Future plan for axed Cragg Vale Junior and Infant school revealed

The school on Blackstone Edge Road was closed in 2017 after a consultation with the community over the future of the building.

Calderdale Council decided that the Cragg Vale school and Calder High School should merge to create a new all-through school in Mytholmroyd.

Now the Council has submitted proposals to convert the building into five dwellings.

Cragg Vale Junior and Infant School was a small rural school with an average intake of less than ten pupils each year.

In 2016 when the proposals to close the school first emerged, the Council said the building was in a poor condition and the ongoing maintenance and running costs were unsustainable for a small school, at a time when school maintenance funding has been reduced.

This meant that keeping the school on the same site was no longer an option.

A consultation took place with residents, schools and the community over the plan.

The governing bodies of Cragg Vale Junior and Infant School and Calder High School agreed to the amalgamation in a bid to provide the best opportunities for their students.

A report to councillors outlines that the Department for Education has committed the £1.38m funding towards the move.

However the move was met with objections from the governors of Scout Road Academy and Burnley Road Academy, both in Mytholmroyd, and Luddendenfoot Academy, who say the move will create more primary places than demand requires and will threaten the financial viability of the academies and other schools in the area.

However the move went ahead and in September 2017 Cragg Vale Junior and Infant school joined The Calder Learning Trust and created a new through school for pupils from providing 4-16 years in two phases: Calder Primary and Calder High.