GODMANCHESTER COMMUNITY PRIMARY SCHOOL - CONVERSION TO ACADEMY STATUS ? HAVE YOUR SAY

December 2011  

Dear Community Friend

Godmanchester Community Primary School: Proposed Change to Academy Status

Over the last year our School’s governing body has been considering whether we should convert to Academy Status.  We recognised that this would be an important and complex decision so we have been working hard to understand all that’s involved. Following our thorough review of the benefits and constraints, we have decided that conversion to academy status will be in the best long term interests of our school and our children.

What is Academy Status?

Academy status means being more independent from Local Authority control than at present.  We would have more flexibility – including with finance and the curriculum – but we would also have more responsibilities to manage.

Our thinking on Academy Status

The Governing Body would like to move to Academy Status and we are now consulting on this.  We have considered the implications of this important change thoroughly through a detailed assessment of ten key themes.

From our review, we see this as balancing three broad areas:

• Outcomes for children – children will benefit from the change

• Management overhead – the Governing Body will recognise and manage this

• Identifying risks – that we will need to manage

We believe that the benefit for children can be improved with the increased flexibility we would have, and that this outweighs the management overhead. The risks are important, but are ones we can manage.

A web site has been set up – www.gmc-academy.org.uk - to present the findings of our consideration, and support our consultation. The web site has a wide variety of documents that support our decision and also provides a link to some frequently asked questions and answers.  We recognise that some people prefer to access such documents in hard copy.  You can therefore obtain a set from the school office, where you may also leave any comments or questions.

Our Consultation

We want to hear what people think of our recommendation to convert to an Academy.  .  You can email us at governors@godmanchester.cambs.sch.uk or submit comments via the school office. Furthermore, you are invited to attend one of our consultation events on Monday 16th January at 9.15a.m. or Wednesday 18th January at 7.00p.m.  We look forward to hearing from you.  I encourage you to look at the web site and take the time to review our recommendation.

Yours sincerely,

Phil Mackay

Chair of Governors

Godmanchester Community Primary School

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