Cabinet Meets in Bristol

Grant Shapps MP, Conservative Party Chairman and minister without portfolio, has revealed that the government is holding its cabinet meeting today at the John Cabot Academy in east Bristol. The above photo was tweeted by him earlier this morning.

The habit of holding Cabinet meetings in the regions, away from Westminster, has been a feature of the coalition government since 2010.

Left to right are (I think) Maria Miller (Culture, Media and Sport), Justine Greening (International Development), Vince Cable (Business and Skills). I can't make out the next guy (sorry!) before getting to the Prime Minister. I think that's Philip Hammond (Defence) to the left of the PM. Any suggestions for the rest?

The Prime Minister, after the meeting had adjourned, announced that his government intends to ensure that a further 400 struggling state primary schools become academies by the end of 2013 This policy of creating so-called "forced academies" has been criticised in some quarters. Paradoxically, it may actually work against the principle of parent choice, which the academy model is supposedly based upon, with several parent groups at such schools now actively protesting and taking legal action to ensure that their children's school remains under local authority control. 

I hope the pupils at Cabot are behaving well for the government. 

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Elmlea Academy to Dig up its Field?

In the week that Elmlea Junior School officially became an independent academy, it has emerged that, despite an original agreement to preserve its playing field, the new school has agreed to allow the neighbouing Infants' School to be redeveloped on the Junior School field.

Last year, when Elmlea Infants' School was seeking permission from Bristol City Council to rebuild on the popular Junior School field, parents and neighbours opposed to the digging up of the field succeeded in halting the plan. A local action group, Acies, was formed and gathered around 1,000 signatures on a petition opposing the development of of the field. Local MP Charlotte Leslie was also a vocal opponent of the move. 

Trym Tales understands that, following the transition to an academy - an independent state funded school -  Elmlea Junior has gained greater control over the use of the land on which the school sits. Consequently, academy head teacher Claire Galliers has reached an agreement with Infant School head Inge Fey which would allow the Infants School (which remains under LEA control) to use the Junior School playing field as part of its modified development programme. A full rebuild (estimated at £4.5 m) was ruled out last July due to public spending cuts nationally. It is unclear precisely what the nature of the building work on the field may be in light of these cuts. .  

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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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Related articles

• Bristol free school set to open (bbc.co.uk)

Oasis School Westbury Open Evening

Image via Wikipedia

Went to the Open Evening at Westbury on Trym's new Oasis School last week and was left with the overall impression that Steve Chalke and his team have their work cut out in order to turn this formerly bankrupt Catholic Independent into a flourishing and broad-based community academy.

Greeted at the door as I was by the head - Lynette Carter - who introduced herself by name, I felt immediately immersed in the ethos of a fee-paying independent school. Which, of course, the school still is, until it achieves academy status. Tours of the school were conducted by the uniformed pupils, and everyone was, well, awfully nice.

I was struck, secondly, by how small the school is - both in terms of student numbers - and teaching facilities. More familiar with the large state secondary sector, I was surprised to discover, for instance, only two functioning science labs, one DT room, and a close overlap between the secondary and primary wings of the school.

In addition, the physical fabric of the school has obviously been neglected during the St Ursula's era. The exterior, for instance, reminded me of one of those small French provincial towns that you stumble upon while on holiday: grey rendering peeling away from nineteenth-century brickwork, which seems to have a certain charm when on holiday but, when thinking about your child's secondary, speaks of decline.

I was also surprised by the presence of numerous statues of Mary, and other Roman Catholic paraphernalia around the site, not because they would be out of place in a Catholic school, but because they have been left in place after the school has been taken over by Oasis Community Learning. Although Oasis states in its education charter that "We are motivated by the life, message and example of Jesus Christ", they are not, specifically, a Roman Catholic charity (Steve Chalke is a former Baptist minister) and their academies are "non-selective...open to students of all religious faiths and those of no faith."

