Year 13 and full closure will take place when these students leave in Summer 2025.

The school intends that all students in the 11-16 provision of the school are well informed in making their post 16 choices and we will shortly be announcing plans to run a range of careers events beginning in early January 2024. We intend to support those Year 11 students still to choose a further education provider, and the small number who may have been displaced by this decision, in making a more informed choice about the other sixth form providers in the Wirral and Liverpool; further information on this will follow.

Steve Fisher – Executive Headteacher