Parents celebrate victory in fight to save Chichester school

Back in April West Sussex County Council’s cabinet agreed to close Rumboldswhyke CofE Infants’ School by September, arguing it was unviable.

But earlier this week the Department for Education announced it is supporting the school to academise with Bishop Luffa as its sponsor.

The move saves Rumboldswhyke from closure, much to the delight of everyone involved with the school.

Parent Cristina Vitan said they were ‘thrilled’ at the ‘amazing outcome’. After ten months of being ‘ignored’ by the county council she felt a ‘positive and sensible decision has been made’.

She predicted a ‘bright future ahead’ for the school under an academy trust run by Bishop Luffa and described parents’ relief at not needing to move their children to other schools during the pandemic.

The announcement was welcomed by Chichester MP Gillian Keegan, who has been lobbying hard for academisation over closure, and the area’s county councillor Jamie Fitzjohn, who has also been working closely with campaigners.

Parents and campaigners celebrated the news at the school yesterday (Wednesday), with Sarah Sharp, chairman of the Friends of Rumboldswhyke School, taking the opportunity to thank everybody for their hard work.

She said: “I want to thank everybody who has helped over the last nine to ten months to make this campaign a success. Everybody who wrote an email, made a cake, helped make the bunting, helped make the banners, got involved in any way however little, however small, stood up, said something, took part in a consultation, went out of their comfort zone, thank you so much, because we have achieved as a community something really special here.

“We have saved our school for future generations and hopefully we will make Whyke, this part of Chichester, a more friendlier, walkable community with a little school at its heart.

“Also a huge thanks to Bishop Luffa school who have stepped in and offered their wonderful support to relaunch this school.”

Campaigners have been critical of the county council’s handling of the situation throughout the process.

But the county council said the DfE did not comment on and were not critical of its work and planning in relation to school effectiveness but have simply responded to requests from individual academy sponsors.

A WSCC spokesman said: “The concerns we raised around the viability of the schools still stand and we remain committed to ensuring the long-term sustainability of West Sussex schools.

“We will continue to support the children and their schools and we look forward to working with the schools, the academy trusts and the RSC [regional schools commissioner] to support the process through the coming months. We wish the children well in their future.”

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