Academies are publicly funded independent local schools that are set up to provide a first class free education .They are all-ability, non-selective schools established by sponsors from business, education, faith or voluntary groups working with partners from the local community. Academies provide a teaching and learning environment that is in line with national best practice and offer a broad and balanced curriculum to pupils of all abilities with particular expertise in one of more subject specialisms.
We don’t. But we believe this is an effective route to:
In September 2007 two new academies will open to replace the current three schools. Initially these will operate on the current three sites. The schools will be:
They will go to the same school they went to this term at the same place. If they are coming in to the schools in year 7 they will go to the school they applied to.
Pupils and parents won’t notice a great deal of difference at first. There are some minor physical improvements planned for all three sites and in time there will be some new signs and letterheads.
We expect there to be some minor changes to the existing uniform essentially replacing the current names. The logos have yet to be completed and we do not anticipate any compulsory changes for current pupils. We have been given a grant towards any uniform changes which might come in later in 2008.
In due course the curriculum at New Line Learning Academy will reflect its new specialisms of Business and Enterprise and Science. Most secondary schools now have specialisms and these offer enhanced learning opportunities for pupils in the areas chosen. For the New Line Learning Academies this means focusing on new opportunities in business and science.
Cornwallis Academy already has two specialisms – technology and vocational education – and opportunities here will continue to expand.
Not at all. Above all we want to ensure more pupils are more successful recognising that exams are necessary but no longer sufficient. Schools need to ensure that their students are adequately prepared for lives of change. This means improving both exam performance and students’ soft skills. The academy status means that we will be expanding our staff training programme; using information to better customise our curriculum and support to students; expanding our use of new technologies in our schools; developing our skills curriculum for all students; expanding opportunities, stay on rate and achievement at 18+.
Yes in September 2008 probably, assuming that planning permission for buildings on the Oldborough site can be achieved and that all the necessary building works have been completed. However it may be that some of the Senacre students will be able to move to the Oldborough site during the summer term 2008. So for two years the new school will be combined on the Oldborough site in the existing buildings which will have some additional accommodation attached.
Some stakeholders have told us they are worried about the extra journey that they would need to make to get to the Oldborough site. We know that some students currently at Senacre will have to make a slightly longer journey to the new Academy. However, we undertook a lot of work trying to understand how big a problem this was likely to be and found that students from Senacre and Oldborough live in broadly the same areas as each other so we know that lots of local young people already make that journey without too much difficulty. We are working with the Local Authority to make sure that travel routes to both sites are made as safe and accessible as possible.
We are making specific improvements to make sure access needs can be met properly in the temporary accommodation. The new Academy buildings will be State of the Art and will have very high standards of accessibility.
We will be consulting on all these proposals during 2008.
By 2008 we expect contractors to be on both the Oldborough and Cornwallis sites beginning building the new schools. These will be located away from the existing schools to avoid any disruption to the students’ education.
No. During the Summer term, the students from Oldborough and Senacre have worked together very successfully on some joint projects. We know that students from the two schools do spend positive time together outside school hours, in local football teams, for example. We wish to build on this relationship and long before the time we move into our new buildings, we hope that the work we are already doing on developing strong relationships between the schools will have created a single learning community within the Academy of excellence, pride, mutual respect and high achievement.
The Federation which already exists between Oldborough, Senacre and Cornwallis will continue to exist but under a new legal framework once the schools become Academies. The Federation will help ensure standards of education between sites and an ability to offer every student a much broader curriculum.
We do not want students from Senacre to all attend one of the mini-schools and Olborough students to attend the other. In fact by the time we move into these buildings, the two student and staff populations should operate like a single community.
No. Both Academies will take all abilities and we will work very hard to make sure that neither of them gets better treatment than the other. Both Academies and all three schools within the federation will take students of all abilities. There will not be any partial selection on the basis of students’ aptitudes for the specialisms.
The admissions to the academy on the Oldborough site will give priority to local students and thus to the communities around the existing schools at Oldborough and Senacre.
The Cornwallis Academy will also give priority to its local residents, but also to students in the villages to the south of Maidstone for whom Cornwallis is their nearest school, even though they may live some distance away.
