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Changes to the school system in Pershore Education Planning Area 
(Pershore EPA - a.k.a. 'Pershore Pyramid')

This page was last updated in December 2023.

The Department for Education (DfE) have concluded the full feasibility study for Pershore High School, determining that additional places for all Year 7 pupils in Pershore could be created at the school with additional accommodation and improvements.  This work can take place alongside the partial School Rebuilding Programme already approved by the DfE. 

The Local Authority and DfE teams have been working together to share indicative timelines for the works required at all schools to make the necessary accommodation changes for the required change of age ranges to take place, subject to necessary approval.  

The earliest all the Year 7 pupils could be accommodated at Pershore High School is September 2027.  

We will meet with relevant education stakeholders in the New Year to discuss our next steps including timescales.

 

 

Background Summary:
In Autumn 2021, a public consultation was held seeking views on the conversion of the Pershore Pyramid to a 2-tier educational model. As part of these changes, all remaining First Schools in the area would convert to primary and middle schools would either convert or amalgamate with their co-located first school, e.g. St Nicholas Middle & Pinvin First.

With the proposed conversion to 2-tier, Fladbury would increase our offering to include school years 5 & 6. Children would then transition to Perhsore High School [PHS] for Y7 (currently pupils typically fed into St Nick's middle school in Pinvin for Y5-7, transferring to PHS in Y8). PHS would need investment to expand their Y7 capacity - they have traditionally taken pupils from Y8 but recently began taking a limited number into Y7 from primary schools which are part of the same Academy group.

The overall response from the consultation was supportive, with parents preferring faster plans for transition.

The consultation results were discussed at Worcester County Council's Cabinet meeting on 21st April 2022, which approved the motion to support the change subject to the necessary funding being identified. The minutes of the meeting with supporting documents can be accessed here. You can also watch the webcast recording of the meeting (topic starts at 27m25s through to the end of the meeting - about 12 minutes duration)

Those wanting to understand the full details should review these documents:

In the WCC Cabinet meeting in April, Marcus Hart the Cabinet Member for Education, said funding needed to be secured by September 2022 to avoid delays to the schedule. He said that if funding is identified later, then the earliest the change would likely happen would be Sept 2025. At present (September 2022) we are not aware of any progress being made on securing funding, so we cannot confirm if and when any changes will take place. We are working on the assumption that it is unlikely Fladbury will provide Year 5/6 until September 2025 at the earliest - There remains a slim chance that if the funding questions are solved, and there is a coordinated push, that changes could still happen in time for September 2024, but this is looking ever more unlikely as time goes by. 

We will update parents as soon as we have any news on the process as we understand ad appreciate this uncertainty is very frustrating. Until changes are confirmed, parents should ensure they apply for a middle school place at the appropriate time.