Oasis Academy: Was Steve Chalke Right?

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Head of Oasis Academy Brightstowe Matt Butler has been receiving plaudits for his school's dramatic improvement in its GCSE results. The former Portway School, now run as an academy by the Oasis Educational Trust, has seen the percentage of pupils getting five A* to C grades at GCSE increase from 30 per cent to 62 per cent in the past year. These results include the important maths and English qualifications.

Richard Garner writing a glowing tribute in last week's Independent describes the turn-around as "remarkable" and a "dramatic improvement."

Head Matt Butler - a former British Airways executive - mentions in the Independent article that there have been some challenges convincing some within the local community of the value of the Oasis approach, but that the school is gradually gaining favour locally. 

Critics of the academy model - which sees private or charitable groups take over the running of local schools on a non fee-paying basis - accuse the schools of failing to offer a truly comprehensive education to all pupils. A recent report by The Academies Commission states that many such schools are breaching government guidelines in their selection process and thereby subtly excluding more challenging pupils. Methods used include:

• arranging “social” events for prospective parents instead of direct interviews with parents (which are prohibited by the government)
• seeking further information about the family and pupil beyond that set out in the government's regulations

"Such practices" according to the Commission, "can enable schools to select pupils from more privileged families where parents have the requisite cultural capital to complete [forms] in ways that will increase their child’s chances.”

In addition, academies nationally have higher-than-average rates of pupil expulsion. The Department of Education's own statistics reveal that academies permanently exclude pupils at more than twice the rate of local authority secondary schools. 

Oasis Brightstowe follows this trend of above-average permanent exclusions. According to a Freedom of Information request, and as reported on the site Anti Academies Alliance, In 2009-10, the school excluded 4 pupils - 0.82% of the student body. This compares with a national rate across non-academies of 0.14%. 

The government's own statistics reveal that permanent exclusions are carried out disproportionately on certain groups of pupils:

• The permanent exclusion rate for boys is approximately 4 times higher than that for girls. 
• Pupils with SEN statements are round 8 times more likely to be permanently excluded than those pupils with no SEN.
• Children who are eligible for free school meals are around 4 times more likely to receive a permanent exclusion than children who are not eligible for free school meals.

These facts, it is alleged, contribute to the success of academies, since they tend to not only manipulate the admissions process but also more readily exclude troublesome working-class boys with learning or behaviour needs. 

It is further claimed that pupils receiving free school meals tend to under-achieve in academies at GCSE level.    

Against the critics, it could be argued that the practice of excluding is one of the key factors in achieving academic success for the majority, and should not be seen as a failure of the academy system. 

Having worked for a short period of time in a challenging Bristol primary school, I have seen first hand the disruptive effect of violent pupils on the ability of other pupils to learn. In one primary class, there were up to four class evacuations per day as out-of-control pupils kicked, spat and punched each other at will. There is no doubt in my mind, as a casual visitor to the school, that the dysfunction of these pupils was being "managed" at the expense of the majority, whose education was being ruined by the hard-core troubled pupils. 

When I asked why these pupils were still attending the school, I was told that exclusions were financially costly and that they damaged the professional reputation of the head teacher.

It could be argued that the academies have at least grasped the nettle and are choosing not to allow the violent minority to damage the learning outcomes of the majority. Should they be criticised for this approach?

The government-initiated 5th annual report on academies by Price Waterhouse Cooper concludes that:

“there is insufficient evidence to make a definitive judgement about the Academies as a model for school improvement.”

In the academic year before Portway School converted to an academy, only 16% of students gained five or more A* to C grades at GCSE. The current figure of the new Oasis Academy Brightstowe is 62%. As reported on this blog, back in 2008, head of Oasis Learning Steve Chalke made a bold prediction about the new school: 

"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."

  

Was Steve Chalke right, or is the jury still out on academies?

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Related articles

• School exam league tables: High-flying headteacher who turned around a school's fortunes in just two years
• GCSE results prove success of sponsored academies, says government
• Struggling academies warned over poor GCSE results

What Next For Wesley College?

Wesley College - the Methodist Theological College at the top of Henbury Road in Westbury on Trym - is likely to be turned into a new housing development, according to a former student.

