AN INFANT school could be forced to become an academy if a proposed merger between it and its neighbouring junior school does not go ahead.

Proposals are currently being considered for Park View Infant and Park View Junior Schools, both in Pinkerton Road, to be merged into one primary school from January 2018.

However, due to national policy, if the merger was not to go ahead, Park View Infant could be forced to become an academy.

A Hampshire County Council (HCC) spokeswoman said: “Park View Infant School has been judged ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted and the national expectation of the Department for Education (DfE) is that all inadequate schools should be taken over by an academy sponsor.

“Park View Junior School is graded as a ‘good’ school by Ofsted and therefore would not need to become an academy.

If the merger goes ahead, the infant school will technically close and become part of the all-through provision, achieved with the expansion of the ‘good’ junior school.

“Ensuring that a school becomes a sponsored academy when judged inadequate is the role of the DfE. Therefore, should that option be decided upon, the timescales would not be determined by either of the schools’ governing bodies or the local authority.”

Meanwhile, HCC has also confirmed this week that if the move to combine the two school does go ahead, the headteacher at Park View Junior would likely become the primary school headteacher as the move technically involves closing the infant school.

The spokeswoman added: “It would be for the governing body to determine the overall leadership structure but it is anticipated that senior post holders in both schools would form an integrated leadership team for the all-through primary school, driving forward the school’s improvement plans.”

The council did not respond directly to being asked if there were job losses.

A statement read: “If the schools merge, it will be for the governing body of the allthrough primary school to determine the staffing structure.

“Key to those considerations will be the need to ensure there is high quality education for children, going forward.

“Given that there will be the same number of pupils to teach, it is not expected that there would be any large increases or decreases in staffing.”

As previously reported in The Gazette, parents have been left concerned and angry about the proposal with worries over the affect it would have on their children.

A decision is likely to be made next month.