Whiteley Forum - New School for Whiteley

Category: Whiteley Schools

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

Vision: These are the core principles that underpin everything we are planning.

1	Personalised Learning A tailored curriculum that challenges, support and engages each pupil, enabling academic achievement. A flexible approach about how, where and when pupils learn, according to their needs.
2	Wellbeing Nurture the enjoyment of learning underpinned by a strong sense of belonging and care. Enrich the lives of pupils by enabling all pupils to develop their personal beliefs and understanding of faith.
3	Innovation and Enterprise Equipping pupils to thrive in a changing global environment by developing persistent learning. Providing learning opportunities which are based on the real world.
4	Social Responsibility Growing the awareness of individuals’ impact and responsibility for their world. Developing partnerships that benefit the whole community, to facilitate ‘It takes a village to educate a child’.

What will be different about our school?

Our core principles mean that we will do some things differently to other schools. For example, we intend to have a ‘soft start’ and end to the day, where pupils can arrive at school for example between, 8 and 9 am. This would not be a breakfast club, but part of the learning day, allowing personal learning, crafts and activities to take place. We believe that this will help parents who have to work or who have children to get to different locations.

We intend to have a flexible approach to the school year. While some times would be fixed, such as compulsory attendance during September, the school would close for shorter periods than most schools, possibly staying open for 44 instead of 39 weeks of the year. This means that families will be able to decide how to use the additional holiday time available. It would be possible to keep to a pattern very similar to the current school holidays, or to take more time ‘out of season’ as it were. We do understand that there will need to be a system of checks and balances, and families would be expected to maintain 95% attendance over 39 weeks of the year.

This flexibility does mean that pupils will also need to have a highly personalised learning plan, which further confirms our core principles. Consequently, we are considering a curriculum known as the ‘International Primary Curriculum’ (IPC), which we believe fits with our ideals and has growing recognition in the UK and internationally. The IPC is an exciting and challenging curriculum. It balances enabling pupils to develop the skills, knowledge and understanding they will need for their future lives with an awareness of the current reality. It provides support for teachers and enables them to focus on how children learn as individuals. Do have a look online if you’d like more information - http://www.internationalprimarycurriculum.com

Support for a new school in Whiteley

Statement of intent: to meet the needs of children, parents and their community by providing local, high quality education, within a community school with a distinctive Christian character, focused on:

personalised learning
developing wellbeing
innovation and enterprise
social responsibility

Detailed Survey for parental support

If you are interested in the possibility of your children attending the Emmaus Learning Community school, we need an indication that the new school would be your FIRST choice when you apply for school places in January 2013. This does NOT commit you to taking up this choice and does not constitute an actual application.

Title & Name		Surname:
Contact address		Postcode:
Contact email:
Contact tel:
Are you a Whiteley resident?
Date of birth of child(ren):


‘I confirm that Emmaus Learning community school would be the first of my three choices when we apply for school places for 2013 / 2014’ (delete as appropriate)
Signed:	Date:

Notes:

Children eligible for admission into Reception class in 2013 are likely to be born between 1 September 2008 and 31 August 2009.
Children eligible for admission into Reception class in 2014 are likely to be born between 1 September 2009 and 31 August 2010.

Support forms should be returned to: 13 Bleriot Crescent, Whiteley, PO15 7JD

Emmaus Learning Community. A Church of England school in Whiteley