Diocesan Board of Education approve Stradbroke Pyramid Academy Proposal

St Nicholas Centre in Ipswich, venue for last night's
Diocesan Board of Education Meeting

Last night at its meeting in Ipswich the Diocesan Board of Education approved proposals submitted by the Stradbroke Pyramid partnership to convert to academy status as part of an innovative chain of academies comprising the Stradbroke and Business Enterprise College and its six feeder primary schools (Stradbroke, Wilby, Fressingfield, Laxfield, Worlingworth and Mendham). The proposal envisages each school converting to academy status in its own right with an overarching "umbrella trust" to provide central services for schools such as a Business Manager.

The Umbrella Trust will not manage schools but provide a way of the schools working together and supporting each other. Each of the schools together with the Diocesan Board of Education will have representation on the Trust.

This approval is just one of the "hurdles" in the plan. For the 5 Church Schools (Stradbroke Primary, Wilby, Fressingfield, Laxfield and Worlingworth) diocesan approval is required as they are church schools.

All of the schools have agreed "in principal" to take part but each individual Governing Body will now need to consider if they want to pass an Academy resolution and apply formally to the DfE to convert to Academy status and set up the Umbrella Trust.

If this happens and the DfE approve the plans then conversions could begin to take place from January 2012.

As the Chair of Governors of Stradbroke Primary School I very much welcome the decision of the Diocesan Board of Education and their commitment to work with all 7 of the Schools including the non-church schools.

With the changing landscape of schools nationally and the reduction in services to schools offered by Suffolk County Council (who are also supporting these plans) I feel it is essential for schools, especially small schools in rural areas to work together and support each other.

I gave a presentation at the Diocesan Board of Education Meeting that you can see or download below with more details of the proposal:

Stradbroke Pyramid Partnership Umbrella Trust

View more presentations from James Hargrave.