Boston Spa School has been open since 1973. There are currently 939 students in total. Wetherby High School was built in 1966, both schools having been open ever since. However, now Leeds City Council has made plans to demolish Boston Spa School to sell the land. Since Boston Spa School decided to join the Gorse Academy Trust they are struggling to remain open, resulting in discussions surrounding the two schools joining together. The discussion with the Head teacher Chris Walsh and the parents of the pupils surrounding the move to Wetherby High School have left both schools under threat.
Mr Walsh and the Governors are fully against the idea of the two schools joining even though it was stated as part of the process when the school applied to join the Gorse Academies Trust by way of helping it achieve outstanding on Ofsted reports. Together they exchanged emails with Alec Shelbrooke to gather his opinion. In 2010 Alec Shelbrooke voted for the Academies Act and at the time fully supported Boston Spa Schools application to be involved as an Academy. He said “I believe Boston Spa and Wetherby High Schools can have positive futures ahead of them and I will continue working closely with the head teachers and governing bodies.”
Following this Mr Walsh sent out a letter to parents criticising Leeds City Councils plans to demolish Boston Spa School claiming that the council objected to the academy application. This encouraged local villagers to take action by putting up banners around the local area saying ‘save our school’. They also began persuading objectors to write to Alec Shelbrooke ahead of the final decision.
