Two Dudley schools get nod to become academies
Two primary schools in Dudley borough are to become academies after final agreements were approved by council bosses.
Bromley-Pensnett Primary School, in Pensnett, and Halesowen's Manor Way Primary School will both open as academies from October 1.
Both sites will be operated by trusts after Dudley Council agreed to the transfer earlier this week.
Councillor Ian Cooper, cabinet member for children's services on the authority, confirmed the necessary permission had now been rubber-stamped.
From October, Bromley-Pensnett will be sponsored by the DRB Ignite Education Trust while Manor Way will be sponsored by Windsor Academy Trust.
Under the change, the trusts, acting through management companies, will operate the new academies on the same sites as the old schools.
On the Bromley-Pensnett site, a children's centre there will be leased back to the council for a period of three years.
A specialist early years nursery, which serves the borough, is also located on the site and will be leased back to the council for a period of five years.
There are 49 staff, both teaching and local government, at Bromley-Pensnett and 36 at Manor Way. All will be transferred to the trusts as employees.
The grant of a lease for both school sites will be at a peppercorn rate.
Helen Coles, headteacher of Bromley-Pensnett Primary, was unavailable for comment about the change.
But Mrs Dawn Betteridge, headteacher of Manor Way Primary, confirmed the change to an academy was now going ahead.
"We are now making all the necessary preparations and getting everything ready for the change to academy status.
"There is still some work to be done."
Councillor Cooper said the transfer agreements had now been signed.
"In matters such as this it is always up to staff and parents of the children at the schools who decide if they want to make the change.
"We respect that and the transfer for both schools has now been agreed.
"They will open as academies at the start of next month."
The Secretary of State for Education issued an academy order for both schools as part of the process.
They are the latest schools in the Dudley borough to have changed to academy status.
Previously King Edward VI College and Ridgewood High School joined forces to form the King Edward's Stourbridge Academy Trust.
Redhill School, in Stourbridge, has also become an academy.
