A HEREFORDSHIRE secondary school has unexpectedly closed today, with pupils told to work from home.

Leominster's Earl Mortimer College and Sixth Form Centre will be closed today, February 6, a spokesperson said through Herefordshire Council.

The school has had to close for unexpected fire and lockdown testing and repair, the spokesperson said.

Students should access classwork using the Show My Homework platform.

ALSO READ:

The Leominster school is the only mainstream secondary school in the town, but announced last year that it would be closing its sixth-form provision.

In August 2023, the school announced it had no sixth-form students. It previously averaged fewer than 18 sixth-form pupils over the previous four years.

The Leominster secondary school was completed in 2010 at a cost of £20.5 million, when it was intended to include a 120-place sixth-form centre to serve the town and wider rural community.

But, in a consultation run by the school in May and June of last year on the proposal to drop the option altogether, it said that the cost of maintaining it “is increasing to an unsustainable level” and was hitting other teaching.

“We believe that the school’s focus should be on continuing to improve the quality of education in years 7 to 11,” it said.

The school's headteacher says they decided to close the sixth form to cope with a huge increase in popularity lower down the school.

Alison Banner who runs Earl Mortimer College, Leominster, said applications have nearly doubled in the previous four years.

She said numbers started to shoot up after the school started offering free music and swimming lessons to students.

Ms Banner said: “It was a tough decision to close the sixth form but with the number of students coming through the door in year seven it was no longer sustainable.