A Brighton primary school is looking to become an academy by joining a trust that already runs two other schools in the area.
Next week, Coombe Road Primary School is to start a formal consultation that will run until the end of next month.
The school’s governors have voted to hold a consultation on joining the Pioneer Academy (TPA) trust, a group of 20 primary, infant and junior schools across the south east.
The decision was said to follow “the success of the primary school’s associate membership with TPA in the autumn term”.
This provided support for the school across a wide range of areas including for children with additional needs, PE, music and staff training and development.
The multi-academy trust said: “TPA has a strong track record of success. It has grown steadily since 2011, now including 20 schools.”
Moulsecoomb Primary School, in Brighton, was the first local school to join the trust, followed by West Blatchington Primary and Nursery School, in Hove.
The trust said: “TPA invests around £1 million across all its schools every year and works with local authorities to help provide further funding.
“Educational initiatives include TPA’s cultural capital programme – TPA has dedicated £100,000 across the trust so that numerous educational trips can go ahead, free of charge to pupils.
“The trust’s chief executive, Lee Mason-Ellis, is a former head teacher and he is also a RISE (Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence) adviser, appointed by the Department for Education and tasked with helping raise education standards across England.
“Lee Mason-Ellis was one of the first 20 RISE advisers appointed by the Department for Education.
“The formal consultation will begin on Monday 19 January and will run until Friday 27 February, with plenty of opportunity to provide views and feedback.”
Following this, the Coombe Road governors, including the head teacher Stuart Scrase, will review the outcomes of the consultation process.
If the governors decide to become an academy, and subject to the proposals being approved by the Department for Education, Coombe Road Primary School is expected to join the Pioneer Academy in the next academic year.
Peter Freeman, the chair of governors at Coombe Road Primary School, said: “We are proud of Coombe Road Primary School and everything we have achieved together as a whole school community and we want to ensure that our school remains ambitious for every child.
“As a small, one-form-entry primary school, the support available to us is limited and we believe the support and resources TPA can offer as a primary-specialist MAT (multi-academy trust) will allow us to thrive and, crucially, provide the best possible learning experience for every child while upholding our values and school identity.
“We have carefully considered this proposal following our initial work with TPA and based on initial feedback from staff as well as parents. We welcome further feedback before deciding whether to apply to join TPA.”
Mr Mason-Ellis, the Pioneer Academy chief executive, said: “Everyone at TPA has greatly enjoyed working alongside Coombe Road Primary School since they began their associate membership with us and we are grateful for all the positive engagement from across the whole school community.
“We look forward to meeting with staff and families as part of the consultation process and answering any questions they may have.
“We would love to play a significant part in securing the bright future of Coombe Road Primary School by welcoming Coombe Road to our diverse family of schools.”
There have been concerns about the viability of Coombe Road and other small primaries. When Brighton and Hove City Council proposed the closure of St Bartholomew’s CofE Primary School, in Brighton, and St Peter’s Primary School, in Portslade, it considered other small schools too.
Coombe Road is one of the smallest although it was not clear at the time whether it was one of those under consideration.
The number of children expected to start in primary schools in Brighton and Hove has been falling and is forecast to keep falling, hitting budgets which are based on pupil numbers.
For some, the answer has been to convert from being a local authority maintained school to an academy.
Last year, Woodingdean Primary School governors decided to join another academy group, the Eko Trust, which already runs Hangleton Primary School, in Hove, and Benfield Primary School, in Portslade.
The Bilingual Primary School, a free school, was the first primary academy in Brighton and Hove, followed by the City Academy Whitehawk, now part of academy chain Aurora.
While the Bilingual Primary School was a start up, the City Academy, formerly known as Whitehawk Primary School, was forced to convert after being rated inadequate by the official education watchdog Ofsted.
Brighton and Hove also has three secondary academies, BACA (Brighton Aldridge Community Academy), in Falmer, PACA (Portslade Aldridge Community Academy), in Mile Oak, and the King’s School, in Hangleton.
Sadly what converting to an academy will do is make it easier to close it should there not be enough pupils because then it isn’t the council making the decision (who would have to consider multiple factors) but a business (which is what an academy is) who consider much fewer areas and ultimately consider is it financially viable. Which most schools are not because of the lack of funding.
Why would the Head and Governors move to an academy in order to make the school easier to close? I can’t see that being in their interests. Brighton council have closed multiple primaries over the last two years. I don’t think any academies have closed.
The Head and Governors wouldn’t move to an academy to make it easier to close but it is a possible consequence for the community. As another local academy who were going to keep the school the same size found out if it is not financially viable the powers that be will make the decisions to close or cut the size of the school based on a business plan and not on the needs of a community. They do not have to be concerned about the needs of the community. This is the concern of Councilors and not Academy trust CEO’s.
In Brighton how many schools are Academies and how many are not? That is probably why the council have closed a couple of schools. And weren’t some of them church schools. So didn’t the church make the choice?
I get it. You don’t like academies but let’s be fair. City academy whitehawk, forced into changing from state to academy, under the council inadequate, now good under TPA. All TPA schools are rated good (that’s 21). Also, TPA is a non profit charitable company, its purpose is to advance education for the public benefit. Compare that record with our councils record.
Three primary schools closed. Their plan for secondary schools, force children to commute from the centre to out of town schools, head teachers walking out of meetings with the education team. I could go on. I know who I would trust with my children’s education, and it’s not Brighton Council.
Totally agree, the council are completely incompetent at managing the cities schools.
However, the reason for the closures is fundamentally the extremely low birth rate, which is affecting the entire country. That has little to do with the quality of education and is more of a symptom of people choosing to have fewer children.
It will mean the academy will not tolerate poor performance. No politics just performance based. If a teacher is good they keep their job if not they are replaced. Plus the school will save loads of time and money on admin back-end stuff that can be centralised. Schools don’t like it as it means change and staff redundancies. If the academy is good it will mean more money for the schools and a better education for the kids.
But if they are not it may mean a nicer BMW for the CEO and the threat of closure to turn the school into flats or student housing.
Most ‘back office’ functions like finance, payroll, HR and IT are provided centrally by the Council. But the money the school pays to the council for those functions just goes to Academy HQ to pay for the same functions.
There really isn’t a lot on non education related admin that schools do.
More privatisation sanctioned by new Labour
Haven’t the council been very clearly against academisation?
I wouldn’t trust these labour councillors with anything, especially a school! They’ve just closed Middle Street. Coombe Road is a brilliant school and always will be.