Free School FOI Shorts: Felixstowe to have two schools again?

Over the last few years there has been a big push in Felixstowe to create a single secondary school. Currently the two previous schools Deben and Orwell have merged into Felixstowe Academy but are still operating across two sites. This will change when the building work at the old Orwell site is complete leaving the Deben site free.

Millions of pounds of public money have been plugged into this project which is designed to improve standards by consolidating resources together and the subsequent economies of scale. You can see a video below of the former Heads of Deben and Orwell - explaining the benefits of the one school:

   

Video from Felixstowe TV

So the Deben High School site will soon be vacant and you guessed it, someone wants to turn into into a Free School....this is revealed in a list of Suffolk Free Schools hidden away in an email message that was part of the FOI response:

Free schools:

Stour Valley—opened 2011, currently Y7,8 and 9 on Clare middle site Brandon—expected to open 2012, sponsored by English International Schools on Breckland Middle site
Saxmundham—expected to open 2012, sponsored by Seckford Foundation on Sax Middle site
Beccles expected to open 2012, sponsored by Seckford Foundation on Carlton Colville
primary site for 2 years them moving to Beccles middle in 2014
Stoke by Nayland—application being made for 2013, sponsored by Seckford on SbN Middle site
lxworth—application being made for either 2013 or 2014
Maharesi - application being made for a Rendlesham for 2013 Felixstowe—tentative on Deben site sometime after it is vacated

Seems crazy spending millions of pounds to create a single site school and then millions of pounds more to recreate two schools which is exactly what there was until recently. Only thing is now one of the sites at least is bound to be half empty. If it goes ahead it will be a triumph of ideology against pragmatism.

I am not certain yet who is behind this bid but I am looking into it and will blog when I know more. Meanwhile I have updated the Suffolk Free Schools Page with Felixstowe in the "rumours" category.