AN INDICATION on the future of a proposed sixth form at Wokingham’s Bohunt School could be known later this week, as the council sought to reassure parents and pupils that there was enough capacity across the borough for post-GCSE study.
The much awaited plans, which would also include additional Year 7 places and SEND provision, are thought to be outlined in a council document due to be published by Friday.
The agenda for next Thursday’s executive meeting will be published on the borough council’s website and will then be discussed on Thursday, July 27, at Shute End. The meeting is open to the public and also broadcast on the council’s YouTube channel.
Last week the ruling Lib Dems caused uproar when it announced the sixth form planned for September, would not now go ahead.
That led to a blame game between the party and the Conservative group with parents and pupils caught in the middle.
The Conservative group was quick to criticise their LibDem counterparts claiming they were warned repeatedly that the lack of action was wasting time and causing costs to increase.
They also called out the LibDems for “reneging” on an election pledge to have the Sixth Form in place by this September, accusing them of “duplicitous and dishonest” behaviour.
Two Lib Dem councillors, David Cornish and Ian Pittock, issued a grovelling apology on social media admitting the party’s inability to deliver on its manifesto: “This is a failure which we take personally but which is of far more serious consequence to pupils who thought they had a Sixth Form option there but now do not.”
However, the Lib Dems also laid blame at Wokingham Borough Council and the Bohunt Trust which runs the school as well as a number of others around the country.
It is now hoped the Executive Papers will outline more details about the Sixth Form plans.
In response to last week’s story, Cllr Prue Bray, the deputy leader of the council and executive member for children’s services, said: “The situation with Bohunt Sixth Form is complicated and as a result there has been quite a bit of misinformation on social media about it. The truth is that we are still working with Bohunt School to try to find the best way for it to provide a sixth form.
“It is entirely up to the Multi-Academy Trust whether to open a sixth form or not and it could do so in September this year within its existing facilities. But we completely understand that the school needs to be confident that a new facility can be provided when needed in the future and that is where there are problems: spiralling building costs and failing supply chains are making it very difficult to plan and pay for large building projects.
“We have previously committed some funding for a new sixth form facility at the school with the agreement that the Bohunt Trust would contribute some money themselves. But that is no longer likely to be enough to pay for what we had all hoped to provide.
“We are in discussion with the school and hope to provide an update on the project at the Executive meeting in July. We expect that will only be an update, and not a final decision, as the situation is still evolving.
“If the school decides that this doubt over the long term sixth form building is too problematic and therefore does not open its sixth form in September, we can at least reassure those parents and pupils affected that there is capacity in most of the borough’s other sixth form schools.”
No one from the Bohunt School was available for comment as we went to press.
