THE START of a formal consultation of a potential federation of two Pembrokeshire schools has been backed by senior councillors.
At the April 28 meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council’s Cabinet members were asked to note the decisions of St Florence VC School and Penrhyn VC School to commence consultation on establishing formal federations for the two schools, and to obtain Cabinet’s approval for the Director of Education to commence consultation on behalf of the two schools.
A report for members said the two schools had been in an informal ‘soft federation’ since September 2022, with the headteacher of St Florence acting as Executive Headteacher.
“Prior to this period, the Headteacher at Penrhyn VC School was a longstanding appointment since the school opened in September 2017 and subsequently leaving the authority in August 2022,” a report for members said, adding: “In order to ‘formalise’ the collaboration that is currently taking place, the governing bodies of both schools have considered establishing a Federation. The initial soft federation was set up due to challenges in recruiting a headteacher at Penrhyn VC School.”
In the report given by Cabinet member for education Cllr Guy Woodham, it was stressed the federation is “not an amalgamation, a take-over or a route to closure,” but a partnership of the two schools “sharing a joint vision for a venture that would serve the interests of pupils, staff and both school communities”.
The schools would remain as separate establishments; they would be funded and inspected separately, produce separate accounts and report their assessment results separately.
The report concluded: “Both schools will now work with local authority officers to undertake the appropriate consultation. As a school-led federation, determination of whether to proceed subsequently will rest with the two governing bodies. The local authority and Diocesan Director of Education (Church in Wales) endorses the decisions of the governing bodies to proceed to consult on this matter.”
Members unanimously backed the recommendation, moved by Cllr Woodham.
