TWO schools will merge after a decision was agreed by Hampshire county councillors at a decision day meeting yesterday (Wednesday).

Executive member of education at the county council, councillor Peter Edgar, made the decision to amalgamate Park View Infant and Park View Junior Schools, in Pinkerton Road, South Ham As previously reported in The Gazette, the county council has proposed the amalgamation of the two schools to be merged into one primary school from January 2018.

The report put before cllr Edgar recommended the proposal of a community primary school for up to 630 pupils by enlarging Park View Junior School through the utilisation of Park View Infant School’s site and buildings.

The proposal comes as a result of an inadequate Ofsted judgement of the infant school in May 2017.

The junior school received a ‘good’ rating from Ofsted following an inspection in March this year.

However, during the consultation period concerned parents raised issues surrounding, job loses, bullying and costs.

These are addressed in the proposal report which reads: “All comments received through the consultation will be taken into account before any decision is made. The responses have been summarised in this report and have been made available to Hampshire County Councillors.

“If the amalgamation goes ahead, there would be a requirement to close the infant school and expand the age range of the junior school to cater for the whole primary phase. It will be essential to provide quality education across all key stages.

“This will require staff members that have experience of teaching infant age pupils.”

With the proposal approved, a new staffing structure will be drawn up and staff from the infant school will have the chance to be considered for posts in the new structure.

The report also stated the Park View Junior headteacher would likely become the primary school headteacher.

The county council said the proposal was put forward to give greater consistency in the way teaching is delivered at the school and allow parents to be able to maintain a longer-term relationship with the school.

The recommendation to amalgamate the two schools has been met positively by Basingstoke Central division councillor, Mike Westbrook, who in the consultation said: “We are pleased to be able to offer our support in what we believe will be a positive move.”