Planned new school has no location
PLANS for a new 3-16 Catholic school in Merthyr Tydfil look set for final approval but where the new school would be built has still yet to be decided.
The council’s cabinet is expected to approve the proposal which would involve the closure of four schools – St Aloysius Roman Catholic (RC) Primary in Gurnos, St Illtyd’s RC Primary in Dowlais, St Mary’s RC Primary on Caedraw Road and Bishop Hedley RC High School in Penydarren.
If approved by cabinet on Wednesday the current schools would close on August 31, 2022, meaning the 3-16 school would initially be set up in the existing schools and will transfer to the new building when ready.
The primary section of the school will be for 525 pupils and the secondary section of the school will be for 600 pupils.
In July 2018, cabinet agreed to consult on the proposal which took place between September and October that year before coming back to cabinet that
November. Another consultation was agreed naming the proposed sites of the new school which include the current Bishop Hedley School sites or what’s known locally as “The Greenie” and this took place between April and June of this year.
In September, cabinet approved the publication of statutory notice to take the proposals to the next stage with a 28 day period of objections ending on November 10.
There was one objection which was on the grounds that they do not yet know what the site will be and that there are a lot of parents who aren’t happy with the idea of a single school site.
But the council said it had been clear no firm site had been secured as this was the consultation stage in respect of proposals that had not yet been agreed and to have presented firm plans at such an early stage would have given the impression that it was pre-empting the decision.
The two sites currently proposed will be considered further over the next year and the final decision will go back to council before the end of the current academic year.