It's easier to change a building than it is to change the ethos of those who use the building, of course, and there did seem to be among the existing parents I talked with in the school hall, a hope that the new school (which, interestingly they talked about as a future rather than present institution, despite the change of name) would not abandon its distinctive features. As an independent, St Ursula's was known for being non-selective and welcoming pupils with a range of learning needs, and others who may not have fared that well in a larger school.

Perhaps the Mary statues symbolise exactly where Oasis Westbury is at the moment: in transition, but not very far into the process. Which is not surprising, since the school has been through a roller-coaster of change in 2010. This journey has included the former school going into administration, the City Council buying the land to enable Oasis to re-open as a fee-paying school this academic year, a further drop-off in student numbers, a 25% increase in fees, and the small matter of a general election in which the school featured prominently at a local level.

Steve Chalke is in Bristol this week to update existing parents on the journey towards becoming a state-funded academy. He states that he has been in recent contact with Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, who is "committed" to helping Oasis Westbury Academy status "on, or before, September 2011" and that he is "confident" that this will happen.

Assuming that takes place, there seems plenty of work to do in turning the school into a broad-based community academy. I expect a few feathers will have to ruffled in the process and some difficult decisions will have to be taken by skillful leaders and change managers.

If anyone can pull this off successfully, I reckon Oasis can.

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Will Primary Academies Change Bristol's Schools for a Generation?

The government's desire to allow primary schools to become academies, and its desire to increase their number, may have significant implications for the provision of primary education in Bristol.

Under the coalition's proposals - outlined in this week's Queen's Speech - primary schools which have been rated "outstanding" by Ofsted will be assumed to be ready to become academies, without having to go through the current lengthy application process.

It is worth pausing to consider what Bristol schools might look like if all or many of its primary schools currently rated "outstanding" chose to go this route. In such a world, the following primaries would be eligible to become academies (independent of local authority control) straight away - possibly as soon as September 2010. These schools would be free from the requirements of the national curriculum and able to set their own non-selective admissions and staffing policies.

In each case, the link from the individual school is to it most recent Ofsted report:

St Peter and St Paul RC Primary, Redland


St John's C of E Primary, Clifton


Christ Church Primary, Clifton


Henleaze Junior School


Ashley Down Junior School


Elmlea Junior School, Westbury on Trym


Westbury on Trym C of E Primary


Stoke Bishop C of E Primary


Our Lady of the Rosary RC Primary, Lawrence Weston


Several points seem relevent:

1. The geographical concentration of possible primary academies

Although it could be argued that the varying standards of primary schools in Bristol are already a matter of public record - with schools in the north and west of the city tending to be rated more highly that those in the centre, south and east - the emergence of multiple academies would be a powerful and visual symbol of this educational imbalance.

Existing primary schools, if oversubscribed, already apply a geographical element when allocating places, according to the City Council's admissions policy document. This fact tends to lead to the creation of local property hot spots as parents move into parts of the city where they are more likely to be allocated a place at the school of their choice.

It is unclear whether such hypothetical future primary academies would operate geographical admissions policies. The evidence form Bristol's existing secondary academies is mixed. While City Academy in Whitehall and Oasis Academy in Hengrove do have a local geographical bias in their application process, Colton's Girls' and Cathedral School do not.


2. The high incidence of church schools in the list

It is a nationally-recognised fact that Britain's highest performing schools at both primary and secondary level contain significant numbers of church schools. This provides a range of challenges and opportunities.

On the one hand, secular members of the middle classes often express dismay when they find such schools operating a faith-based admission policy. Attempts to minimise the overt Christian influence on such schools seems perverse, as if the character of such schools can be detached from its spiritual ethos and worldview.

Having said that, it is perfectly understandable that tax paying families may feel disenfranchised by a system that denies their child access to high performing schools because they are not church attenders - a situation that is currently true for several of the voluntary aided schools on the list.


3. The inevitability of a downgraded LEA

If (and of course it's a big if) a number of "outstanding" primaries became academies, controlling their own budget, curriculum and staffing policies, the LEA would be left with, well, to be frank, the less-than-outstanding schools. Some may see this as a good thing. It would certainly make it easier to justify job cuts within the council's education department as its remit was significantly reduced.