The campus ceased operating last year and is now no longer offering courses. The accommodation blocks on campus, however, remain occupied by a mixed group of former students who have entered into arrangements with the college authorities to remain on site while the future of the campus is resolved. The majority of the current occupants are, apparently, from South Korea. Wesley College was not only the longest-standing Methodist training college in Britain, it also attracted students for is undergraduate and postgraduate courses from around the world. 

Speculation is that the site may be sold to a property developer and permission sought to convert the current main building into private apartments, with additional properties built on the grounds.

  

    





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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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. In March of 2011, the academy application involving Oasis was turned down by the Department of Education.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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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Bristol Free School Opens Shopfront in Westbury on Trym

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Bristol 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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Bristol Free School: BBC Investigates

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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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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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Related articles

• The Story Behind the Bristol Free School - Part One (trymtales.blogspot.com)

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)

Village News

A few bits and pieces that have caught my attention recently in and around the village:

• noticed that large military transport plane flying low in large circles over north-west Bristol on Tuesday (?) Believe it was going through its test flights from Filton. 
• Canford Park is full of young families on a sunny day. The village population is getting younger, in my observation. Maybe I'm just getting older. 
• both of the village's primary schools (Elmlea Junior and Westbury C of E Primary) are applying to become academies this summer. More on that story here.  
• far away (Cribbs causeway), was struck by the long queues forming outside the Apple store at the mall on Friday. Something about the launch of the iPad 2, or something.  

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Westbury Schools: an Academy Zone

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With both of Westbury on Trym's primary and junior schools applying to become academies, BS9 looks like, by September, it will be a neighbourhood with virtually no LEA influence. 

Westbury on Trym C of E Primary is further down the road towards academy status, with formal approval having been given by the Diocesan Board of Education to pursue the academy option and £25,000 from the department of education towards the initial legal and administrative costs of the move. A recent parent questionnaire saw 41 of 45 respondents from the school state that they were in favour of the school becoming an academy.

Elmlea Junior School, meanwhile, has held a public meeting to announce to parents its intentions to seek academy status by the autumn. The process will apparently involve the school becoming a (?) charitable company, rather than the more traditional route of the academy partnering with an external body (such as Oasis Educational Trust or, in the case of Colston's Girls' School, the Mercant Venturers).

The move towards academy status for local primaries was predicted on this blog last May. At the time, I noted that the Ofsted schools rated "outstanding"  and which were therefore eligible for fast tracking to academy status, were heavily concentrated geographically in the north and west of Bristol. The LEA, if such schools left its control and became non-fee-paying state-funded independent schools (which is the essential definition of an academy) would then be left with the less well performing schools in the centre, east and south of the city. 

I made the following observation at the time which I think is still applicable:

"Such a development would 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."

In the end, the brave new world of the academy model should, in my mind, be evaluated not only by the outcomes of these schools, but by whether the system overall makes it easier or harder for children from low-income backgrounds to gain a good education and be empowered to realise their potential. 

At present, the verdict is out on that issue.

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Related articles

• Money 'driving move to academies' (bbc.co.uk)
• More schools seeking academy status (mirror.co.uk)
• Is academy status being foisted on schools? (guardian.co.uk)
• Academies 'lead to council cuts' (bbc.co.uk)

An Intelligent Discussion About England

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With the rise if the English Defence League and other English nationalist movements, those interested in issues of identity, Englishness and the politics of devolution are often reluctant to enter the debate for fear of being associated with these right wing groups, both their ideology and methods.

It was a welcome relief, therefore, to discover this article, reproduced under a Creative Commons Licence from Open Democracy. The Bristol angle is noted in the list of participants.

"Debates about the status of England and surrounding constitution and parliament have gradually gained momentum after 1997 but were (and are) linked to a critical understanding of the way that the union of the United Kingdom functions, or fails to function, as a nation-state. As well as attracting bemusement in recent years, the ‘English Problem’ has been over-shadowed, at least in the mainstream media, by conservative and pro-British assumptions about a narrow, nostalgic and fundamentally ‘ethnic’ England, and has been emptied of all political content.

