By John Baron
The headteacher of Pudsey Grammar School has admitted that having £4 million funding for a new post 16 centre withdrawn by the Government was ‘disappointing’.
The school received planning permission to build a state-of-the-art sixth form block last June.
The scheme received the backing of the previous Government in 2023 and would have created 134 additional sixth form learning places, along with classrooms, breakout spaces, additional staff offices and a dedicated sixth form learning space with IT facilities.
But a financial review by the Government decided the development would not proceed.
Pudsey Grammar School headteacher Mark McKelvie said: “We were disappointed to receive notice from the Department for Education in December that they were withdrawing the funding for our proposed new Sixth Form building.
“I met with Rachel Reeves MP in mid-January to discuss this. Ms Reeves explained that the programme was part of a series of unfunded spending commitments made by the previous Government and as a result could not proceed.
“This was extremely disappointing as it means we cannot expand our popular and oversubscribed Sixth Form to around 350-400 students from across the wider area at this point. However, our future plans and financial modelling were not dependent on the additional number of students the building would have provided.
“In addition, this does not affect any of our recruitment plans for Sixth Form students as our existing excellent facilities can easily accommodate around 280 students. We are welcoming more and more students from across the area to our Sixth Form as they appreciate what we offer and how supportive our students and staff are towards new year 12 students who attended other schools.”
Mr McKelvie said there was ‘much to be proud of’ in the school, which remains one of the most popular in Leeds with around 900 applications for 215 year 7 places.
He added: “We have good exam results, we already have an excellent building and our Sixth Form is easily the best in the west of the city with high quality support beyond the classroom combined with excellent personal development opportunities and extra-curricular activities which are second to none, as our recent separate trips to Paris and New York demonstrate.
“As we had set aside funding for the new building we are now working on future plans to further develop our Sixth Form facilities by providing additional social and study areas.”
Pudsey Conservative councillors Simon and Dawn Seary have written to Leeds West and Pudsey MP Rachel Reeves to express their concerns.
In a statement they said: “Local students will suffer the consequences of Rachel Reeves’ choice to halt funding for Pudsey Grammar School’s Sixth Form expansion.
“The school is already oversubscribed and in urgent need of more space. Yet, while other Sixth Form projects continue to receive funding, Pudsey is being left behind.
“She may cite an alleged financial ‘black hole,’ but … Mauritius is set to receive £9bn – potentially £18bn – in negotiations over the Chagos Islands. We have written to Rachel Reeves and will continue to voice our deep disappointment and will continue urging her to reconsider her choice.”
The Government has said the Mauritius figures are “inaccurate and misleading”.
Responding to the Searys, a Government source told WLD: “Conservative politicians have an incredible brass neck to try and grandstand over this issue when they left behind a £22bn black hole in the public finances, crumbling schools, falling standards and a ‘lose, lose, lose,’ SEND system in their own words.
“It has fallen again to Labour to clean up the mess and we make no bones about the fact we’ve had to take tough decisions to fix the foundations of our economy.
“Our focus is now on pushing for growth to put money in the pockets of working people and driving high and rising school standards, delivering on our Plan for Change.”
And Pudsey’s independent councillor Trish Smith said: “It’s a huge shame this project hasn’t gone ahead as planned. Our young people deserve the very best start in life and every opportunity we can offer them.
“For years now, the young people in the west of the city have had to travel – often long distances – for the correct provision for them and their future aspirations. Whilst we have the new sixth form facility currently being built off Kent Road, the Grammar School project would have complimented that provision and offered our young people more choice locally.
“Hopefully this is just a delay though, and the project will go forward once new funding can be identified.”
Rachel Reeves MP was approached for comment.
- Construction work on the new Pudsey Sixth Form College, off Kent Road, is continuing and on track to open in September. It will cater for 600 higher education students studying A-Levels, vocational courses and GCSEs.
- More Pudsey news can be found here.
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