However, such a development would also have major implications for the nature of the state education system. I wonder, for instance, how we would feel if this approach were applied to doctor's surgeries or old people's homes. It's one thing for individuals to "go private" with their medical or retirement needs. It's another to have two types of public service offering the same thing (primary schools) but paid for from different pots and serving, in practice, two different groups of the public - broadly speaking , the haves and the have nots.


The academy model was originally designed by the Blair government to help lift "bog standard comprehensives" out of the doldrums by enabling them to be rebuilt and form dynamic partnerships with motivated and resourceful private and charitable bodies with an interest in education. Bristol's City Academy in Whitehall (supported by Bristol City FC) is a classic example of this approach.

In the brave new world of multiple primary academies, there is every possibility of significant fracturing of the provision of education and the reinforcement of social and educational inequalities across the city.

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St Ursula's to Become Boy's Academy by 2011?

In the aftermath of the general election campaign, during which Charlotte Leslie (MP) announced that St Ursula's School in Westbury on Trym was to begin the process of applying to become an academy, Trym Tales can reveal that plans are at an advanced stage for the independent Catholic School to formally seek academy status from September 2011.

Trym Tales understands that the Merchant Venturers have created a financial and educational plan which, if agreed, would see St Ursala's become a boys-only secondary school, possibly within 16 months.

The proposal for a boys' school on the St Ursula's site would complement the Merchant Venturers other flagship school - Colston's Girls' - which they support as sponsors and which was one of Britain's first independent schools to become a state-funded academy in 2008. It is understood that a "super head" would be appointed over the two schools, under the proposal.

Trym Tales understands that, while the proposed new academy (which would lose its distinctive Catholic identity) would cater for school years 7 to 11 only, the Merchant Venturers would seek at the same time to open a joint sixth form centre which would serve both Colston's Girls' and the new "St Ursula's", resulting in the closure of the sixth form at the Cheltenham Road girls' school.

It is unclear where this sixth form centre would be based, but the implication is that it could make use of the extensive grounds at St Ursula's to create a new purpose-built post-16 centre, which would be co-educational.

St Ursula's has been forced to reduce its junior school provision from this September and to close its nursery following continuing decline in its pupil numbers. The school is understood to be expecting fewer than 200 students attending its Westbury on Trym site this autumn.

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Colston's Girls' Most Popular School for North Bristol Families

Colston's Girls' School has topped a poll of schools that local families would choose if they were not successful in their application for Redland Green School.

The poll took place over the last month here on the Trym Tales site and when asked, "If not Redland Green, which school will you choose?", 25% of participants stated a preference for Colston's Girls', the independent school on Cheltenham Road which plans on converting to an academy this September.

Two of Bristol's other would-be academies came joint second in the poll, with 16% of the votes cast in favour of Cathedral School and an equal number for Portway School. Whereas the former two are independent schools already, Portway is set to follow the route of the majority of academies as the new trustees attempt to turn around a historically poor-performing school. Oasis Trust are the proposed charity aiming to take on Portway, a move which local parents appear to welcome if the poll results are at all representative. More on the planned change to Portway School here.

With families in Westbury on Trym effectively excluded from the new school following the change in the Redland Green School catchment area this year, the poll results indicate a swing away from the independent schools historically favoured by families in the Westbury on Trym area, with Redland High School for Girls, Bristol Grammar, Red Maids and Badminton School receiving no more than two votes each. This is anecdotal evidence, perhaps, of the popularity of the academy model among local parents at the expense of the traditional independent sector.

Full results, which may not be representative of local opinion as a whole, are reproduced below.

If Not Redland Green, Which School Will You Choose?

Henbury	3 (12%)
Portway	4 (16%)
Colston's Girls	6 (25%)
Bristol Grammar	2 (8%)
QEH	3 (12%)
Colston's	3 (12%)
Cathedral School	4 (16%)
St Katherine's	1 (4%)
Gordano	3 (12%)
Red Maids	2 (8%)
Badminton	2 (8%)
Redland High School for Girls	1 (4%)
St Ursula's	2 (8%)
Other	4 (16%)

The poll was conducted over 28 days in March and April. 40 votes were cast by 24 voters (multiple choices were permitted). St Mary Redcliffe School and St Bede's Catholic College remain very popular with local families but were not included in the poll as their admissions policies do not make them viable choices for all children.

