Support for schools merger plan

Plans to merge closure-threatened Sneyd Community School with a nearby secondary have received support.

In its final report on the troubled school in Vernon Way, Bloxwich, a group set up to make recommendations on the school's fate conclude that proposals to link up with Frank F Harrison Engineering College are "interesting and exciting".

Union chiefs today welcomed the group's insistence that the Sneyd School site stays as an educational facility.

A report to the council's Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee says a scheme for a large academy on the site may be "acceptable".

They said the proposal to make the schojol a Co-operative Trust may be the weaker option.

Bob Grainger, from the Walsall branch of the National Union of Teachers, said: "It would appear from the report that they feel there a number of positives in favour of that option over and above the others.

"The best news is that it does seem to confirm that the closure of Sneyd is not an option."

The committee will discuss the report at a meeting which will be held on Thursday, before cabinet chiefs make a final decision on March 18.