London school visit and inspirational buildings

Last Thursday, Ronan, from the Stoke by Nayland team project was invited, along with other free school groups, to London, to visit some inspiring examples of new build and renovation/conservation architecture in London. These included, the Trinity Laban dance conservatoire http://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk and the http://www.siobhandavies.com/studios/index.html

He also had the opportunity to visit the Elmgreen School, in Lambeth. Elmgreen was the first parent promoted academy in the country, prior to the Government’s free school policy

This was a really useful meeting and the head teacher and financial manager of the school shed some really useful light on the intricacies and challenges involved in setting up an academy. The entire group was very grateful to have the chance to meet people with this unique experience in what we’re trying to achieve.

You can see the school’s website here http://www.the-elmgreen-school.org.uk

Whilst visiting the school, as part of our on going research into best practice and preparation for our stage 3 application, Ronan also met with the educationalist architect who designed Elm Court School, a SEN school once on the Elm Green Site, and now relocated a few miles away. You can also see the current head of this school discussing the benefits such an inspired design and build bring to his school.

Letter to parents

Last week, we asked the head teachers of the feeder primary schools and Stoke Middle School to distribute this letter to all parents. Just incase you didn’t get it, here it is

Dear parent

On Friday Education Secretary Michael Gove made important announcements which confirmed the introduction of Free Schools. This policy will enable our community to set up an 11-16 school on the Stoke-by-Nayland Middle School site.

SOS-Stoke-by-Nayland has had tremendous support and we have been working hard to ensure that our community is in a strong position to move ahead and set up a Free School. We have more hard work to do but our vision of developing an outstanding secondary school which is supported by and supports our rural community is achievable under this new policy. Our efforts to date have resulted in the following:

Strong links with New Schools Network (the organisation which has been asked by government to support free schools applicants)
The co-operation of Suffolk County Council and its officers

109 parents representing 214 children have already visited our website and said they would like to attend the school
A positive visit by Partnerships for Schools (the government agency which is looking at the capital costs of the free schools programme) to the Middle School site to assess the buildings.

Making links with a named contact within Department of Education prior to Fridays announcement

Regular communication with our large facebook group of over 1000 people and set up a new blog

Strengthened our relationships with local businesses

Begun to meet with potential educational providers (companies with expertise in setting up and running schools) and understand what support they could offer our school

Managed coverage in the local media with articles in the East Anglian Daily Times, Suffolk Free Press and interviews on Suffolk Radio and national coverage on GMTV

As a community driven school we shall be asking for input from you all as we go through the Free School application process. We shall continue to communicate with you through our website (www.sos-stoke-by-nayland.org), blog and facebook and will develop more ways of involving you as we go along.

Below is the Governments definition of a Free School published on www.education.gov.uk which we thought may be of interest to you all,

“Free Schools will be set up by a wide range of proposers, including charities, universities, businesses, educational groups, teachers and groups of parents, in response to parental demand, to improve choice and drive up standards for all young people, regardless of their background. Free Schools will provide an inclusive education to young people of all abilities, from all backgrounds, and will be clearly accountable for the outcomes they deliver. These new schools will have the same legal requirements as academies and enjoy the same freedoms and flexibilities to help them deliver an excellent education and drive up standards in our schools across the country, particularly in disadvantaged areas. These freedoms include

the ability to set their own pay and conditions for staff
greater control of their budget
freedom from following the National Curriculum
freedom to change the length of terms and school days
freedom from local authority control.

“Like academies, they will be funded on a comparable basis to other state-funded schools and will not be profit making.”   

SOS- Stoke-by-Nayland team.

We need questions!

We had a campaign meeting yesterday afternoon and have decided to add a FAQ section to the site.

So, do you have any questions you’d like answering? If so, please email us.

sos-stoke-by-nayland@hotmail.co.uk

Thanks

Penny

A smooth transition from Middle School to Secondary School

This is from our consultation document, originally submitted to the SOR board in December. I hope it’s useful to those wondering how a seamless transition from Middle School to High School can happen with minimum disruption to our children’s education.

We believe that it would be quite straightforward to implement a smooth transition from a Middle School to a Secondary School at Stoke by Nayland. The easiest way to represent the transition model we envisage is in the following table.

2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
Year 5
Year 6	Year 6
Year 7	Year 7	Year 7	Year 7	Year 7
Year 8	Year 8	Year 8	Year 8	Year 8
	Year 9	Year 9	Year 9	Year 9
		Year 10	Year 10	Year 10
			Year 11	Year 11

The 2012 column represents the current arrangement. In the first year of reorganisation no new Year 5 pupils would be admitted as they would remain at their Primary Schools and Year 8 pupils would remain (becoming the first Year 9) in the school rather than moving to an Upper School. The same progression would occur in 2014. If the intake was left unchanged then it would be 2015 before the school would need to increase in size. In 2015 the first new intake of Year 7 pupils would occur and the previous Year 10 pupils would form the first Year 11. If, as it is more likely, the intake was increased then this would be gradual and could be done in a number of ways. For example, additional pupils could be added to Year 7 at any point and additional pupils could be added to Year 9.

Such a transitional model would create the least disruption for the pupils, allow the school to adapt and grow in a gradual organic way and provide continuity alongside adaptive change. We believe that this transitional model is in the best interest of the pupils and consistent with the Every Child Matters agenda.

Where we are..

Back in November (or October, I can’t really remember now) the SOR (Schools organisational review) gave their first consultation at Boxford School (and others in our “group”) and shared their thoughts and arguments why schools in Suffolk should be two tier rather than three (Infant, Middle & Upper) The feeling amongst parents was pretty divided. There were those that thought we should keep the system as it is and those that though two tier was the way forward.

The room, however, was pretty unanimous in feeling there should be a school at Stoke by Nayland.

Many of parents in the room, myself included, moved to this rural area, so our children could be educated in smaller schools outside urban areas. The decision to close the Middle school at Stoke has effectively taken away that opportunity.

So, a few parents got together to argue the case the Middle School should be used as a High School instead.

In those 3 months, we grew support through Facebook to near 1000 parents, students, grandparents and members of the community all wanting a high school. We talked to local businesses, teachers, governors, councillors and of course our MP, Tim Yeo, who’s been 100% behind this campaign from the start. The feeling was very strong! This is what the community wanted

In May, the change of Government bought an exciting opportunity for the campaign. A new flagship education policy gave us the chance to apply for free school status. And that’s what we’re in the process of doing.

This policy has also meant our Conservative County Council is now offering any constructive help pushing this application through. This is excellent news – not only because it will help us immensely with our application, but when things are up and running, it will be invaluable to have the help and support of the people who run the schools in the area (think school transport, school dinners, toilet rolls!)

We’re currently talking to a number of educational providers – these are companies that run academy schools. Our first meeting is next week – I’ll let you know how it goes.

We are also putting together an expert panel – headmasters, educators, business people – anyone who can help with the application.

It’s my plan to keep updating this site when I hear something new. I’ll still be running the facebook page, but this way I can pass on more details.

Please feel free to email us if you have any questions,

Until then, I need to work out how this wordpress blog thing works

Thanks

Penny