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Money Agreed for Colston's Girls' Academy

Word from Colston's Girls School is that the financial paperwork which undergirds the school's application to become an independent state-funded academy has been signed and ratified by the academy sponsors and the government's Department for Children, Schools and Families.

This means that the school's aim of becoming an academy in September 08 is all but a done deal and that a formal announcement to this effect can be expected after Easter (or shall we call it spring break?)

The school's sponsors - Bristol's Society of Merchant Venturers - will deposit an initial fund of £1 million into a trust fund to be used by the new academy for extension and enrichment activities. The school's day to day costs will be met by the Department who will supply an additional cash boost to help with the initial transition costs of the new academy.

Further down the line, Colston's Girls is set to undergo a major refurbishment and extension of its Cheltenham Road site.

While the presence of a new city centre state school of the quality of Colston's Girls' will be good news for Bristol families, it is unlikely to make a dramatic difference to the demand for places at Redland Green School. The new academy's admissions policy treats the entire city of Bristol as one "catchment area", with the former county of Avon as its second area for admissions. Entrants to the new school will, therefore, be drawn from across the city, not necessarily from families living in the Redland Green catchment area.

The application process for admissions to Colston's Girls' in September 2008 is virtually complete. Information on applying for 2009 can be found here.

The background to the Colston's Girls academy and further information on the way academies operate can be found here.

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Locked Out of Redland Green? Keep Your Eye on Portway - Seriously

With the new proposed changes to the Redland Green School catchment area (here) Westbury on Trym parents have been left with a limited range of options for their children's secondary education.

Until now.

Plans are apparently at an advanced stage for Portway School to become an academy - a state- funded non-fee paying school independent of the local authority.

The proposed academy - which has to be agreed by Bristol City Council - will be run by Oasis Community Learning founded by Baptist minister and TV presenter Steve Chalke (MBE).

Oasis already has seven academies in its portfolio, and reports improvements in academic outcomes and behavior accompanied by increasing numbers of applications for places at them. Oasis is also due to re-open the Hengrove Community Arts College in South Bristol as an academy in September 2008. Westbury parents will therefore have a year to asses the work of an Oasis school before deciding whether to take the plunge and apply. The proposed takeover is scheduled for September 2009 if agreed by all parties.

In recent years Portway School has had low achievements in GCSEs and a high staff turnover - only 16% of students gained five or more A-C grades at GCSE last academic year and the school has had seven head teachers over the last 5 years.

The Oasis Trust is founded on Christian principles but does not use church attendance as a basis for applications. Chalke claims that "There will be people who won't send their kids to Portway. They are late adopters, not early adopters. In three years' time they will wish they had done." The Oasis Community Learning ethos and values can be seen on their web site here.

If successful, Portway will become one of five possible academies in Bristol - others being in St George, Hengrove and with proposals underway for Colston's Girls' School and Cathedral School to become academies over the next two years.

Some of the main questions people ask about academies are answered here and details of the new Redland Green catchment area can be found here.

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Secondary School Options for Parents in Westbury on Trym

It's the time of year when parents of Year 6 students at Elmlea Junior and Westbury on Trym Primary Schools are left waiting to hear which secondary school their children have been allocated for the coming academic year.

Following the shock of last year when hardly any families in Westbury on Trym were allocated places at the newly opened Redland Green School, the options seem a little brighter this time round, especially in the longer term.

With plans for Colston's Girls' School to become an academy at an advanced stage, the pressure is likely to be reduced on places at Redland Green in September. This trend is likely to continue in future years, especially if Cathedral School is also successful in its attempt to be granted academy status. Details of how to apply for Colston's Girls' School this year are here and for the smaller Cathedral School here.

