An academies chain which sponsors both of Witham’s secondary schools is considering strengthening co-operation rather than a full merger.
One of the options that the Academies Enterprise Trust (AET), New Rickstones Academy and Maltings Academy is looking into is enchancing the existing federation between the schools, while keeping their own governing bodies.
Currently, there is a joint collaboration between the sixth forms.
Parents have suggested that they would prefer a hard federation - a shared governance structure between the two schools - rather than a full merger, which has also been proposed.
Dad-of-two John Nicholson, 39, a member of the Witham Against Merging Academies (WAMA) campaign group, said: “I would prefer a federation, where they merge other facilities but the pupils stay where they are.
“I am not for merging at all and I know most parents feel the same way.”
See this week's Witham Times for the full story.
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