Age Range Change Across Ashby and Ibstock

Age Range Change for Secondary Schools in Ashby and Ibstock

The DfE have given their approval to enable the secondary schools in the Ashby and Ibstock area to change the year groups taught in each of the secondary schools with a gradual transition from August / September 2022.

Ivanhoe College and Ibstock Community College will both become 11-16 schools, whilst Ashby School will become an 11-18 school.

Last November an extensive formal consultation on the proposals was launched by each of the three schools. The results both for and against the proposals, were fully considered first by the schools and then by the DfE. It was agreed that the proposed changes should go forward and approval has been granted by the DfE for the following:

● Ashby, Ivanhoe and Ibstock should transfer to LiFE Multi Academy Trust during this academic year. The DfE agreed that the three single academy trusts would benefit from joining the Multi Academy Trust together to form a ‘hub’ of three collaborative schools

● From 2022 the two High Schools should become 11-16 schools in line with other parts of Leicestershire so that Year 9 pupils can choose to stay at the same school to undertake years 10 and 11 there and that Ashby school will start to have an entry into Year 7 and so become an 11-18 school.

● That Sixth Form Provision for the area should continue to be offered at Ashby School

The headteachers of the three schools, Alison Allford, Anne-Marie Blewitt and Geoff Staniforth say:

“This is a great opportunity for the parents and their children to have the same opportunity as pupils across England to continue their secondary education in one school. By working even more closely together in LiFE MAT we will be able to offer a broad curriculum that meets the needs of children across the town and surrounding area, preparing them for the post 16 part of their education either in the Sixth Form at Ashby or in one of the local FE colleges”.

Chris Parkinson who leads LiFE MAT says:

“We are delighted to welcome Ashby, Ibstock and Ivanhoe schools into our trust; they are great schools with huge future potential. We have been working together this academic year to produce our plans for the future in an all-through system. Throughout this time it has been evident that there is great commitment and enthusiasm from all colleagues to make an exciting vision for the future work for the community we will serve and in working in collaboration, we will only make all our schools stronger, more innovative and more resilient.”

Click here for a table showing how year groups will be affected by the change.

PDF of the announcement.