Tomlinscote and Kings International College to Merge?

Surrey County Council has written to parents at TomlinscoteSchool

1.  

   Kings International College to merge with Tomlinscote?

 

and Sixth Form

College and Kings International

College about the

possibility of merging the two schools.

The Council has reviewed the number of secondary school

places needed and provided in Surrey Heath and have identified two important factors.  Firstly – the demand for the

number of secondary school place in the next five years is “likely to be lower

than was previously expected.”  Secondly,

this dip in demand is likely to last for a longer than predicted.  The Council do not expect the numbers to

return to their current levels until at least 2021.  The dip has been caused by the fact that a

number of housing developments have been postponed due to the current economic

climate.

In the letter to parents Surrey Council says “For many

years, Collingwood and Tomlinscote have been much larger than Kings Internation

and have achieved significantly better results.”  In this year’s admission round for places at

secondary school only 57 people put Kings International down as their first preference

and the Council forsee this figure reducing in future years and believe that

this is “too low a level to sustain a successful secondary school.”  So the Council are considering a merger of

Tomlinscote with Kings International into a single school “probably” operating

on two sites.

The Local Authority and the two schools will discuss the plan

and put together a detailed proposal that will be consulted upon at the start

of the summer term. There will also be a number of public meetings held.  The consultation process would last for one

full academic term (ie the Summer Term 2011)

 

To see a copy of the letter sent to parents click here.