Nursery and academy merger plan shelved

Plans to merge a city nursery and academy have been shelved, more than a year after they were first announced.

Leaders from the Penny well Early Years Centre and Academy 360 originally approached Sunderland City Council with a view of joining together.

The planned merger aimed to secure the nursery’s longterm future.

As there is no process for transforming a standalone nursery into an academy, the council had to launch a legal process to ‘discontinue’ the Pennywell hub.

This process was agreed by city leaders in May 2019, with a consultation launched on the proposals.

In November, council chiefs agreed that the nursery and academy would become one entity from April 1, 2020.

However, academy bosses have since pulled out of the arrangement.

“The [November] decision was solely based to allow that merger to happen,” said Alan Rowan, retained education functions lead on the council.

“It was supposed to happen on April 1 with the early years centre closing on March 31.

“On March 31, the Laidlaw [Schools] Trust, who are the academy trust that oversees Academy 360, contacted us to tell us that they didn’t wish to proceed with the merger.

“So the previous decision allowed us to publish statutory notices to revoke that, pending decision.

“The proposal is that we do so and the nursery continues to operate as it previously has.”

The comments came during a meeting of the School Organisation Committee of Cabinet, which was held via videolink.

The committee agreed to reverse the decision to discontinue the Pennywell centre.