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Education: Academies open for a new term

by
15 September 2010

by Margaret Holness

EIGHT new Church of England academies and one joint RC/C of E academy, all based on the model initiated under Labour to serve deprived commmunities, opened this month. Only four, however, are new to their respective dioceses.

The Bishop of Rochester Academy replaces two non-selective community schools, Chatham South School and Medway Com­munity Col­lege. It will be the first Anglican secondary school in the Medway district, which has several C of E primary schools. It has, says John Constanti, acting diocesan director of education, the keen support of Medway council, which is a co-sponsor. While the academy has some foundation places, the inten­tion is serve the local community. Funding has been approved for a new building, due to open in 2013, Mr Constanti said.

South Liverpool Academy brings together a former RC aided school, St Benedict’s, and New Heys com­munity school in the Garston area of the city. Liverpool diocese’s director of education, Jon Richard­son, said that the diocese was asked by the city council to get involved in the project, as the council believed that a joint church school was the best option for the area.

The new academy, which also has the backing of Liverpool University and the Enterprise group, has opened on the St Benedict’s site, where a new building is due to open in 2012. The RC diocese has sup­ported the development.

St Aldhelm’s Academy, Poole, opened this month on the site of the school it replaces, Rossmore com­munity school. Its current tally of 750 pupils is expected to rise to 1100. Joint sponsors with Salisbury diocese are Bournemouth University and Benenden School.

All Saints’ Academy, Plymouth, the first C of E academy in Devon, was formerly the John Kitto Com­munity College. Exeter Diocesan Board of Education is the lead sponsor, with the University College of St Mark and St John and Ply­mouth City Council as co-sponsors.

The remaining five academies all have Anglican antecedents; never­thess, says the Church of England’s chief education officer, the Revd Jan Ainsworth, becoming an academy gives them more room to innovate, and focuses resources on some of the poorest parts of our towns and cities.

The John Wallis Academy, Ash­ford, has Canterbury diocese as lead sponsor, supported by Christ Church University, Kent County Council, and Benenden School. The academy was formerly Christ Church Voluntary Aided High School. It became an 11-16 aided church school in 1990, amalgamat­ing two county second­ary modern schools on the Stan­hope Estate in Ashford, one of the most deprived wards in the country.

Since then, its fortunes have varied: it became a national chal­lenge school, but last year came out of special measures with improved GCSE results. Canterbury diocese’s director of education, the Revd Nigel Genders, says that the new academy opened with a new leader­ship team led by the principal, John McParland, and is developing a sixth form, which will take its first students next Septem­ber.

Trinity Academy, Halifax, opened on the site of the former Holy Trin­ity VA High School, but will take pupils who would previously have attended a failing community school, now closed. The VA school’s admis­sions policy allowed it to ac­cept pupils from church primaries over a wider area. The academy’s priority is to serve its immediate neighbourhood.

The solution to the educational problems of north Halifax was pro­posed by Lord Adonis, who was schools minister in the last Govern­ment. “We readily agreed because we are deeply committed to the area,” said the Dean of Wakefield, the Very Revd Jeremy Greener, who chaired the academy project and is a former chairman of the diocesan board of education. The governors now have approval for a £29-million new building, due to open in 2012.

The reorganisation of secondary education in Taunton demanded the closure of at least one school. So the joint C of E/RC St Augustine’s school was closed, along with a community school, Ladymead, to be replaced by Taunton Academy, sponsored by the diocese of Bath & Wells. The academy will serve families in north Taunton. Plans for a new building, due to open in 2013 on the Lady­mead site, await the Government’s funding decision, but a new sixth form is to open next year, and St Augustine’s is to be redeveloped for vocational courses.

Sarum Academy, Salisbury, is a development of Salisbury High School, a long-standing Anglican foundation, which serves Salisbury’s most “vulnerable” community. Salis­bury diocesan board of education is the lead sponsor, with Bath Spa University and Bryanston School, which is sharing its expertise in in­dividual learning.

The Bishop of Winchester Academy has been created from a former community school that was in special measures when it became a C of E aided high school six years ago. After the arrival of a new head, Paul McKeown, two years ago, it im­proved dramatically, and, says Tony Blackshaw, the diocesan director of education: “It is now oversubscribed for the first time in living memory. Academy status will enable further transformation.”

Winchester diocese is a co-sponsor with Winchester University and two state grammars, Bournemouth School and Bournemouth School for Girls.

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