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Showing posts with label Bristol Free School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bristol Free School. Show all posts
Wednesday, 7 December 2011
Monday, 5 September 2011
Nick Clegg rules out running free schools for profit
Image via Wikipedia
The drift, without the LibDem veto, would seem to have been towards state-funded Free Schools being run for a profit.
The issues, of course, are not quite as clear cut as the above BBC news article might suggest.
The partner organisations to Free Schools are allowed to pay their directors a salary. But they are not permitted to pay them dividends, as one might expect in a "pure" profit- making company.
Having said this, the ability of Free Schools to manage their own budgets and set their own salary arrangements, does imply that they should run within budget. Indeed, through letting of their buildings and other money-raising initiatives, it would be unusual if such schools were expected to run at a loss.
For now, however, the idea of "for profit" companies running and profiting from state-funded schools seems to be on hold.
At the moment.
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Thursday, 25 August 2011
Oasis Academy Becomes St Ursula's (Again)
The former St Ursula's School on Brecon Road is to re-open - sort of.
Just when it seemed that north-west Bristol's complicated state school provision had been finalised, further complexity has been added by the planned opening of a new state-funded primary academy on the site of the former St Ursula's/Oasis School in Westbury on Trym next week.
The background to the proposed opening of the St Ursula's E-ACT Academy is as follows:
- The original St Ursula's Roman Catholic all-age fee-paying school went into administration in August of 2010 as a result of declining student numbers.
- The school site - formerly owned by the Catholic order The Sisters of Mercy - was bought by Bristol City Council for £2 million as part of a rescue package worked out between administrators Grant Thornton and the Council.
- As part of this rescue package, external education provider Oasis Community Learning, based in London, agreed to submit a bid to open a state-funded academy on the St Ursula's site. Oasis currently runs two other state academies in Bristol - in Shirehampton and Hengrove. Because of the time constraints, and in order to avoid disrupting the education of the remaining St Ursula's pupils, Oasis agreed to run the school as a fee-paying independent school for one year while the academy application was submitted and processed by the Department of Education.
- In March of 2011, the academy application involving Oasis was turned down by the Department of Education.
- A new application was submitted, this time for a primary-only academy. In May, education provider E-ACT was chosen as the proposed sponsor to open the new academy, on the site of the existing Oasis School.
- The new primary academy is due to open in September, receiving the former primary school students from Oasis and, according to the E-ACT website, 60 additional reception-age pupils.
- Despite the new school being a non faith-based academy, the name of the new academy will be St Ursula's E-ACT Academy.
Meanwhile, the Bristol Free School will be opening its doors from September for secondary age students,at the former government offices on Burghill Road in Brentry. In April of this year, the Council agreed in principle to allow the Bristol Free School to relocate to the St Ursula's/Oasis site, while the new St Ursula's Academy remained on site as well. The proposal is for two separate schools to be based on the Brecon Road site from Sept 2012.
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Sunday, 10 July 2011
Bristol Free School Opens Shopfront in Westbury on Trym
Image via WikipediaBristol Free School, due to open in the former government offices in Burghill Road in September, has set up shop in Westbury Hill. The retail unit next door to Oxfam was formerly home to the unfortunately-named K Stabb shoe shop which has recently ceased trading. A large advert for the Bristol Free School has appeared in the shop window inviting parents to register their interest in their children attending the new school.
Although Free Schools are non-selective, the large advert in the village does contain a number of graphic and textual markers which function as code for the kind of school being proposed for BS9's new secondary. These include:
- a formal uniform, including blazers and ties for boys, only available from IKON Schools at Henleaze Road. Similar uniforms cost around £250 or more from IKON. Unlike state secondaries, such as Redland Green School, the Free School contains no information on its website about any financial assistance that might be available to families who might not be able to afford such a uniform.
- an "unashamedly traditional" curriculum (ie Latin included).
- the claim that the school meets a need not provided for elsewhere in the area.
This latter claim is perhaps the most controversial, in the week that head of nearby Henbury School Clare Bradford has claimed that there will be 300 spare places at the city's four local secondary schools this September. The claim that there is limited local secondary school provision is, let's at least be honest, a claim that there is limited secondary school provision that significant numbers of Westbury on Trym parents have confidence in. Which is another matter altogether.
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Thursday, 7 July 2011
Bristol Free School: BBC Investigates
Image via Wikipedia
The proposed Bristol Free School was mentioned several times this morning during a feature on Free Schools on BBC Radio Four.
The Head of Henbury School, Clare Bradford, was quoted on the programme saying that she believes the intake of her comprehensive will be adversely affected by the opening of the Free School in Brentry/Westbury on Trym this September.
