Kenilworth School hopeful about planned move after meeting Schools Minister

Kenilworth School and Sixth Form are more hopeful about its planned move to one site after a rare meeting with the Schools Minister in London.
From left to right: Shirley Whiting, Sue Casey, Nick Gibb MP,  Hayden Abbott, Richard Hales and Jeremy Wright MPFrom left to right: Shirley Whiting, Sue Casey, Nick Gibb MP,  Hayden Abbott, Richard Hales and Jeremy Wright MP
From left to right: Shirley Whiting, Sue Casey, Nick Gibb MP, Hayden Abbott, Richard Hales and Jeremy Wright MP

Headmaster Hayden Abbott, school governors Sue Casey, Richard Hales and Shirley Whiting, and Jeremy Wright MP met with schools minister Nick Gibb MP in London last week to discuss funding for the move to Southcrest Farm and the next steps the school might take.

The school’s representatives left the meeting feeling a lot better about the planned move after Mr Gibb pointed them to the best people to help secure funding.

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He also presented Mr Abbott with a certificate marking the school’s exam results for 2015, which placed it among the top 50 non-selective schools at the time.

Richard Hales said: “Not many schools get to meet him and we only had 45 minutes to speak to him, but he seemed very interested in our plan and was impressed with our GCSE and A level results.

“We’re now even more confident about the move than we were before because Mr Gibb pointed us to the contacts we need to speak to, which we might not have been able to do before.”

“The meeting has given us a great opportunity going forward to get the funding we need.”

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The school and sixth form will only move if funding is secured and Warwick district’s Local Plan is accepted by the government’s Planning Inspector.

Should the move take place, the new joint school and sixth form will be able to take 2,200 pupils.

The recent decision to convert to academy status means the school will plan to admit children only from Kenilworth once it converts, rather than pupils from the planned development in Kings Hill to the north of Kenilworth. For now, the school will still follow the admissions policy of Warwickshire County Council.

The school will go in front of the Planning Inspector on Thursday December 1 to discuss the planned move.

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