THE SIXTH form at Mountain Ash Comprehensive School will be closed with students moving to Aberdare Community School.
Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) Council’s cabinet approved the proposals at a meeting on Wednesday, February 19.
It also sees a change to the catchment area for post-16 education to place Mountain Ash Comprehensive School in the catchment area of Aberdare Community School.
The sixth form at Mountain Ash Comprehensive School will close by no later than September, 2026, and to enable the closure by this date, no new year 12 sixth form pupils will be admitted in September, 2025.
Of the 248 people who responded to the consultation, 218 (87.9%) disagreed, 17 (6.9%) agreed and 13 (5.2%) said they were not sure.
The proposals follow discussions between the council and the school and correspondence from the governing body of Mountain Ash Comprehensive School expressing shared concerns regarding the viability and sustainability of the sixth form at the school, and a request for the council to undertake a review.
A report to cabinet in November last year said the delivery of post-16 education was currently inefficient, the curriculum choice for many learners, restricted, and class sizes are too small.
It said this led to valuable education funds being directed at additional staff costs and infrastructure within the school when they would be better directed at the learners and the learner experience.
For the last academic year, the shortfall between the funding allocated to and the actual cost of delivering post-16 provision is more than £125,000 at Mountain Ash Comprehensive School.
It said: “Essentially, funding provided to educate 11 to 16-year-old pupils is being redirected at sixth form learners, to subsidise the funding shortfall that results from small class sizes.
“It is acknowledged that the school has worked in close partnership with neighbouring schools in the Cynon Valley to extend the curriculum offer.
“However, despite everyone’s best efforts, this does result in a fragmented post 16 offer which in many cases is delivered across three educational settings. This results in lost study time and significant transport costs and travel times.”
The number of pupils attending the sixth form has fallen from 144 in 2014/2015 to 72 in this current academic year.
And of these, 54 (75%) had dual registration status, meaning they received some of their post-16 education at Mountain Ash Comprehensive School and some at other schools within the post-16 consortium for the area which are Aberdare Community School and/or St. John Baptist Church in Wales High School.
It said that transition rates from year 11 to year 12 this academic year were very low, for example only 30 (16%) of the 183 year 11 pupils from the 2023/24 academic year chose to return to Mountain Ash Comprehensive School in September, 2024, to complete post-16 studies compared to 60.9% ten years ago.
The report said there would be sufficient capacity at Aberdare Community School to accommodate all prospective sixth form pupils of Mountain Ash Comprehensive School and that it would also result in a reduction in the number of surplus places at Aberdare Community School.
Arrangements with St. John Baptist Church in Wales High School would continue pr pupils could choose to attend post-16 provision at Coleg y Cymoedd, which has three campuses in RCT and one in the neighbouring county borough of Caerphilly.
The report said it was highly likely that all sixth form pupils living in the catchment area of Mountain Ash Comprehensive School would be entitled to free home to school transport to Aberdare Community School.
Financial projections show the proposal would have a “positive impact” on the budgetary position of Mountain Ash Comprehensive and Aberdare Community School, the report said.
Any revenue costs resulting from the closure of the sixth form at Mountain Ash Comprehensive School, including the school’s delegated
budget and any potential increases in home to school transport costs, would be identified as the proposal is developed and incorporated into the council’s medium term financial plan, it added.
Councillor Rhys Lewis, the cabinet member for education, said the rationale for the proposals was sound.
Councillor Andrew Morgan, the leader of the council, said they’d work with and support staff with the opportunity for redeployment in terms of the additional capacity that may be needed in some of the other schools.
