Plan to merge Sunderland nursery and academy shelved

Leaders from the Pennywell Early Years Centre and Academy 360 originally approached Sunderland City Council with a view of joining together.

The planned merger aimed to secure the nursery’s long-term future.

As there is no process for transforming a standalone nursery into an academy, the council had to launch a legal process to ‘discontinue’ the Pennywell hub.

This process was agreed by city leaders in May 2019, with a consultation launched on the proposals.

In November, council chiefs agreed that the nursery and academy would become one entity from April 1, 2020.

However, academy bosses have since pulled out of the arrangement.

“The [November] decision was solely based to allow that merger to happen,” said Alan Rowan, retained education functions lead on the council.

“It was supposed to happen on April 1 with the early years centre closing on March 31.

“On March 31, the Laidlaw [Schools] Trust, who are the academy trust that oversees Academy 360, contacted us to tell us that they didn’t wish to proceed with the merger.

“So the previous decision allowed us to publish statutory notices to revoke that, pending decision.

“The proposal is that we do so and the nursery continues to operate as it previously has.”

The comments came during Thursday’s (October 1) meeting of the School Organisation Committee of Cabinet, which was held via videolink and broadcast on YouTube.

The committee agreed to reverse the decision to discontinue the Pennywell centre.

It will allow the council to meet its legal duty of providing “sufficient school places” for nursery age children in the St Anne’s ward.

Alternative options to proceed with the discontinuation were also discounted.

A report to councillors went on to say: “There is no early years provision at the two schools closest to Pennywell Early Years Centre (Academy 360 and Christ’s College).

“It is considered that the places offered by the nursery are required to ensure enough early years places are available to families in the area.

“To discontinue the provision without either recreating these places elsewhere or merging the provision with another setting while maintaining the current premises, would lead to a deficit in local provision.”

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