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

This page was last updated on 13th September 2022.

In Autumn 2021 a public consultation was held seeking views on 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 ot amalgamate with their co-located first school (e.g. St Nicholas & Pinvin First).

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

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

The consultation results were discussed at Worcester County Council's Cabinet meeting on 21st April 2022 who approved the motion to support the change subject to the necessary funding being identified. The minutes of the meeting with, supporting docuements 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 docuements:

• Fladbury Changes Summary Docuement (prepared by Fladbury and shared with Parent in Autum 2021)
   
• Pershore Consultation Appendix 1-7 (from WCC Cabinet meeting on 21st Aug 2021)
  Area Map, summary tables of schools, Surplus Places, Historic numbers for converted primaries & middle schools
   
• Pershore Consultation Appendix 8 (from WCC Cabinet meeting on 21st Aug 2021)
  Collated results of public consultation survey - Summary across all scholls first then answers per-school
   

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 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 unlikley as time goes by. 

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