Moves to federate Danby and Egton schools, near Whitby, backed by North Yorkshire County Council

The authority’s executive today gave its support to a move by Danby Church of England Primary School to move from being voluntary controlled to voluntary aided from September this year.

Danby has been working alongside Egton Church of England Primary School since 2017 and the two have agreed to federate under the umbrella of the St Hilda’s Moorland Federation.

The federation will become official on September 16.

The Executive heard today (June 22) that by switching to voluntary aided status, it would bring the Danby school in line with its partner in Egton.

A report prepared for the councillors stated: “Governors state that as a voluntary aided school, Danby would have greater formal links with the Diocese [of York] and local church while maintaining a strong and effective relationship with North Yorkshire County Council and would be able to enhance provision for Religious Education (RE) teaching and learning.”

As a result, it would share the same RE syllabus with Egton.

The report added: “Having the same syllabus as Egton would also strengthen the ability of the schools to collaborate on RE, strengthening learning and outcomes for children.”

The school in the village, located in the North York Moors National Park, caters for children between the ages of five to 11 and currently has 28 pupils.

The council’s executive voted unanimously to back the change of status but as the meeting was held virtually the final decision must now be signed off by the authority’s chief executive, Richard Flinton after Government legislation allowing local authorities to hold remote meetings and decisions to be made during the pandemic was allowed to expire.