A studio school in Bath that has struggled financially as a result of severely low student numbers is likely to shut in August 2020, after the government agreed to close it “in principle”.
The Wellsway Multi Academy Trust, which has run The Bath Studio School since it opened in 2014, “regretfully” announced the news today and launched a five-week consultation to gather views on the proposal.
Nearly half of all studio schools, which offer a vocational curriculum for 14- to 19-year-olds, have now announced their intention to close. Twenty seven have shut or announced plans to do so since their inception, leaving just 28 with no plans at present to wind-up.
We have made this request to the Department for Education with a heavy heart and considerable sadness
Studio schools have struggled to survive due to poor Ofsted ratings and low pupil numbers.
The rate of closure has apparently caused unease at the DfE. Meeting records from 2017 show the former academies minister Lord Nash had met with officials from the programme to discuss a review of the model’s concept.
The department denied it ever conducted a formal review – despite Schools Week discovering an attempt to cover-up internal emails which openly discussed the existence and timescale of the review.
No studio schools opened in 2018.
The Wellsway academy trust said that despite considerable effort, the Bath school – which has a creative and digital specialism – has never been able to recruit enough students to make it financially viable.
The school’s capacity is for 300 students but it currently educates just 126 students and has never recruited more than 140 in any one of its five academic years of existence.
As a result, leaders have struggled to meet its costs and the school required “considerable subsidy and financial support” from its academy sponsor, a position that is “not sustainable going forward”.
The studio school was rated ‘requires improvement’ in its first ever Ofsted report in June 2017. Six months later, the education watchdog criticised leaders and the governing body for being “slow to react to the situation at the school”, in a follow up monitoring visit.
If the closure request is given formal approval following consultation, The Bath Studio School will close from the end of the school year 2019/2020.
This will allow all current students to complete the courses they have enrolled on. No further students are to be admitted from September 2019.
The Wellsway Multi Academy Trust said it will work individually with students to support their transition, and will also provide advisory support for the studio school’s staff, and will look to the “possibility of their redeployment to another trust school”.
Ultimately, there is simply not enough demand in the Bath area for the type of education
Andrea Arlidge, the chief executive of WMAT, said the closure request has been made with a “heavy heart and considerable sadness”.
“Our decision to seek the closure of TBSS does not reflect on the commitment and dedication of its staff and we will continue to do our utmost to support our current pupils through to the completion of their courses. We will also seek to respond quickly to parent concerns.
“Ultimately, there is simply not enough demand in the Bath area for the type of education that TBSS provides. As a consequence, the school is not meeting its costs, has had to be heavily subsidised by the WMAT and is not financially viable.”
Aspire Academy, a special school for children with social, emotional and mental health difficulties, which shares a site with the studio school, will remain within the academy trust and plans are already underway to expand that school.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “At the request of Wellsway Academy Trust, we have agreed, in-principle, to the closure of Bath Studio School, which we will consider before any final decision is made on its future.
“We will continue to work with the trust and local authority to support pupils at the school and minimise disruption to their education.”
The consultation runs until November 27.
How much more public money will be poured down the drain before this fantasy of a vanity project is scrapped? We already know of the £8.7m given to 44 free schools that didn’t even open. Is there no due diligence? Why was the shortfall in recruitment not identified? No, the DfE just throws money at these white elephants to get them up and running as quickly as possible and beggar the consequences. Just so that they can show that Project Gove is still on stream, despite all the evidence that Project Gove has made little if any impact on standards. What a legacy, Mr Gove.
I so agree with you, John – and there are at least another 10 of these on the road to closure as there numbers are also low. But at least they aren’t opening any of them anymore, whereas after deliberating for two years they HAVE given permission for another UTC to open in 2020 – mad given the dire performances of these institutions, which are on a par with Studio Schools