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| William Gladstone makes a point... |
The proposers of a secondary free school in NW2, the four form entry Gladstone Free School, have supplied the answers to questions I sent them about their plans. They have now met with an officer from Brent Council and think that their proposal ticks all the boxes of the partnership principles set out by the council
LINK
The Questions and Answers
1. How will you ensure that all children have access to the school and what will your admissions criteria be?
Our
aim is to create a non-selective community school for the Cricklewood/
Gladstone Park area. The school will be open to all but if we are
oversubscribed then distance from the school will be the main criterion.
We want this school to reflect the local community and will try to
place it where it is accessible, though we can’t select a site until we
have been approved for funding.
2. Will your school reflect the
socio-economic profile of its neighbourhood as measured by the
proportion of children admitted who are entitled to free school meals.
We
actively want a community school that reflects the profile of its
neighbourhood and are planning for at least 27% (Brent's average) of
pupils on free school meals. We have chosen distance as the main
criterion with the intention of siting the school in the heart of that
community. We hope this will ensure a fully representative pupil intake.
3. Will you give priority to children with statements of special education need and those who are Looked After?
Pupils
with Special Education Needs who have the school named on their
statement will be guaranteed a place. Looked after children are given
priority, as they would be with a local authority school.
4. Will you insist that all teaching staff have Qualified Teacher Status?
We
anticipate that the majority of teachers will have qualified teacher
status (QTS). However, in order to best support the anticipated range of
educational needs we will be using a wide variety of innovative
strategies, including bringing in expertise from cultural organisations,
industry, universities and so on. We can't therefore guarantee that all
those teaching will have QTS. What we won’t be doing is using
non-qualified teaching staff to cut costs or to make profits.
5. Will your teachers enjoy the same conditions of service as local authority school teachers?
Recruiting,
developing and supporting the very best teachers is a key part of our
vision. We will have fair terms of employment and will consult on those
terms. Our hours and our term times might be different from the Local
Authority and therefore we can’t guarantee at this stage that the terms
of employment will be identical. We intend to seek the two ticks for
disability rating as an employer.
6. How will you ensure democratic accountability for the school and its expenditure of public money?
Our
published annual accounts will be publicly available to ensure
accountability. We are forming a company with charitable aims to make
the bid and run the school. A partnership with Brent council remains a
possibility, and we welcome other proposals to ensure accountability.
7. Have you any premises ear-marked for the school?
We
are not able to select or earmark premises until we have been approved
for funding and have the buildings grant. If anyone knows of any large
derelict sites which might suit our proposed school please get in touch.
We want something in the heart of Cricklewood/ Gladstone park with good
transport links and access to open space to support our active
approaches to learning.
8. How far have you got with the application/approval process?
The
DfE application submission window is from December 17th to January 4th.
We have been recognised by the New Schools Network as a high potential
new school and so are confident that our application is on track. We
need to demonstrate demand for the school with 240 signatures of parents
with children in years 4 and 5 on our pledge, and welcome assistance
from parents and other members of the local community with that process.
Please ask your readers to take a look at our website at www.gladstoneschool.org.
9. Would you consider a partnership with Brent Council for the school?
We have invited Brent Council to consider exactly that.
10. How will you consult with neighbouring schools and the community about your proposals?
We
have made considerable efforts to communicate the plans about Gladstone
School to local primaries, and have invited 40 headteachers to a
special information briefing. We have put information on the
NorthWestTwo residents association page and we are grateful for the
opportunity to seek the views of readers of Wembley Matters. We had a
stall at the Brent Golden Summer festival in Gladstone Park, and have an
informal information briefing session at 11.00am every Thursday in the
reception area of the Crown Moran Hotel on Cricklewood Broadway. We
encourage feedback, either at the Crown briefings, or via our website.
To date we have had an overwhelmingly positive reception to our
proposals from local residents.
Anyone who seeks further answers is very welcome to use the "questions and answers" service on our website.
