This is especially interesting when one realises that the school is to become an academy run by the Church of England, and that academy schools are allowed to make exceptions in their hiring policies. It might be a good time to be a fundamentalist with a desire to run a school...
This also raises questions as to why the school is becoming an academy at all. The school has been pulled out of special measures, and the plan for it to become an academy will mean that no money is spent on the school's facilities until a new school is built in 2011.
Cllr Clayton said: "When it becomes an academy there will be some capital to spend on the school. We will not be able to spend the £4 million needed to bring it up to scratch, but there will be some improvement."
It's also good to know that the money spent will not even bring the school 'up to scratch'...
1 comment:
If you knew the area, you would know why Quarrendon School the reasons the council has decided to put a bid in for it to become an academy.
Yes, the school has been pulled out of special measures by a very good headteacher - he's truly inspirational, I've met him - but the current building needs £4million of work to bring it up to scratch. As part of the Government's plans for the South East Plan, Aylesbury Vale needs to build 22,000 houses by 2026. Part of this is a 3,000 house development about 5 miles from the current Quarrendon School site, just outside Aylesbury town. A secondary school twice the size of Quarrendon is in the planning.
The idea is that the school becomes an academy on the current site, where a small amount of money will be spent to keep the place ticking over, and then when the new school building is finished down the road, the pupils will transfer there.
There is very little else this school can have in its future. It is the only way the county council can get the funding to keep the school improving how it is. They say they don't have the money to keep the school on its current site. Buckinghamshire County Council is a 'floor authority' meaning the Government won't pour money in very easily. At the moment they use a policy of giving money out to councils depending on deprivation. Bucks is a very rich county, but there are pockets of deprivation, like in Quarrendon (the district not the school). With academy status the school will get the money to survive.
Maybe I didn't explain myself very well in my article, but if you keep reading the Bucks Herald website, I'm sure you'll see more in the coming months about Quarrendon School. Happy reading!
Here's the school website: http://www.quarrendon.bucks.sch.uk/
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