Ruling on schools merger

EDUCATION Secretary John Patten has settled a two-year dispute between two Catholic secondary schools, St Thomas the Apostle and St Richards, in Skeltnersdale, by announcing that they are to merge.
In a ruling this week, Mr Patten has decided that a single Catholic High school for the Lancashire town, "would be in the best educational interests of all the children concerned".
The decision ends the hopes of parents at St Richard's, who had voted to opt out of local authority control in order to avoid the merger first proposed by Liverpool Archdiocese. Catholic authorities feared that to allow such an opt-out would undermine future diocesan reorganisation proposals.
Director of Schools for the archdiocese, Bob Newman, said that a temporary governing body would be formed by members of both schools. The new school is to open on the site of St Thomas's next September.