The Henbury head also revealed that among the four neighbouring state secondaries in the area, there will be around 300 surplus places this autumn. Although the four schools were not named, it is reasonable to assume that they include Orchard School Bristol (formerly Monks' Park School in Horfield) and Oasis Academy Brightstowe (formerly Portway School in Shirehampton).
Coincidentally, no doubt, this blog was accessed by a computer at the BBC London office at 7.35 this morning as a result of someone in that location searching Google for "Bristol Free School". Good to see that the BBC know where to go to get the inside story on all things BS9-related (and that they do so well in advance of a live national broadcast.)
Other articles on Trym Tales related to the Bristol Free School can be found here.
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Tuesday, 21 June 2011
The Story Behind the Bristol Free School - Part Four
Although the video is not Bristol-specific, Michael Gove's recent presentation at think tank Policy Exchange provides insight into some of the thinking behind the government's current drive towards Free Schools.
Agree or disagree, it's at least useful to know the thinking that is shaping current policy. The key issue, if I've understood Michael Gove correctly, is diversity within state education provision and freedom of operation at local school level - autonomy as the Secretary of State calls it.
Back to the Bristol Free School story next time....
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Thursday, 16 June 2011
The Story Behind the Bristol Free School - Part Three
The Russell Education Trust - which as we saw in the last post on the subject - is a private company based in Leatherhead, and is the partner organisation for the Bristol Free School, due to open in Westbury on Trym in September 2011.
The Russell Education Trust (RET) is an off-shoot of Education London, a private education company offering a wide range of services from "curriculum planning" to "Enhancing School Image and Pupil Recruitment" and "New Schools". Education London have an ongoing contract with the Department for Education to deliver its Keys to Success programme in London schools.
Many of the same people are involved in both companies, notably Daniel Lynch and Karen Lynch, who are described in official documents as education consultants. Both individuals are named as directors of Education London, incorporated in February 2003. The same individuals are named at Companies' House as the founding directors of the Russell Education Trust.
Not only that, both Education London and the Russell Education Trust are based at the same building in Leatherhead:
James House,
Bridge Street,
Leatherhead
Bridge Street,
Leatherhead
KT22 7EP
Here's the building, courtesy of Google Street View.
More on the Lynchs and Education London in the next update....
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Tuesday, 14 June 2011
Bristol headteacher threatens legal action on ‘free school’ | Bristol24-7
Image via WikipediaClare Bradford, headteacher of Henbury School, has threatened to take legal action over the proposed Bristol Free School, due to open in Westbury on Trym this September.
The head has written to the Department for Education, saying she will seek a judicial review if funding is approved, claiming that the new school has been set up without sufficient local consultation, and that its impact will be to reduce numbers at other local secondary schools, thereby reducing funding and range of subjects offered at schools such as Henbury.
The Bristol Free School will be the largest of its type in the country if it opens as planned.
Follow the Free School story on Trym Tales here.
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Monday, 6 June 2011
The Story Behind the Bristol Free School - Part Two
The first thing that surprised me about the Russell Education Trust - who are the official partners for the Bristol Free School which is due to open in September 2011 - is that, despite their name, they are not in fact a charitable trust.
Having worked in the charitable sector myself for twenty years, I thought I had a reasonable grasp of at least some of the specific language and terminology associated with charitable trusts. Clearly, my knowledge was incomplete.
The Russell Education Trust are a private limited company, created as recently as November 2010. Under government rules, a company can use the word "trust" instead of the more commercially-sounding "limited" in its name if the following conditions are met:
- the company must be a private company limited by guarantee
- the objectives of the company must include the "promotion or regulation of commerce, art, science, education, religion, charity or any profession."
- company members cannot receive dividends from the company (though they can receive salaries)
The company's official address is
1st Floor James House
Emlyn Lane
Leatherhead
Surrey
KT22 7EP
Interested parents might wish to take note of that address. As we shall see, it crops up more than once in connection with privately-owned education companies/trusts in recent years.
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Friday, 3 June 2011
The Story Behind the Bristol Free School - Part One
While much of the local media's attention around the opening of the Bristol Free School in September 2011 has understandably concentrated on the practical issues of where it will be, when it will open and who can gain admission to the school, the wider back-story remains to be told.
In particular, little has been written about the partners for the new school - the Russell Education Trust.
Over the next few postings to Trym Tales, I will attempt to explore this group, who will be the official partners for the Bristol Free School. I will attempt to address some key questions about the Russell Education Trust such as
- who they are
- who owns and runs the trust
- what their powers are and how they are derived
- what other education work they are involved in
- what their history may suggest about their future role in the Bristol Free School
It is a story that in many ways acts as a useful case study, taking us to the heart of the government's education philosophy. Understanding the back story to the Bristol Free School will help parents understand the wider changes in educational policy and practice that the Free School and Academy movements represent.
Watch this space for further developments.
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