Shock at The Coseley School closure threat

Consultation into the future of The Coseley School has been launched by Dudley Council.

And now a petition has been launched against the potential closure which has already been signed by more than 1,300 people.

The secondary school's 528 pupils were warned on Friday afternoon for the first time about its future during an assembly.

Parents were later sent text messages advising them to read a statement on the school's website while they waited to pick up their children.

Single parent David Guthrie, aged 45, of Anvil Crescent in Coseley, who lost his wife to an illness in June, said changing schools would cause him huge difficulties in the future.

"My youngest is in Year 7 and she had only just started here," he said.

"It's a big change moving up to secondary school because you need to have more knowledge and the learning is more in depth.

"You really don't want your children to have start again at a different school.

"They can walk here in 20 minutes if they need to but the next nearest school is a five minute drive, so it would be a really big inconvenience.

"We had no idea the future of the school was in doubt and I'm sure there will be a bit of an uproar about it."

Mr Guthrie said he also had concerns about how the 528 pupils could potentially be absorbed into other similar sized schools.

"I'm not sure how they would accommodate other pupils and I've been told my children could possibly to be split and sent to different schools, which I wouldn't be happy about," he said.

"There are consultations coming up, which I'll have to attend but I'll have to book time off work because I work afternoons.

"I've got another lad in Year 9 and he thinks the school is great.

"My step son left the school two years ago and he really enjoyed the last three years."

Jackie Williams, 46, from Eliot Croft, in Coseley, said her Year 8 daughter had already raised concerns about the school and asked to move to South Wolverhampton and Bilston Academy before Friday's announcement.

"The school has been using a lot of supply teachers and they don't seem to know what grades the children are up to," she said.

"There's a parent's evening next week and the school was only reopened on Wednesday because apparently there was no heating."

Councillor Ian Cooper, cabinet member for children's services, said the council was in early talks about the future of the school for the benefit of all pupils and their education, which he said remained a top priority.