Rescue plan for St Ursula's School in Westbury-on-Trym collapses

The future of private Westbury-on-Trym school St Ursula's is again in doubt after Colston's Girls' School pulled out of a rescue plan.

The decision, announced by the Society of Merchant Venturers, which sponsors Colston's, came after talks with Bristol City Council and other interested parties failed to reach agreement.

It means more uncertainty for parents of the 164 pupils at fee-charging St Ursula's and for those who have signed up their children to start in September in the hope of securing Government-funded places a year later if the school becomes an academy.

St Ursula's chairman of governors, Barrie Butler, said he was working  to try to find a new solution.

The Colston's Girls' School plan was for the Merchant Venturers to buy the eight-acre St Ursula's site and its buildings and create a much-needed primary school, a boys' secondary section and a co-educational sixth form.

But a cross-party group of city councillors said it could not support the scheme because it did not think there was demand for a state boys' school.

Parents living nearby were unhappy with the proposed citywide catchment area, selecting pupils by lottery, because they want to see a community-based secondary school.

Yesterday the society said it was withdrawing its proposal after failing to convince other interested parties of its merits.

It said councillors had initially supported the proposal but "recently it has been made clear that they have withdrawn this support".

City council cabinet member for schools Cllr Clare Campion-Smith said: "The Merchant Venturers are an important and much-valued partner in education in the city.

"I very much hope St Ursula's governors will approach a new sponsor and be able to offer a scheme more closely matching local wishes." Meanwhile Bristol North West's new Conservative MP Charlotte Leslie raised the issue of St Ursula's in her maiden speech in the House of Commons.

During the debate on proposed reforms to education in the Queen's Speech, Ms Leslie, a former governor of St Ursula's, said she hoped the laws being brought forward by the Coalition Government, which includes provisions for parent-run schools, would mean the school could become a community secondary.