This Saturday, 6th November, the University of Warwick are hosting a one day interdisciplinary conference entitled ‘Literature of an Independent England’, organized by Dr Michael Gardiner and Dr Claire Westall and supported by Warwick’s Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies and Humanities Research Council.

The conference will draw together academics, writers and commentators working within this burgeoning area to clarify the current position and future potentiality of England as an independent nation and as a nation with an independent literature which as yet has no agreed shape. It will draw on Britain’s imperial history and the postcolonial and nationalist concerns which have sought to address this legacy. It will specifically look at how patterns of cultural, political and literary thought have changed after the ideological fall of the United Kingdom, as well as addressing questions about the form, purpose and future of the British discipline known as English Literature. The conference aims to ask, most importantly, how cultural, literary, and academic producers can become active in shaping the values of a post-British England.

The Keynote Address will be provided by Professor Arthur Aughey (University of Ulster), authors of The Politics of Englishness (MUP, 2007) who will be speaking under the title ‘Citizens of Nowhere? Reflections on a very English Anxiety’. Anthony Barnett will be outlining the need to ‘Take England Back’ and Dr Michael Gardiner will be explicitly linking these political questions to the discipline of English Literature in his paper ‘English Literature as Ideology’. Issues of canonicity within and beyond literature will be explored by Dr Jo Carruthers (University of Bristol) and Dr Simon Featherstone (De Montfort University), author of Englishness (EUP, 2009), will be linking literary regionalism with questions of the nation. Dr Christine Berberich (University of Portsmouth) will be examining the ‘problem’ of England in recent dystopian novels while Dr James Hawes will be reading from his novel Speak for England (2005).

Other speakers and papers will add to the vibrant, interdisciplinary coverage of the day helping to ensure that the political nuances of England’s current political landscape are tired to, and read through, the history of England as a nation typically conflated with the imperially determined state structure of Britain. Key topics for the day include:

• The Politics of England and Englishness
• Nation Theory
• Literary History
• Canonicity and the Disciplinarity of English Literature,
• Empire and Postcolonialism
• England after Devolution

For more information on the programme, speakers and papers please see the conference website."

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Oasis School Westbury Open Evening

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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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Still Telling Tales

Oh my days!

Has it really been six weeks since the last posting from everybody's favourite Westbury-on-Trym blog? Six weeks!

Historically, July and August have always been quiet times for Trym Tales. Since this is also the silly season in traditional print-based media, I take comfort from this similarity - evidence that BS9's leading independent online media outlet is truly rolling with the big boys.

Having said that, I was shocked, horrified and amused at one recent faux pas from a leading media competitor. I refer, of course, to a recent edition of the mid-Bedfordshire Times and Citizen.

As the picture reveals, June 3rd was clearly not the sub-editor's finest day, professionally speaking.






Closer to home, recent low output from Trym Tales cannot be explained away simply by lack of local news.

Post-election, we have had Charlotte Leslie's maiden speech in the House of Commons, the on-off story of St Ursula's transition to an academy (exit Merchant Venturers, enter Oasis Education Trust, with a possible transition date of September 2011) and the strange tale of the council's decision to dig up the magnificent playing field at Elmlea Infants School so that they can move the school building 100 metres north. As if that were not enough, Southdown and Hillsdon Road have had their long-awaited street party on the day England began their short-lived world cup campaign.

All of which augers well for a resurgence of local news and views from the newly resurrected Trym Tales for all loyal readers. I thank both of you for your patience.

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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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St Ursula's to Become an Academy?

The governing body of St Ursula's School in Westbury on Trym has decided to begin the process of applying to become an academy - a state funded independent.

The news was announced this evening at a packed public meeting at Westbury Methodist Church Hall organised by Parents' Voice - a new pressure group petitioning for a new secondary school for north west Bristol.

The announcement was made by prospective Parliamentary candidate Charlotte Leslie, who has recently been appointed chair of the governors at St Ursula's and was described by Labour candidate Sam Townsend, who was also spoke at the meeting, as a "political coup."

LibDem candidate Paul Harrod, the third Parliamentary candidate to address the meeting, had previously told the 200+ parents present that his favoured option for parents seeking a new school was that one of the local independents should be persuaded to apply to become an academy and that "St Ursula's is the obvious one that might want to consider" such a move.

