Leaders at a sixth form college who announced “abrupt” plans to shut this summer and leave dozens of students in limbo have bowed to pressure and committed to delaying closure by a year, admitting they “got it wrong”.
Queen Alexandra Sixth Form College in Wallsend said this week that it would close at the end of the academic year because plummeting student numbers over the last three years had left it “no longer financially viable”.
It left 49 AS students in the first year of their A-levels scrambling to sort provision for next year. But following outcry from students, parents, Tynemouth MP Alan Campbell and the University and College Union, the decision has been postponed by a year.
The sixth form, which is part of the Tyne Coast College group, has now committed to seeing through the first-year students and instead close in July 2024.
