New School for Whiteley

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Parents of children who would be eligible for Reception in 2013/14/15 are particularly encouraged to contact Andrew Saunders who is willing to arrange a meeting with a few parents at a time, in your home. This also allows parents more opportunity to ask questions and make suggestions. In order to ensure we are able to get our application for a free school accepted, we have to demonstrate considerable demand for the school. Thus it is important that we get enough signatures of support, particularly from parents with younger children. Otherwise we will not be able to proceed.

13 January 2012

Dear Parents and Whiteley residents,

Unfortunately we were unable to pursue an application for an all-through Academy last year as part of the Whiteley Academy Group. However, parental demand for a primary school was extensive and so I have continued the quest to set up a new primary school in our village. To facilitate this, I am working in partnership with the Winchester and Portsmouth Church of England diocese. Over the page we set out our core principles and some of the unique features of our proposed school.

Location of the school: In our application we have to propose a range of appropriate sites for the school. Discussions with the consortium preparing to develop housing in North Whiteley have been very positive, and we are hopeful that this will allow us the best possible solution – a purpose-built school within the development area. We have also discussed this with Hampshire county council, who are very supportive. While we have to remain open to other options, this would clearly be our first choice. Discussions to confirm the site can only take place once the application has been successful, and would be negotiated by the Department for Education, not ourselves.

Admissions: This is first and foremost a school for Whiteley children, so children resident in Whiteley will get priority. The option to cooperate with the building consortium over the location of the school would also require that we would have to become a larger school than we had originally considered. We are proposing that we would start with one form of entry into Year R in 2013, and begin to build up other year groups as new houses are built. By 2015, we would expect to have three forms of entry per year group.

Background of those setting up the school: Those leading the proposals largely come from educational backgrounds, including headteachers, the diocese education department, school inspectors, special educational needs specialists, school administration experts; all those involved are parents in one way or another.

Registering interest: We appreciate that many parents filled in forms expressing support and interest last year. However, as this application is under a new name, we have to get forms filled in again. There has also been a slight change in the requirements; to count towards the statistics, parents have to now indicate that Emmaus Learning Community would be their first choice of school when they apply.

Regards

Andrew Saunders

Lead Champion

Last Updated on Wednesday, 18 January 2012 22:00