COUNCILLORS are determined to get to the bottom of why many of Warrington’s most successful pupils are going out of the town for college education.

Officers have previously been told to get to grips with the issue after it was revealed the vast majority of pupils, who perform well at GCSE level, tend to study at colleges outside of the borough.

It arose again during the scrutiny committee meeting on Wednesday, with a report reiterating that many higher attaining Warrington students attend excellent, but cross-border, colleges for post-16 education.

Former council leader Cllr Ian Marks labelled the situation as disappointing and said it is a shame ‘we haven’t somehow got the ability to retain’ more students.

Cllr Matt Smith, the council’s cabinet member for children’s services, said some sixth forms probably have higher entry requirements so they ‘cream off the top’ from Warrington’s schools – which boosts their results and has a negative impact on the town.

Cllr Tom Jennings highlighted the importance of getting to the ‘root cause’ of why students opt to go outside the borough, or why parents push their children to do so, while adding that having solid data will help to mitigate it.

He said: “This is the third time this has ultimately been raised and the fact that we’ve now added that it is a development area is positive but, hopefully, there is some substance behind that as well because it is something that is a key issue.”

Councillors were told officers are due to send a survey on the issue out to members.

The national funding formula for schools was also discussed during the meeting, with members told about the Government’s bid to ‘level up’ funding.

But Cllr Marks said he believes ‘we should go back to the olden days’ when local authorities could allocate budgets for schools amid concerns over education budgets in the borough.

He added: “It seems to me that we have virtually no scope as a council to do anything about this.”

Cllr Marks was told Warrington is part of the f40 group, which comprises the lowest funded local authorities for education in England, and that the town lobbies to make sure its voice is heard over additional funding.