YEAR 12 students at Future Tech Studio have been forced to find places at other schools after their year group was closed at the start of this term.

The studio school opened just two years ago in September 2014 next to Warrington Collegiate on Winwick Road and is aimed at 14 to 19-year-olds who want to work in IT and telecommunications, business management and design engineering.

But the school failed to recruit as many 15 and 16-year-old students for year 12 courses as it hoped, meaning the 11 pupils in the year group had to find places at other schools.

Future Tech Studio is sponsored by Warrington Collegiate Education Trust, which also oversees Beamont Collegiate Academy.

Nichola Newton, chair of the Warrington Collegiate Education Trust, said: “Recruitment into the Year 12 cohort at Future Tech Studio was unexpectedly low.

“As a result, and in their best interests, Year 12 students received bespoke advice and guidance and have taken up alternative educational opportunities at Warrington Collegiate and elsewhere.”

A spokesman for Warrington Borough Council said: “We have been notified about changes to provision at Future Tech Academy and we are disappointed to hear this news.

“We are working with Future Tech and Warrington Collegiate, as well as other sixth form providers, to ensure students do not have their education interrupted. We will continue to monitor the situation at Future Tech.”

The school has room for 300 students and its first principal, Lee Barber, left in 2015 to open the University Technical College in the town’s Stadium Quarter which specialises in science, engineering, technology and maths courses.