Middle schools in Berwick 'devastated' after being earmarked for closure by council's education department

As part of the recommendations in a report to Northumberland County Council’s Cabinet by the local authority’s education department, Berwick Middle School, Glendale Middle School and Tweedmouth Community Middle School would close on August 31, 2026.

The first schools in the Berwick Partnership would expand their age range up to 11 to become primary schools from September 2025 and Berwick Academy would become an age 11 to 18 secondary academy from September 2026.

If the Cabinet agrees with the recommendations at its meeting on Tuesday, a four-week consultation will run with a further report to Cabinet with the findings of the statutory proposals consultation and a final recommendation expected in July.

A statement from the Chairs of Governors of Berwick Middle and Tweedmouth Community Middle Schools states: “We would like to express our profound disappointment on the proposal to restructure Berwick education around a two-tier model.

“We are devastated at the potential loss of three middle schools who have consistently provided a good education and rich curriculum to the young people of Berwick for so long.

“There is now a real concern around educational improvement when, under this proposed closure, the percentage of good schools in the partnership drops to under 80 per cent.

“At the start of this consultation, heads met to decide upon a strong set of criteria – non negotiables – which would be at the forefront of educational professionals’ thinking throughout the process. It appears that this ‘Vision for Change’ has been largely ignored.

“There is no guarantee that this new system will deliver improved educational outcomes; by changing the age range of all schools, sustainability is not guaranteed and does not rule out further short/medium term restructure; while it appears to address the Special Educational Needs of some young children in the partnership, it does nothing to halt the movement of pupils with the highest level of need out of the partnership.

“A complicated and hard to understand process has not engaged the community in a way that the county council and schools would have hoped; it created a fractured environment where the educational outcomes of Berwick children were rarely at the forefront of discussion.

“It does not represent best value for money.”

“We are also devastated for our colleagues at The Grove School who so desperately need a new school so that all of our children can be educated within the Berwick Partnership and experience the specialist facilities they deserve.”

An information event took place at Berwick Town Hall in November, which included highlighting the Save Our Middle Schools campaign.

During the consultation, the middle schools in Berwick proposed an alternative model where they would undergo a major restructure and merge to form a single middle school – it also suggested new buildings for the new single middle school, Berwick Academy and The Grove School.

The statement from the Chairs of Governors continues: “The local authority asked middle schools for alternative models during the consultation. We responded with a local solution which addressed all the Vision for Change criteria and which certainly provided more guarantees around educational improvement.

“We are very surprised that this model was not carried forward into further consultation as it received support from a significant number of stakeholders within the partnership.

“It also put forward a more efficient approach to business engagement so that the future school curriculum for our children would provide them with the skills that local and national businesses are looking for in potential employees.

“These are important issues and questions that parents should raise in the four-week consultation if the Cabinet approves the publication of statutory proposals for a two-tier system of education.

“We hope that parents of children who will go all the way through the proposed system of education will seek guarantees that their children will receive the very best education, which they so richly deserve, and that any operational change will not impact on their learning.”