Secondary school set for move to estate (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Secondary school set for move to estate

ONE of Trowbridge's three secondary schools could be on the move as education chiefs try to tackle travel problems for hundreds of students.

Education chiefs at County Hall believe Government cash could be ploughed into a project to move either The Clarendon School, The John of Gaunt School or St Augustine's Catholic College, closer to the expanding Paxcroft Mead estate.

Pressure to build a fourth secondary school on the estate has so far been resisted, with education bosses insisting demand for places would be met into the next decade.

The relocation idea was spelled out in a vision statement looking at the future of secondary school education in Wiltshire, produced in response to the Government's lucrative Building Schools for the Future (BSF) project.

County councillors are set to debate the idea and look at which school could be moved, where it could be moved to and in what timescale.

Colin Kay, headteacher at The Clarendon School, said he hoped a thorough investigation of all the options would be made.

"We work very closely with The John of Gaunt at sixth-form level so if we were moved to the other side of Trowbridge this would be more difficult to do," he said.

"I think it is a very interesting proposal. We would have to be very sure that by any relocation we would be making the educational provision in Trowbridge better.

"I would think this idea will come as a complete surprise to a lot of parents."

Roger Gilbert, deputy head at The John of Gaunt, said the idea would need careful consideration.

"It will be a very long process if this is what the county council sees as appropriate. A lot of people would need to be involved in the process," he said.

All three schools will be consulted on the relocation proposals, along with West Wiltshire District Council, town and parish councils and the Diocese of Clifton. Trowbridge town councillor Steve Squires said: "If we have to sacrifice one school to have a modern new build, which the children of Trowbridge des-erve, then that's the way it will have to be. People complain that councils waste taxpayers money, but this is good for them, it's good for Trowbridge and it's good for the education of the next generation."

County councillors will debate the issue at a meeting on Wednesday. The Government's BSF project will plough billions into transforming second-ary school building stock in England and Wales over the next 15 years. Wiltshire LEA could find out this year how much will be injected into the county's schools.