City school closure moves closer

Abbeydale Grange is Sheffield's smallest secondary school

Councillors have agreed to begin a formal consultation on plans to close a secondary school in Sheffield.

The city council will now start the process which could lead to the closure of Abbeydale Grange.

The school was placed in special measures in March after an Ofsted report described it as "inadequate".

Attempts to keep Abbeydale Grange open by forging a partnership with another school, have so far failed, but the council said it had not given up.

Parents, staff and pupils staged a protest against the closure ahead of Sheffield City Council's cabinet meeting on Wednesday, where the decision was taken to start the consultation process.

A group called Save Abbeydale Grange School has been set up on social networking site Facebook.

Campaigner Cath Baker said: "This is a community school that will leave a gaping hole if it closes and will also mean that children, some already very vulnerable, will be dispersed across the city."

'Still hopeful'

Four schools have rejected an offer to enter into a "hard federation" - effectively a merger - with Abbeydale Grange.

Fir Vale, Tapton, King Ecgbert and Silverdale have cited concerns about the impact it would have on their own schools.

The council said it had "pulled out all the stops" to find a partner school for Abbeydale Grange.

But as no school had expressed an interest, it said cabinet members decided they "had to now proceed with consultation on the option of closure".

Councillor Andrew Sangar, cabinet member for children's services and lifelong learning, said: "We are still hopeful that a partner can be found for Abbeydale Grange School.

"We want to stress by taking this option we will have to go through another extremely thorough consultation process, which will look again at the best option for the future of the school.

"This will take a number of months and will mean there is still time for a suitable school to come forward to hard federate with Abbeydale Grange."