Colston's Girls' is further along the path to becoming an academy than Cathedral, though with the former defining its catchment area as "the former county of Avon" (Bristol, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset and Banes), pressure on places will be real.

Among students who were not successful in getting into Redland Green last time, reports to Trym Tales say that St Katherine's School in Pill has been a positive alternative for several local families. The school seems to have a positive and developmental ethos built on a foundation of good behaviour - a commitment which was reinforced in the autumn term of this school year by the permanent exclusion of two severely disruptive pupils.

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What are Academies?

Interest in the nature of secondary school academies has increased in Bristol in recent weeks due to the announcement that Colston's Girls School on Cheltenham Road has applied to become one. Although the application is at an early stage, it has raised some questions among local parents about what these schools are and how they operate. In response to these questions, I've compiled a question and answer post for parents. If I've missed any questions, get in touch and let me know.

1. In One Sentence, What is an Academy?

An academy is an all-ability secondary school financed by the Department for Education and run in partnership with sponsors from the business, charity or faith sectors.

2. How Much do They Cost to Attend?

Like all state schools, academies are free of charge. Parents do not pay to send their children to them.

3. Do Academies Follow the National Curriculum?

Only if they choose to. Like independent schools, they are free to not follow it if they see fit. Students do, however, work towards the normal GCSEs and A levels. Academies are free to choose what to teach and how to teach it.

4. Do Academies Have OFSTED Inspections?

Yes, just like all state schools.

5. How Many are There in the Country?

47 as of July 2007.

5. Do They Specialize in Particular Areas of Study?

All academies specialize in one or more areas. This does not mean that they don't offer courses in other subjects, but they do put more resources and time into that area of specialism.

6. Can you Give an Example?

The City Academy Bristol (located in Whitehall) specializes in sports and is jointly sponsored by Bristol City Football Club and the University of the West of England.

7. What do the Sponsors Bring to the School?

Expertise and advice on their area of specialism, including perspectives that may not be brought to the table in a traditional school setting. Also, enrichment and extension activities, contact with business and community organisations, etc. Typically, the governing body is made up of a majority of members representing the sponsoring bodies. The sponsors are required to not profit financially from the academy but can be required to put some money in, especially to the extension activities.

8. I've Read that Academies can Select Pupils Based on Ability. Is that Correct?

Academies can select up to 10% of their pupils according to their aptitude for the specialism of that academy. They cannot select on the basis of general academic ability. Existing state schools which have a stated specialism (it should be noted) are also allowed to do this.

9. What about SEN students?

They attend academies and are included as they would be in a normal state school.

10. How Well do Academies Perform?

It's early days. Because most of the academies have replaced "failing schools", often in areas of deprivation, we would expect to see an improvement in standards and results if the new management team were doing their job properly. This improvement is often evident to a greater or lesser degree. To what extent this can be attributed to the academy model as such is a matter of on-going debate and opinion.

10. Any Other Plans for Academies in Bristol?

It's not been widely reported, but a brand new academy will open in September 2008 on the site of the former Hengrove School in South Bristol. The Oasis Academy will be sponsored by the Oasis Trust, run by Baptist minister and GMTV presenter Steve Chalke.

More questions? Please leave a comment and I'll try and include an answer if I can provide one.

If You Can't Beat Them....

Wow!

Colston's Girls' School has applied to become a city academy - that is, an independent school funded by the state.

Three thoughts:

1. The move is a testimony to the attraction of the academy model. The present government has put a lot of store by them and, although they have not been in existence long enough for any rigorous research to be done on their impact across a city, the anecdotal evidence from those in favor of them is that they do help raise standards and behavior.

2. As highlighted in a previous post, the new secondary school at Redland Green is starting to have an effect on applications for the independent Redland High School for Girls, situated less than half a mile away. The announcement from Colston's Girls may indicate that the ripple effect of a good state school in the area is now starting to impact this school as well. Informed sources say that applications to study A levels at Colston's Girls have been in decline since the opening of the new Redcliffe Sixth Form Centre, which has attracted a good number of girls from Colston's this academic year who would otherwise have stayed on at the independent school.

