Closure Information

The reasons for the decision to close The Holy Family Catholic High School relate to long-term issues with low pupil numbers resulting in financial difficulties.

The factors which have been considered are:

• A drop in pupil numbers within the local demographic and at the school
• Future financial viability of the school
• Ability to continue to provide pupils with a standard of education they deserve.

The school is based in a rural area where fewer families with young people are choosing to live. Nearby schools with reliable and frequent transport options are more appealing to prospective families.

The school has worked hard to maintain and improve standards, but the national and local contexts indicate that there is little prospect of pupil numbers increasing to alter the situation.  Changes to school transport funding underlie the trends in pupil numbers, which have been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis.

The school will continue to work with relevant local authorities, schools, and Trusts to ensure that support is provided and the best possible outcomes are achieved for all members of Holy Family’s school community by the proposed closure date of 31^st August 2025 with an aim for all  pupils to have a school place secured for September 2025.

Face to face parent/carer meetings will be held. Please see the letter for more information on times and dates. The meetings will cover next steps for parents/carers. Further events and communications will take place throughout the year to ensure that pupil transition is as smooth as possible.

The listening period, as required by the DfE closure procedure, had been designed to enable the school, Trust, Diocese of Leeds and LAs to share information and gather comments and views on the closure of the school. The decision to close the school has been made and the rationale for the closure has been set out in letters and on the school website.

Department for Education officials will consider any responses to the listening period and carry out a full impact assessment before the Secretary of State makes a final decision on the closure of the school.

There are currently 298 pupils on roll out of an expected 425.

Schools are funded, in the main, based on the number of pupils on roll.  The fewer pupils they have on roll the less funding they get from the Government. Most of the school’s overheads are the same, regardless of the number of pupils that they have. When schools have fewer pupils and receive less funding this eventually creates a deficit, which means that schools spend more than they bring in.

From a legal perspective the Trust is an exempt charity and is a not-for-profit organisation. If at the end of any year the Trust has received more income than expenditure, these funds are used in future years to educate the pupils in our Trust.

When the Trust was established, the members (The Diocese of Leeds) entered into a funding agreement with the Secretary of State. These contractual terms govern key aspects of the operation of the Academy, which is laid out within charity, education and company law, and includes the fact that the Trust must be registered at Companies House. This does not mean that the Trust is a profit-making organisation.

On 31 August 2023 the Trust had fund balances of £8m. This effectively means that, taking into account all assets and liabilities of the Trust, the organisation was worth £8m on that specific date.

However, this figure is different from our ‘free reserves’ – the money we actually have available to spend. Of the £8m fund balances, nearly £2m is categorised as our ‘fixed assets’ fund – this includes items such as furniture, equipment and ICT which we have to value for the financial statements but which in reality are not available to spend unless everything was sold – at which point we would be unable to operate.

The figure also includes liabilities of £3m, which – because of timing – is money the Trust owed to other businesses and organisations but hadn’t paid to them on 31 August 2023. These funds are therefore spoken for and not available for us to spend. Set against this is money that other businesses and organisations owed the Trust on 31 August, which total around £1m, which we hadn’t received by that point but were expecting to receive in future.

Taking these figures, the approximate free reserves of the Trust on 31 August 2023 were £8m - £2m - £3m + £1m = £4m. This is roughly the amount we had available to spend, although in reality some of was already earmarked for specific things.

This may sound like a significant sum, but it is only around 10% of our annual income and is consistent with government guidance on appropriate levels of reserves Trusts should hold to respond to the unexpected or to invest in replacement/upkeep of our facilities and equipment.

We have been using our free reserves up to this point to make up the shortfall at Holy Family while we explored the various options for making Holy Family financially viable. We have looked in detail at ways to reduce costs and to increase income, and have managed to do so to some extent, but the number of pupils in the school now mean we are not receiving enough money to fund the quality of education we want your children to receive. Although the Trust could use our reserves to continue to support Holy Family’s ongoing shortfall until the money ran out, this isn’t a sustainable solution.

This £8m fund balance was also the position on 31 August 2023, over 12 months ago. During 2023/24, costs have generally risen faster than funding. Our annual accounts for 31 August 2024 will be published in January 2025 and we expect our financial position to have deteriorated compared with 2022/23.

It was decided that the best solution is to contribute to the cost of the HFC uniform which is already purchased by providing a grant towards the purchase of new uniform. This is because pupils will be moving to different schools with varying uniform requirements.

