THE Pershore High School proposal gives sound educational reasons but only positives feature. Time to consider some of less positive possible consequences:

The September 2016 reduction in entry age will effectively remove one third of pupils from the three feeder middle schools.

Each has a first school next door and they will presumably be converted to primary schools, but still have spare classrooms and staff.

Will pupils be found by closing many of the smaller village first schools, opening their sites for development?

Would this affect the viability of the village shop or post office?

How important is frequent contact between teachers and parents delivering and collecting young offspring?

How important are after-school activities that become unavailable if pupils are bused to a less local location?

Will the re-organisation herald further academisation?

Will re-employed staff terms and conditions change?

What happens to redundant non-teaching staff, many of whom have travel issues?

Will a cash-strapped and staff depleted local authority be billed for costs arising?

Would this mean less for other local authority schools?

How can the power of an elected local authority be reduced to where only its opinions are required?

Should one academy's desires threaten a whole system?

ME Ross

retired teacher

Pershore