A RESCUE plan has been unveiled which could see the closed Homefield School in Christchurch reborn as a new independent secondary.

The board of the Bournemouth-based Park School has put together a package to buy Homefield, which shut suddenly on Friday following financial difficulties.

Members of the Park School board are this morning due to meet their bankers to see if a deal can be struck.

They plan to meet teaching staff at Homefield later in the day followed by parents tonight to gauge their support for the proposals.

If all goes to plan a new school could be opened on the Homefield site within days.

Murray Smyth, principal administrator of the Park School, said the school hoped to keep more than 250 of existing 300 Homefield pupils.

But he warned that not all staff jobs would be saved.

"This would be a new school, not Homefield with a different name," he said. "We want to wipe the slate clean and create a new streamlined secondary which would be run separately from Park School."

Parents of Homefield pupils are being urged to attend the meeting tonight at Park School, Queen's Park, at 7pm.

"It will all hinge on whether parents are willing to support us in this," said Mr Smyth.

"I must stress that we are still very much at the exploration stage."

Mr Smyth said the Park board had been asked by Homefield on January 12, along with two other independent schools, if it would be interested in taking over the Christchurch secondary.

But after visiting Homefield he said the board decided it was not sustainable and withdrew from negotiations.

When Homefield officially closed however, the situation changed.

Meanwhile, large numbers of anxious Homefield parents besieged Ballard School at New Milton on Saturday to seek alternative places for their children.

Homefield teachers left jobless by Friday's shock closure are also considering offering tuition to pupils cramming for GCSEs.

State comprehensive Highcliffe School is also inviting Homefield parents to a meeting this afternoon at 4.30pm to discuss ways of helping.

Chairman of governors Martin Axton said: "This is a unique situation and obviously we are deeply sympathetic and aware of the distress caused to parents and students.

"We would wish to see what part Highcliffe School could play in assisting them."

See Monday's Echo (Jan 31) for more background to this story

HOMEFIELD FACT FILE

The school, which was independent and non-selective, took boys and girls aged three to 19.

Last year, it had unauthorised absences of 0.5 per cent compared with a 0.6 per cent average locally and 1.2 per cent nationally.

In 2004, 88 per cent of pupils achieved five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C, far exceeding the local and national averages. But the year before, only 45 per cent of pupils achieved these grades, falling below local and national averages.

First published: January 31