ILKLEY Grammar School has announced it is looking at forming a trust to work with other schools amid funding cuts and increased costs which have left the town's only senior school about £1million a year worse off.

The school e-mailed parents today to say its board of governors has given the go-ahead for applying to become a Multi Academy Trust (MAT), with the intention of working formally with both primary and secondary schools over the coming months and years.

In a statement released on Thursday, the school said it is exploring exciting partnership opportunities with other local schools.

It revealed it will be working on the early stages of an application with Bingley Grammar School.

The oversubscribed school's admissions criteria would not change if it became a MAT, it said.

Ilkley Grammar says funding for schools, especially those with 6th Forms, had been significantly reducing over recent years. For a school like Ilkley Grammar, the average funding from central government’s Educational Funding Agency (EFA) per student has reduced by approximately £500 since 2011, or approximately £750,000 in total per annum.

This has been coupled with newly imposed increased costs, says the school, such as national pay awards, employer pension and national insurance contributions, and for a school the size of Ilkley Grammar, this equates to additional costs per annum of approximately £300,000.

"The net impact therefore for a school such as IGS, is a reduction of approximately £1 million per annum compared to 5 years ago," said the school.

Chair of Governors, Lindsay Wharmby, said: "The governors at IGS are aware of these extremely challenging constraints and continue to work with the school, as well as directly with the EFA, to try to find cost saving and income generation solutions to minimise any potential negative impact to the educational experiences we currently offer to our students."

Ilkley Grammar School became an academy in 2011.

Although becoming part of a MAT would mean the formal, legal status of all schools involved would change, with an overarching Board of Directors overseeing the strategy for the whole of the trust, all schools would still retain their unique characteristics and identity, says Ilkley Grammar, with their own local governing bodies overseeing the operational running of their schools.

Headteacher, Helen Williams, believes benefits include: a better and broader overall experience; more varied enrichment opportunities for students; greater community involvement and influence; enhanced governance; leadership and oversight for schools involved, centralised costs to minimise impact of budget reductions, increased and flexible staffing resources, and a greater range of career progression opportunities for all staff.

She said: "We hope our students, parents and the wider community will agree that this is a very exciting new phase for IGS, and we are aware that there will no doubt be questions from our parents and community who will want to better understand the implications of any potential change to our school and its students. With this in mind we will hold a MAT information evening later this term, to talk through more of the details, as well as to answer any questions that may arise."

The school will also exploring the possible early involvement of other local schools, and says it will work with schools and their governing bodies over the coming weeks before finalising its application.