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The HISTORY of REDDITCH New Town

● The number of surplus places in the school system;

● Excessive transport costs;

● A lack of cohesion in transfer arrangements;

● Insufficient nursery places.

In 1998 there were 1182 surplus places in First Schools representing 17% of places. In
Middle Schools there were 983 (18%) surplus places, and in the High Schools there were
999 (20%) surplus places. The document identified the need for school closures and
reorganisation in order to make better use of available resources. The LEA would also
be able to invest money to improve nursery provision.

The consultation document was widely circulated together with a questionnaire. 20,000
copies were sent out to teachers, governors, parents and the community. Over 60
meetings took place with parents, teachers and governors.
A further report was published in October 1998 with proposals for change. At this time
there were 40 schools in Redditch and the proposal was to reduce this number to 31.
With regard to the High Schools the proposal was to merge the Bridley Moor School into
the Abbey and Leys High Schools. The threat to so many schools led to vigorous
campaigns to keep these schools open but to no avail.

Part of the debate had also considered moving the system of schooling back to a two
tier system but it was decided early on that this would be too costly and disruptive when
so much other change was going to take place.

The re-organisation of Redditch Schools took place on 31st August 2001. Some schools
closed completely while others amalgamated and re-opened on 1st September with
different names. For example, Moatfield Middle School closed and pupils moving to St
Peter’s Middle School; Claybrook First and Icknield First closed and a new First School
and nursery opened on the Moatfield site.

The report deemed that Redditch needed only 4 high Schools and that one would have
to close. On 31st August 2001 Bridley Moor, the Abbey and the Leys all closed and the
next day the Abbey re-opened as Trinity High School and Sixth Form Centre and the
Leys re-opened as Kingsley High School. Teachers and pupils from Bridley Moor were
transferred to the other two schools.
Following the changes brought in after the Education Review of 1998 – 2001 schools
settled down to a relatively quiet period of development. The additional resources
promised under the Review meant that many schools were able to improve their facilities
and there have been additional building programmes. The four High Schools became
specialist colleges: Trinity became a Business and Enterprise College, Kingsley a

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