Kirklees students are appealing for help to secure the future of an ‘outstanding’ performing arts college which is facing closure.
CAPA College, the specialist sixth form in Cathedral Academy in Wakefield, is under threat after plans to turn it into a free school backfired.
The college, which has been open for 10 years, is not taking in any new students for September 2017 and it will close permanently if it cannot find a new building.
The “heavily oversubscribed” college applied to become a free school and it was due to split from Cathedral Academy later this year.
But no new buildings were acquired on time, with final-year student Sophie Hill claiming that land in Leeds city centre had been secured but within a week the government announced the plans for HS2, quashing the college’s deal.
Regulations dictate that CAPA cannot open as a free school in temporary accommodation until a permanent site has been found.
“If I hadn’t got into CAPA, I would’ve had to go to a normal sixth form in Huddersfield and done normal A-levels like drama and dance, which I have nothing against people doing, but this industry is so hard. You need top-class training,” added the 17-year-old from Huddersfield.
“[CAPA] is one of the only academies in the country that gives you that training without you having to pay a single penny.
“Now, students might have to go down to London and pay for an academy or try to get into a free school. It all depends what a family can do and afford.
“There’s nothing else in the North like CAPA and we really need more funding for arts in the North as it is.”
She also claimed there is a first-year student at the college whose family moved from Cumbria and currently live in a camper van in Wakefield just so he can attend the academy.
Students and alumni are now campaigning to secure the future of CAPA College, with a petition which is set to go live within the next week: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/189492/moderation-info
Edward Bullingham, a performing arts student from Holmfirth who has been accepted to study further at the Urdang Academy in London in September, said: “It’s about proving a point that we are all moving on to bigger and better things thanks to CAPA.”
A joint statement from Cathedral Academy and Enhance Academy Trust said: “It is with great sadness that CAPA sixth form and Cathedral Academy will be unable to provide its outstanding provision to a new cohort of students in September 2017.
“They will however, continue to support the current students studying at CAPA through to the end of their qualifications.
“We continue to work tirelessly to try to find a solution for CAPA College Free School’s future, focused on finding a permanent site.
“We hope that the Department for Education are able to secure a new home very soon and therefore secure the future for CAPA College Free School and the opportunities it brings for the wonderful, talented, artistic and creative young people of the North of England.”