The historic feeder primary school arrangements to Cornwallis will cease in 2009. In this instance the change in education regulations in 2006 meant that the admission arrangements would have had to change in any event. We will publish our admission arrangements for 2009 once they have received final approval by the Local Authority and the DCSF (Department for Children, Schools and Families).
The sponsors are Kent County Council, Cornwallis On Line (a company owned by Cornwallis school – but not contributing any money), Hewlett Packard and Gallaghers. We expect additional sponsors to come onboard in the future. Initially only KCC and Cornwallis on Line will be represented on the new governing body which is currently being constructed. If we achieve additional sponsors in the future they will have the option of taking a seat on the governing body.
We don’t know yet because they have not been designed. The New Line Learning Academy will consist of two mini schools sharing joint facilities. One will focus on Business and Enterprise and the other on Science education. Students will have a choice as to which mini school they join.
Government does not expect every Academy to be an overnight success, but we expect that our Academies will make steady upwards progress and it is possible that they will show dramatic improvements very quickly. The Academies will be schools where pupils want to learn and where the teachers have high expectations of each and every pupil. Good teaching, excellent facilities and motivated pupils will deliver real improvements in educational standards.
Government wants Academies to be at the heart of their communities, and expects them to be established in consultation with local stakeholders. We have been encouraged by the public response to our proposals, and local interests will be represented on the governing body. Parents will also be represented as they are currently.
Quite the opposite; Academies will be part of the local family of schools, sharing their facilities and expertise with other schools and the wider community, contributing to raising standards across the whole area.
All pupils at Oldborough, Senacre and Cornwallis schools which will be replaced by the Academies will have the option of transferring to their respective Academy.
No. But they do receive monies currently spent by the local authority for running the school. Academies, as independent schools, carry out many of these functions for themselves.
The Department for Children Schools and Families is committed to freeing Academies from unnecessary bureaucracy. They are looking at how to maximise the freedoms and flexibilities available to them. Academies will be encouraged to make full use of the flexibilities that they already enjoy.
This is always a difficult, emotive and sensitive area for us all, given the speed of change and the necessity to make early decisions to ensure delivery of the product. In this case the situation was exacerbated by the late decision, in July, by the Schools Minister regarding academy status. The requirement was to open the new academies on 1st Sep ready to receive pupils on 5th Sep. This extremely tight time frame, over the traditional summer holiday, resulted in the need to make quick, early and robust decisions. A professional educational design team was employed using expertise from the wider education arena and the three Schools senior management teams to deliver a suitable logo and design.
The design has been generally well received and is recognised as being upbeat and fresh reflecting the 'Tomorrow's future, today' logo. The colours, ECG graph effect and logo we believe will endure time and clearly demonstrates the way ahead for our young people with optimism and vision. Like most artistic issues there will be an abundance of views but we hope you will agree and recognise that we have captured the essence of our new academies.
Supplementaries:
Purple was chosen by the design team. It has nothing to do with other schools. Design teams chose colours that are in vogue and enduring.
The graphics are reflective of the upbeat and fresh educational approach and the logo is setting the obvious scene about the future.
School logos will change and uniforms will alter a little - a design team made up of pupils and teachers is currently looking at this. Whatever the decision resources are available to issue a free set to pupils when the decision is made after further consultation.
All staff will transfer to the new schools in September 2007 with no change in pay or status. Teacher recruitment is improved for academies, as they are seen as attractive career options for teachers. This is a critical issue at a time of teacher shortages.
The questions and answers above are all based on what people usually want to know about Academies or what our own stakeholders have asked about our own proposals here in Maidstone.
We’d like to thank everyone who has attended a stakeholder engagement and raised questions. These have really helped us to understand what you think, how you feel and in many cases, helped us to make decisions. We want to encourage all our stakeholders to keep as involved as they can as we move forward.
We understand that it might be frustrating not to have all the answers you want at this stage but in an ambitious project like this, although the timescales are very challenging, important issues take time to work through so that we reach the right decisions. The benefit of this is that you have a greater opportunity to have your say. Not all the decisions we make will be popular with every single stakeholder because people have different views. Nevertheless, please do keep raising issues with us – they are extremely helpful in helping our discussions, particularly in letting us know what you need from us next.
If you have a question or a concern that isn’t featured here, please email it to: office@newlinelearning.com We will reply to you directly and in some cases add the answer to this website so that other people can benefit.
You can find out about other Academy projects from the DCSF website