Views wanted on the future of post-16 education

Bridgend County Borough Council is asking local residents what they think about proposals that will change how post-16 education is provided in future.

Phase four of the authority’s ongoing Post-16 educational review outlines a number of potential options which range from closing and merging some sixth-forms to creating new ones in locations such as Bridgend town centre and the Pencoed campus of Bridgend College.

With many sixth forms in the county borough proving to be too small to remain financially viable resulting in a limited range of available subjects, the latest proposals take into account feedback from previous stages of the review.

The council wants to change this by creating centres with a minimum capacity of 250 students which will ensure there are enough learners to provide a broad curriculum while enabling minority subjects such as modern languages to be protected and using resources more efficiently.

Three options have been developed:

• Mixing school sixth forms with some mergers to create new local authority-maintained sixth-form centres, including a new post-16 centre of excellence.
• Mixing sixth forms with some mergers to create new further-education-college governed sixth-form centres, including a new-build college in the town centre.
• Retaining sixth forms at all schools with further development to improve this option’s delivery, such as greater use of online learning.

The proposals include separate arrangements for Welsh-medium and faith education.

Sixth forms at both Porthcawl Comprehensive and Bryntirion Comprehensive are expected to reach the 250 student benchmark over the next 10 years, but all other school sixth forms are well below this figure. This situation is limiting resources and the availability of some subjects, meaning that in certain cases students are having to travel between different schools in order to study their preferred options.

Bridgend County Borough Council has a proud track record of investing in local education, and we want all students to have the very best opportunities. Given the financial pressures faced by the local authority, secondary schools and Bridgend College, we need to work in close partnership to ensure that our resources are used as effectively as possible.

The proposals for how we can do this are bold and creative, and I hope that people will make full use of this opportunity to have their say and help shape our plans for how post-16 education is delivered in future.

Councillor Charles Smith, Cabinet Member for Education and Regeneration

A series of consultation workshops will take place in the New Year before the consultation closes on 21 February 2020.

For more information on how you can take part visit the consultation page, call 01656 643664 or email consultation@bridgend.gov.uk