Oasis Academy: Was Steve Chalke Right?

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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

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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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)

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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Elmlea Neighbours Organise Action Group

Parents and neighbours of the Elmlea Junior and Infant Schools have formed an action group to seek greater community engagement with the planned demolition of the infant school and its rebuilding on the junior school playing field.

Action for Community Involvement in Elmlea School (ACIES) is claiming a lack of meaningful consultation with parents and members of the local community over the planned development and have raised number of concerns with it:

• the two year building project will see pupils bussed off site for outdoor sports, a costly option in terms of time, money and traffic emissions
• after school clubs which currently use the field will be homeless for at least two years
• concerns for 100-year old trees on the site, some of which house woodpeckers and owls
• a badger set exists in the copse on the western side of the field
• no budget allocation for the construction of a new playing field (on the site of the demolished infant school)
• the permanent loss of the current field forever

ACIES claims that members are concerned that Bristol City Council appear to be fast-tracking the planning proposals with limited consultation and process.

With amalgamation being stated as official council policy since at last September 2008, though never formally announced to parents, the group appear to have a point.

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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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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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No Business Like Snow Business

Well, what a day.

Bristol's worst, or best, snow in somewhere between 10 and 350 years has taken the city by storm.

Today's whiteout began for me while still dark with the gleeful sound of a younger member of the Trym clan announcing, text message in hand, that school was cancelled and that the buses weren't running.

This second piece of information had me scurrying to the computer for confirmation from First Bus that the three centimetres of snow that had fallen overnight had in fact resulted in the total collapse of the public transport system of England's fifth city.

Unfortunately, the only information I could find on the First web site was a piece of PR on the recently unveiled fleet of new buses (which increase by at least 46 the number of places in the city where I can be secretly filmed under the guise of making me feel safer) and information on how to get to Cabot Circus by bus - a journey that those familiar with this blog would know that I would only take if the one marked "Death Leap Over the Avon Gorge" were already fully booked.

First's strange silence on the subject of whether it would be running a service today was broken in the early evening with this item, announcing that "On Thursday afternoon, the majority of services were running normally" - a fact that all but the visually impaired could have confirmed by looking out of their windows at the numerous buses running normally along the slushy streets.

The uncertainty in the morning on the state of the buses lead me to some considerable inner debate, only fully appreciated by those of us fortunate enought to be self-employed, as to whether to embark on a one-hour walk to my usual place of work (the car being used by another member of the Trymites) or to "work from home."

Five hours later, and having wrestled control of the car from its former user, I made the short journey to Redland. And what a happy sight greeted me on the way. With the majority of adults (teachers excepted) firmly ensconced in their places of work, the city had been taken over by several thousand of its bright-eyed and bushy-tailed youth, who were gleefully turning every available patch of public space into a winter wonderland of snowmen, snow furniture and ludicrously over the top snowball fights, of the type long banned by the kind of people who put secret cameras into buses.

I was amused to note that more than a couple of the ten thousand snowballs thrown managed to hit the numerous First buses now scurrying pele mele around the city. Oh the irony.

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Westbury on Trym Fireworks

The fireworks visible across much of Westbury on Trym earlier this evening were set off inside the grounds of Badminton School.

The independent girls' boarding and day school has been celebrating its 150 year anniversary in 2008, culminating in a concert at St George's Brandon Hill last Sunday evening.

The fireworks were an end of term treat for the girls, who finish school on Thursday for Christmas.

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Key Stage 3 Tests Scrapped

Hooray!









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Bruce Parry - Man of the West

Bruce Parry, host of Amazon and Tribe, is a west country lad, being educated at Wells Cathedral School between 1978 and 1987.

Here's a few other things you might not know about one of Television's current stars:

• he's a former Royal Marines officer; his specialism was physical training and sports - which is why he's well hard!
• when not traveling the world, he lives in a farmhouse on the island of Ibiza
• he doesn't own a TV
• "I've never pretended that I'm an anthropologist"
• after the Marines, he started a course at Loughborough University but dropped out after 18 months

He's also recently partnered with a number of musicians to release a CD - AmazonTribe - to raise funds for Survival International.

You can contact Bruce via his MySpace Page if you want.

You can also read about what some professional anthropologists think of his work here.

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Today in Westbury

Westbury on Trym Primary School held its annual Red Squirrel Day this afternoon. Bunting galore on Channells Hill.

Elmlea Junior and Infants Schools also held their combined annual Summer Fair, building work not withstanding.

Kumon Educational held a group presentation for parents interested in the Summer Taster at their regional office in the village.

Texaco on Falcondale Road ran out on unleaded petrol this evening.

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Redland Green Catchment Area - the Facts

Statistics have emerged on the numbers of families living within the designated area of first priority for Redland Green School who have not been allocated places at the school.

Bristol City Council has revealed that 87 children who live within the catchment area have failed to obtain a place at the new school. This is despite the Council reducing the size of the catchment area in response to the large number of families who have moved house to be near the school and increase their chances of gaining a place for their child.

Further statistics reveal the nature of the school's new popularity:

• 688 families applied for Redland Green year 7 in 2008
• 343 listed the school as their first choice school
• 189 places were available in Year 7 for the same academic year

Statistics for other popular Bristol schools include:

• Cotham School received a total of 672 applications for its 180 places
  
• St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School received 500 applications for 216 places available in Year 7
• Ashton Park, City Academy, Henbury School, St Bede’s and St Bernadette’s were also oversubscribed

For the full list of posts on this site focused on Redland Green School, click here.

For a wider range of education-related posts on this site, please click here.

Individualised programmes in maths and English for all ages and abilities. Redland Kumon Centre.

