a middle school with age range 9-16. North Tyneside Northumberland Northumberland County Council began a process of closing middle schools across the authority in 2006. This was discontinued as a universal policy following funding difficulties but middle schools have continued to close, merge into all through academies or change to primaries with 25 Northumberland middle schools having ceased to be middle schools since 2006 and a further two set to follow in 2019 and 2020. Somerset Staffordshire Suffolk Suffolk County Council planned to close all middle schools in its authority by 2013, later delayed to 2016. The two remaining schools became part of an all-through academy trust, thereby removing themselves from the local authority-led process to close three-tier schools. Windsor and Maidenhead Worcestershire Authorities where middle schools have been discontinued Many authorities in regions of England previously had middle schools, with either local areas or whole counties since reverting to the more traditional two-tier model. These are listed briefly by region. East of England Norfolk closed its last middle schools - which were deemed primary - in 2008. Suffolk began the process of closing its middle schools in 2006, having reduced its numbers from a high of 40 schools. The only middle school in Cambridgeshire (which fed into Bedfordshire upper schools) closed in 2018. East Midlands Northamptonshire closed its middle schools in and around Northampton in 2002, with its final two middle schools closing in 2015. Leicestershire had a number of middle schools which covered the 10-14 age range, alongside others which were for Key Stage 3 students (11-14). The last of the middle schools closed in 2017. Nottinghamshire formerly had a three tier system around Newark-on-Trent and in Mansfield, with the latter closing in 2001. London The London Borough of Harrow closed its middle deemed primary schools in 2011. The London Borough of Merton had about 14 middle schools for the 9-13 age range, which were converted to deemed-primary (8-12) schools in the 1990s. These schools reverted to primary use by 2002. North East England The three authorities with existing middle schools (Newcastle, Northumberland, North Tyneside) all closed several middle schools since 1999. A number of towns such as Hexham and Berwick-upon-Tweed still have middle schools. North West England South East England Buckinghamshire's last middle schools closed in the 1990s. Hampshire inherited middle schools from Southampton City authority which had gone wholly three-tier in 1970 (one of the first