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Dear Parent, Guardian, Resident, You will have seen the consultation document circulated by Essex County Council in which the preferred option for the future of secondary education in Colchester enforces the closure of both Alderman Blaxill and Thomas Lord Audley schools. The governing bodies of these two schools, together with Stanway, with which Thomas Lord Audley is federated, are preparing a formal response to the consultation. It will be available on the schools’ web sites shortly and will be updated if necessary as the consultation progresses. We have taken into account the following factors;
We therefore propose to create a single school operating on three sites. The merged school will publish pupil admission numbers corresponding to 8 forms of entry at Stanway, 6 at Thomas Lord Audley and 2 forms at Alderman Blaxill. Catchment areas will be maintained and there will be no change to admission policies for each site. Stanway is expected to remain fully subscribed from its catchment area. Jonathan Tippett will remain as Head Teacher supported by the existing senior teams. We believe that it is the quality of teaching that has the greatest impact on pupil achievement. Modern buildings, good management and governance are important but less so. A significant benefit resulting from the Federation of Stanway and Thomas Lord Audley has been the ability to recruit and deploy high quality teaching staff. Alderman Blaxill is already benefiting too from the secondment of staff from Stanway. Secondments are recognised as good professional development and career enhancing opportunities. They result in enhanced teaching for all the pupils. The enlarged school can offer opportunities for career progression internally enhancing the stability of the senior management teams, pupil discipline, reputation and ethos. The enlarged school will be able to provide better opportunities in sports and other extra-curricular activities such as public speaking. It will inherit the ‘Humanities’ specialism, and a second specialism, currently at the application stage, from Stanway. Alderman Blaxill will be structured as an annex to control costs per pupil. A full curriculum will be provided through the flexible use of teaching staff. Pupils at the three sites will see little change but there will be quality and efficiency gains from the flexible use of staff, which gains already accrue significantly within the Federation, and result in additional resources for the pupils at Stanway and Thomas Lord Audley. Pupils will not be asked to move between sites. Results at Key Stage 4, GCSE, will be reported in aggregate. They will be at or above the national average and exceed the Local Authority’s requirements. The reduced Pupil Admission Number will be a significant contribution to the removal of surplus places in the Borough. Our proposal is independent of changes that may be made elsewhere in the Borough. It eliminates the need for pupils to cross town to go to school. The Local Authority’s preferred option requires Stanway to expand to at least nine forms of entry. Governors at Stanway believe that any increase beyond eight forms of entry will disadvantage pupils. Whilst there are economies of scale there is no evidence that results improve as schools get too big and possibly quite the contrary. Acreage available at the Stanway site is just sufficient for the current roll. Additional land is not available. Closure of two neighbouring schools would necessitate rearrangement of catchment areas. Parts of the current Stanway catchment area could be allocated to other schools. Even at nine forms of entry places could not be guaranteed for all pupils resident and attending primary schools in the enlarged catchment area. It would not be permissible to prioritise residents in the current catchment. We will provide secondary education on the Alderman Blaxill site for as long as there is a demand from the catchment area. A full curriculum will be provided by specialist teachers from the other two sites as required. The timetable will be organised to avoid any teacher teaching at more than one site any morning or afternoon session. Surplus capacity at Alderman Blaxill will be made available for education and sports and leisure uses. Only if there is a danger that the site becomes a financial burden will we request Secretary of State’s permission for disposal. We will be holding open meeting at each school to answer questions; Stanway 7pm November 11 Our proposal can only be successful if it receives strong local support. We are asking that you sign and return the petition below rather than respond in the format enclosed in the Local Authority consultation paper.
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