In October 2009 we asked for your views on our proposals to close Hillcrest, Filsham Valley and The Grove Schools to make way for two new academies.
- Proposal one - To close Hillcrest School on 31 August 2011 and replace it with an academy on 1 September 2011. The academy will provide education for up to 900 pupils from age 11 to 16.
- Proposal two – To close Filsham Valley and The Grove schools on 31 August 2011 and replace both schools with one academy on 1 September 2011. The academy will provide education for up to 1,500 pupils from age 11 to 16.
The proposals
We prepared a document to set out the above proposals. These should be read alongside the consultation document produced by the two other sponsors backing the academies – the University of Brighton and BT.
How to have your say
We ran two surveys about the school closures, in parallel with separate consultations run by the sponsors about the academies. Those consultations closed in October.
Following publication of the final closure notices in early December, residents had a further 6 weeks for make additional comments to the Director of Children's Services before 13 January 2010.
Results of the consultation
In the 225 responses from Hillcrest, 148 said they were in favour of the plans to close the school and replace it with an academy. Against the plan were 57 and 20 were undecided.
Of the 306 responses from The Grove and Filsham Valley, 129 were in favour of the closure plans, 148 were against and 29 were undecided.
Your views on these proposals were taken into account when the County Council's Cabinet met on 24 November 2009. They studied a detailed 68-page report which included separate annexes about the consultation responses:
What happens next?
The Government has now signed the funding agreement for the new academies. This is a significant and major milestone in the project and signals the green light for more than £40m worth of investment in the two new 21st century schools.
The Cabinet published notices to close Hillcrest, Filsham Valley and The Grove to make way for the two new academies that will replace them.
These notices were published in local newspaper, at the schools and on this website from 2 December. They included the contact details for making final representations. You can download the proposals and formal notices below. The deadline for responses to these decisions passed on 13 January 2010.
The Cabinet met again on 26 January 2010 to consider all responses and decide whether to approve one or both proposals. The reports for that meeting are now available to view:
For a short summary of what happens next, please see our main page about the Hastings academies
Enquiries
If you have any questions about this survey please contact:
Rachael Turner, Administration Assistant (Academies)
Phone: 01273 335669
Email: rachael.turner@eastsussex.gov.uk
East Sussex County Council