The grant is to contribute towards branded uniform items, since unbranded items such as skirt/trousers could be reused at their new school or can be purchased relatively cheaply from supermarkets etc.

The figure of £75 has been arrived at based on the minimum amount of branded uniform a parent/carer would be required to buy for their child to attend Holy Family Carlton.  Based on the current cost of uniform via the schoolwear supplier this has been costed as:

This has been rounded up to £75 to allow a small contribution to other items. The Trust is not contributing to non-branded items as these may be possible to reuse at the pupil’s new school or can be purchased relatively cheaply from supermarkets.

Based on current data, the school is spending £300k a year more than it receives, with this figure expected to increase over the next few years as costs rise faster than income. It would not be viable for parents to have to raise this amount annually, which is what would be required to meet the shortfall.

It is not possible for the Trust to cover the actual cost of new uniform for each pupil.

Pupils will be attending different receiving schools, all of which will have different uniform requirements and therefore different costs – the only fair approach is to offer the same contribution to all pupils. The Trust must also balance the cost of making this contribution with the impact elsewhere in the organisation – because Holy Family Carlton is in an overall deficit position (the equivalent of being in its overdraft), the funds for this contribution will be coming from money which would otherwise be used for the education of pupils elsewhere in the Trust.

If all eligible pupils take up the full amount of contribution, this will cost nearly £18,000 – which is about the same as the cost of employing a teaching assistant for a year.

To ensure that all pupils are treated fairly, one grant per pupil will be provided.

East Riding and North Yorkshire LAs have been provided with pupil data and are aware of the situation and are preparing for the re-location of pupils.  Admission arrangements will be co-ordinated by the relevant local authority.

The relevant local authority Admission Team will continue to work with families to try and meet their individual preferences.

Exam boards could be made aware of special circumstances if any of the children had experienced any significant amount of trauma on the back of the closure of the school. This would usually be done on a case by case basis, but this measure could be considered for the whole cohort if necessary.

Parental meetings relevant to the year groups are planned and will be detailed within correspondence to parents for any further information

Year 11 pupils will be able to remain at the school until it closes fully in August 2025.  They will be given maximum support to achieve the best possible outcomes in their GCSE examinations.

Pupils in Year 11 who wish to continue their education in a Sixth Form or college will need to apply for a place as normal.

Notice on the TMP was given on 15 May 2024 to North Yorkshire Local Authority.  The LA will identify suitable provision for pupils who attend the resource. The school and Trust will work with the Local Authority to support transition of pupils to other provisions.

The Trust does not own the Holy Family school building or land; therefore, the Trust does not have any authority over its future use after closure.

Notable improvements include school leadership re-modelling and changes to the curriculum which has resulted in rising standards and attainment.

Please email governance@bkcat.co.uk for a copy of the public Trust Intervention Board minutes.

Schools are legally required to admit pupils until the listening period of a closure plan has commenced.

The parents of year 11 pupils are advised to remain at school for the coming year, however if year 11 parents wish to move their child now then they should apply for an alternative school asap- Please contact your relevant Local Authority for more information.

All admissions are subject to the right to appeal.

We cannot discuss individual cases; however, children may not be offered a place due to the requirement to balance the needs of all children in the school, of which a high proportion of which have additional needs.

HFC is lucky to have a committed staff body. Although HFC cannot guarantee that staff will stay through this year the notice periods within teaching contracts ensure that staff leave at the end of a term. This will provide time to find suitable replacements if required. Additionally, the HR department are committed to working with staff to help them to find other work opportunities within the Trust, across the Diocese and within the wider community. The Trust will do all it can to support HFC pupils with specialist staff for the remainder of the year.

No, the school will remain open until 31st August 2025.

The lack of funding for Faith schools is a national issue since transport funding for Faith Schools was removed.

The Trust has previous experience of arranging paid-for transport on behalf of parents and the costs are prohibitive, often substantially exceeding the cost of other available services as we do not have the economies of scale. This means not enough pupils use the service to cover the costs.

Transport options provided by third parties were available for parents, but the operator increased charges substantially due to rising costs, and we believe that this has had an impact on pupil numbers.

The Trust is not in a position to subsidise the cost of providing transport as it would take money away from our ability to provide education, which is our primary purpose.

Funded transport to the nearest suitable school with an available place would be allocated to pupils accordingly.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes, an alternative venue will be organised.

Please follow the Trust Complaints Policy which is available on the BKCAT website.