There's no doubt that the growth and strength of the independent sector in Bristol has been in direct relation to the weaknesses in many of the city's state secondary schools. If this latter problem is being addressed, we would expect to see a corresponding impact on the independent schools.

3. If (and it is a very big if) Colston's Girls does become an academy, one immediate effect will be to reduce the numbers of students applying for Redland Green School in the years to come. With places for 525 girls aged 11-16 (and 168 in the sixth form), the prospect of Colston's becoming a state school would have a major effect on secondary education in Bristol. If it were to happen, more families who have not been successful in applying for this school may find places becoming available. This would presumably include families from Westbury on Trym and Stoke Bishop, virtually none of whom have been admitted to Redland Green this academic year, despite living in the catchment area. More on that here.

We'll watch this one with interest.

The Redland Green Fiasco

Elmlea Junior School parents have been opening their post this week to discover which secondary school their children have been allocated.

Many have been disappointed that their children have not been offered places at the new Redland Green School, despite living in the “designated area of first priority” (that’s the catchment area to you and me).

Instead, the majority of Westbury parents have been offered places at Henbury or Portway Schools and many are unhappy with the offer.

The new Redland Green School has proven so popular that places have been allocated to those living in the area of first priority who are closest to the school as the crow flies.

The key paragraph from the City Council’s policy is:

Where there are more applications than there are places remaining within a particular category, the direct line distance from home to school will be used as a tie-break.

This means that despite the building of a new secondary school in North Bristol, many of those who campaigned for it appear not to be benefiting from it.

There’s a basic political issue here as well as a practical one. The practical one first. As a parent, I have to do one of the following:

(a) send my child to Henbury or Portway School

(b) appeal against the decision and hope that I can prove some failure of process

(c) pay for an independent school

(d) apply for a school in North Somerset or South Gloucestershire

The political issue is this:

Why is it so hard for middle income urban families to find a secondary school for their children that they have confidence in? Isn’t this a basic right for tax-paying families?

Redland Green School

Word on the street is that the opening of the new Redland Green School has had an effect on the local independent located less than half a mile from the new state secondary which opens this September.

According to one source, applications for places at Redland High School for girls are down by 50% for entry in the coming academic year. While this must be a concern for the management team at the independent girls' school, it is a reflection of the rising confidence local parents are placing in the newly-built state school - a confidence that is also finding expression in the rising house prices in the Redland Green catchment area.

To be frank, the private schools have done very well in recent decades on the back of the poor standards in Bristol's schools. Surely the greater good is served by successful state schools across the city which have the confidence of local parents and children.

Meanwhile, Westbury on Trym parents find out whether their children have been offered places at Redland Green.

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League Tables and the Local Schools

Love them or loathe them, the annual school league tables are out and being studied by parents across the country.

Locally, the two primary schools appear as usual in the top third of the Bristol league table. Westbury on Trym C of E Primary School has produced an average SATS score of 30, fractionally below the average for Elmlea Junior School of 30.3. As most local residents know, both schools produce higher than average results compared with Bristol as a whole.

In broad terms, there is often a correlation between a school’s SATS performance and its proportion of students with special education needs. Upper Horfield Primary School, for instance, is the lowest performing primary school on the current league table. It is also a school where 53% of its students are registered with special education needs.

One north west Bristol school to buck this trend in spectacular fashion, however, is Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Primary School in Lawrence Weston. Despite 23% of its student body being SEN (the figure is 7% for the two Westbury on Trym schools) this is now the top-performing primary school in Bristol, as far as that can be measured by the league tables. For the third consecutive year, the school has been awarded the National School Achievement Award and is described by Ofsted as an “outstanding” school.

Congratulations to the staff and pupils.

Back to School

Today’s the day. Back to school for thousands of Westbury on Trym children.

Asda was heaving last night with last minute uniform buyers.

The quiet roads, ripe blackberries and – before that – the mini heat wave will all be distant memories as parents get up early and battle the traffic for another year.

Never mind. Only 101 shopping day until Christmas.