Physics and Film - Separate but Equal?

A Bristol sixth former sat an A Level Biology exam this week at a school in the city.

While waiting to enter the exam hall, where two separate subjects - Biology and Film Studies - were being examined, the students were supervised by a Physics teacher from the school.

When the time came to enter the hall for the exams, the teacher announced the following:

"Would those for the Film Studies exam please enter the hall now."

After a few students had gone in, the physicist asked, "Are there any more students for the Film Studies exam?" After no more had entered, he expressed his view that "If you do not know whether you have a Film Studies exam this morning, that would explain why you're doing Film Studies."

A few minutes later, when summoning the Biology students into the room, the Physics teacher urged them ironically to "make sure you've got your colouring pencils nice and sharp."

Glad to see that academic prejudice has no place in Bristol schools. The government's plans to introduce vocational diplomas should be implemented smoothly and without incident in this corner of the Kingdom.

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Return of the Car Boot Sale

Glad to see that the arrival of Spring has seen the return of car boot sales to Bristol.

Two that have caught my eye are:

• Fairfield High School Boot Sale - Saturday 26th April (yes, that's tomorrow) from 12.00 to 3.00. Sellers' pitches are £6.00 and available inside and out. The publicity says sellers should book in advance. I don't know whether you can just turn up and sell. The organiser can be contacted at ecjohnson@blueyonder.co.uk
  

• Red Maids Boot Sale - Sunday 11th May. An annual event usually stocked with decent quantities of posh stuff at knock down prices.
  

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Redland Green Catchment Area Changed

Plans to change the designated area of first priority (the catchment area) for Redland Green School have been finalised following an indication earlier in the school year that Bristol City Council was intending to make such a change.

As a result, Westbury on Trym and Stoke Bishop families now find themselves in the areas of first priority for Henbury and Portway Schools respectively.

The Council has also created a new area of second priority which encompasses BS9. Places at Redland Green School will, in theory, be available to children in this area once all families living in the area of first priority have been allocated places. Westbury on Trym residents are therefore effectively excluded from the new school as the area of first priority is already heavily oversubscribed.

Please click here for a map of the new catchment area. The area of second priority can be viewed here.

For news on Portway School, which is in the process of applying to become an academy, please click here.

For all posts on this blog dealing with Redland Green School, please click here.

Individualised programmes in maths and English for all ages and abilities. Redland Kumon Centre.

Was Andrew Ibrahim a Colston's Student?

There is a growing body of circumstantial evidence suggesting that Westbury-on-Trym resident Andrew Ibrahim, currently under arrest under the 2000 Terrorism Act, is a former student of Colston's School in Stapleton, Bristol.

Factors leading to this conclusion include:

1. The financial background. If, as the Telegraph reports, Andrew Ibrahim's father was a consultant pathologist at Frenchay Hospital, and resides in an £800,000 house in Frenchay Village, it is highly likely that his sons would have been sent to independent schools. The alternative for Frenchay residents would be Filton High School, Downend School or Sir Bernard Lovell School. Those familiar with these three local state schools will know that they do not tend to attract the children of hospital consultants - the latter, for instance, being described by a former teacher as populated by "working class kids whose families do not appear to hold education as a high value."

Indeed, the exclusive community of Frenchay, situated on the edge of the River Frome and with its own extensive common, has very few state educated children in it of secondary school age. The high probability is that Andrew Ibrahim was educated in one of Bristol's independent schools. This narrows the field realistically to three - Colston's, QEH and Bristol Grammar.

2. The geographical background. Frenchay is located on the north east corner of the Bristol conurbation, separated from the rest of the city by the M32 motorway. Children who live there and attend an independent school have great difficulty getting to QEH and Bristol Grammar School because of the city's huge traffic problems. A one-way car journey from Frenchay to Clifton (where the other two schools are located) takes over 45 minutes during the morning rush hour. For this reason, many Frenchay families choose Colston's School - a mere ten minutes from the Village. Many families in fact choose the school and then move to Frenchay because of its proximity to Colston's.

3. The Google factor. Trym Tales has received three visits in the last 24 hours from anonymous individuals who reached the site by googling "Andrew Ibrahim Colstons". These visitors were based in York, London and Bristol. Apparently there are individuals who are making the Colston's connection independently and are looking for evidence or confirmation.

4. The Telegraph. Since publishing this post on Sunday night, I have seen the latest Telegraph article, updated on Monday, which states that Ibrahim was a student at Colston's School and includes a quote from headmaster Peter Fraser, who has obviously had his weekend disturbed, confirming that the suspect did attend both the junior and senior schools. Well known ex-Colstonians include rugby player Olly Barkley and former test cricketer Chris Broad.

5. Trym Tales Readers. The comments below add weight to the Colston's link and are much appreciated. Thank you.


Three Footnotes:

1. Everything in this post points to circumstantial factors rather than hard evidence and should be interpreted as such.
   
2. Readers choosing to refer to this evidence elsewhere on the Internet are welcome to do so and are requested to include a link back to Trym Tales.
3. Nothing contained in this post should be interpreted as a criticism of Colston's School.
   

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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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Fire at St Mary Redcliffe School

Students were evacuated from St Mary Radcliffe and Temple Secondary School today (March 3rd) after a fire broke out in the school building.

The cause of the fire, which some eyewitnesses claimed to be located in the area of the boy's toilet, is currently unknown and there were no injuries in the orderly evacuation that followed.

Fire crews were called to the scene and contained the blaze quickly.

Headteacher Elisabeth Gilpin commended the school's large student body for evacuating the school "in a model fashion".

Lessons were resumed after the incident and the school day continued without further interruption.

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