Charlotte Leslie's carefully chosen statement was that, "I can announce today that St Ursula's will be taking steps to apply for academy status."

The question-and-answer session that followed the speeches revealed that the path for the Roman Catholic independent school to become an academy is far from smooth and that "taking steps to apply" is a long way from a done deal.

Particular issues that will need resolving before St Ursula's could become an academy include:

• does the city council agree that such a move would be desirable?
• what would happen to St Ursula's Junior School?
• who would be the sponsor to such a school?
• would such an academy remain a faith school? What would this mean for local parents who do not want their children to attend a faith-based school?

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Is Elmlea to Lose its Playing Field?

Residential neighbours of Elmlea Junior and Infant Schools in Westbury on Trym have received letters informing them that building work is to start on the school site in 2010 resulting in the demolishing of the existing Infant School and its rebuilding on the site of the Junior School playing field.

A meeting has subsequently been held at the Junior School to which local residents and parents were invited.

After repeated questioning and despite initial denials by the school management, the meeting was eventually informed that the rebuilding plans formed part of a larger scheme to amalgamate the two schools in 2013.

It is curious that the ambitious Miss Clare Galliers, Head Teacher of the recently-enlarged Junior School should be so reserved about announcing this scheme. Amalgamation has been Bristol City Council policy since at least September 2008 and is clearly revealed on its public web site. It's on page 37 of the Primary Review Strategy here:

"Elmlea Infants: Proposed changes "Amalgamation with Junior School."

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Bringing in the Brain

Have recently written a post on the Guide2Bristol site about Bristol's love affair with international language students.

You can read it right here.

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Kumon Moves From Cambridge Crescent

It's been there about ten years but today the Kumon Educational regional office in Westbury on Trym will be moving to new premises in Bradley Stoke's Willow Brook Centre.



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Kumon centres provide individualised maths and English programmes for children of all ages and abilities after school. There are currently seven Kumon centres in Bristol. The centre in Westbury on Trym, which is attended by about 60 students, operates from the Methodist Church Hall on Westbury Hill, and is unaffected by the move of the regional office.

The Bristol regional team (currently numbering six people) provides education and business support to about 100 Kumon study centres across the south west and south Wales and is one of a number of regional offices that serve about 600 local Kumon study centres in the UK and Ireland.

No news yet on who will be moving into the vacant office suite on Cambridge Crescent.

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Today in Westbury

Badminton School has an Open Day this morning for prospective families.

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Bristol's Got Talent

The fact that not one but two of the finalists of the BBC show The Speaker attend the same Bristol secondary school is a credit to the school and the city.

Series winner Duncan Harrison and runner-up Irene Carter both attend St Mary Redcliffe School, the Church of England secondary currently undergoing a major rebuild on its small city centre campus.

The prestigious national competition, which ran over eight episodes and saw thousands of initial applicants whittled down to a final three, was judged by entertainer Jo Brand, speaker and broadcaster John Amaechi and actor/director Jeremy Stockwell. The series of challenges competitors went through were designed to test their verbal communication and improvisation skills across a range of disciplines.

Sucess in the competition has resulted in a series of interviews and media opportunities for 15-year old Duncan, including, it is rumoured, the offer of his own radio show on Star FM. Duncan's brother Angus, a student at the North Bristol Post-16 Centre, is a part-time actor and appears in a major role alongside Mel Smith in the British film Halo Boy.

Runner-up Irene Carter, meanwhile, was mentored over part of the series by news broadcaster Kate Silverton who, Trym Tales understands, took quite a shine to the 17-year old and has urged the Bristol sixth former to stay in touch in order to develop her career as a news reporter.

BS9 is already the sector the the city which sends the largest number of students to St Mary Redcliffe School and there is every possibility that The Speaker will have increased interest in what the specialist humanities school has to offer.

As a voluntary-aided Church of England School, Redcliffe, is permitted to set its own faith-based admissions criteria which gives priority to familes who are regular and long-term committed members of a Christian church. The policy also provides for a specific number of places to be allocated to children of other faiths and to children in the immediate parish of St Mary Redcliffe. In a typical year, the school receives three times as many applications as it has places.

The Redcliffe Sixth Form centre has no faith-based admission requirement.

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