Academy Eeplacement
The school grounds (and temporarily the buildings) are to be used for a new school with academy status. The local authority brought forward proposals in tandem with a consultation on amending the age of transfer in the area. This led to a new academy school opening in the town, taking pupils from the age of 11.
There was considerable opposition to these plans, and a group of local citizens of the Rother Valley, including many former and current students, formally questioned the plans for many reasons and questioned the fairness of the consultation procedure, citing a "rushed process", particularly considering length of Midhurst Grammar School's history. Their campaign is known as "NAME" - No Academy in Midhurst or Easebourne.
Midhurst Grammar School closed on the 19th of December 2008, with a ceremony taking place in the former River Site Hall, ex-staff, ex-students as well as many of the current staff and students were present as Scott Ind & Chloe Oram delivered the closing speech as last Head Boy and Girl respectively. Its replacement, Midhurst Rother College, opened in January 2009. The new buildings of Midhurst Rother College will be sited on the river site; work started at the end of 2010 and is due to be completed in autumn 2012.
Read more about this topic: Midhurst Grammar School
Famous quotes containing the word academy:
“...I have come to make distinctions between what I call the academy and literature, the moral equivalents of church and God. The academy may lie, but literature tries to tell the truth.”
—Dorothy Allison (b. 1949)