A HEREFORDSHIRE school has to pay more than £180,000 in legal costs for unsuccessfully challenging another school’s bid to open a rival sixth form.

John Kyrle High School and Sixth Form Centre in Ross-on-Wye challenged the decision to allow Mitcheldean school Dene Magna to open a sixth form centre at the Cinderford campus of Gloucestershire College.

School leaders in Ross said the prospect of a new sixth form opening just over the county border would put their influx of students at risk.

However, they failed to win the argument in a judicial review of the South West Regional School Commissioner’s approval for the new sixth form.

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“Over recent years, we have invested significantly in our school,” a John Kyrle High School spokesperson said.

“Given that our Sixth Form is in the top 2% nationally, we need to keep on top of our game.

“It is vital that we ensure that our students can continue to leave us to go to some of the country’s top universities, employers and apprenticeships.

“While the number of John Kyrle High School students who want to stay on for our sixth form continues to be very strong, every year we are delighted to welcome a significant number of young people from other schools into our sixth form.

“The introduction of a new sixth form offer puts this influx of students at risk.

“When you are funded on a per-pupil basis, and have built an offer to cater for students from outside our school, any drop in numbers has a tangible impact.

“That is why we went down the legal avenue to protect the sixth form when another provision opened a few miles away. The legal cost of this was £187,000.”

Leaders at John Kyrle High School admit this is a significant bill to pay but say they are financially prepared.

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“When you consider that the sixth form receives in excess of £8,000 of funding for every student, the cost of the legal fees is equivalent to about 20 students.

“We felt that the challenge was worthwhile to protect jobs, preserve the breadth of our offer and support our sixth form to thrive for generations to come.

“After many years of financial security, the national pressures on education funding, coupled with changes to projected pupil numbers in the sixth form, meant that John Kyrle High School had to make some tough decisions with regard to admin staffing levels in 2019.

“The reality is that, without any positive action, we would have moved from having a £350,000 a year surplus, which enabled us to invest significantly in the school, to a situation where our reserves would be exhausted by 2023.

“That was the first time in 20 years that the school entered a redundancy situation.

“We regretted this enormously, as our business case made clear, but external pressures, both local and national, meant that we had little choice.

“This was despite the considerable savings we had already achieved.”

Dene Magna School were successful and were awarded £55,000 in legal costs.

The Mitcheldean school has been approached for comment.