Samuel Ward marks new academy status with a launch event
Thursday, 25th November 2010.
Business leaders and representatives of leading local organisations attended a launch event this morning to mark Samuel Ward Arts and Technology College becoming an academy.
Visitors were welcomed by the chairman of governors Peter Thomas and then given a short presentation about the school and the effects of academy status by head teacher Howard Lay.
They were then able to tour the school and see lessons going on in a variety of departments.
Mr Thomas explained the new status would not change the ethos of the school but gave it a greater opportubity to respond locally to local needs.
Mr Lay talked about the school's high success rate in exam results and how it leads the table of Suffolk senior schools in value added results.
But he also pointed to a poll of parents which showed 42 per cent still found the school was better than their expectation, which meant they needed to get the message of success across to the public even more effectively.
The new academy status offered several advantages, he said, including the fact that it now owned the site, both land and assets.
This meant they could now take decisions more quickly about new facilities, rather than being subject to local education authority approvals. For instance, they were currently exploring the possibility of building a gym on the site, which the community could also use.
The new status also gave them direct responsibility for staffing, and gave greater power and responsibility to the governors as trustees of the school.
There was also some financial benefit in the form of around £250,000 extra funding, although this was not huge in a budget of nearly £6million.
The school is building partnerships with its primary schools, allowing for sharing of resources, continuity for students, greater buying power, more contracts for work and more international links.
Finally Mr Lay put forward some ways in which businesses and organisations could help the new academy, such as supporting work-related initiatives, supporting curriculum projects, providing volunteers for clubs, supporting a new Foundation Fund they were setting up and considering commissioning public artwork from their art department.
Visitors were welcomed by the chairman of governors Peter Thomas and then given a short presentation about the school and the effects of academy status by head teacher Howard Lay.
They were then able to tour the school and see lessons going on in a variety of departments.
Mr Thomas explained the new status would not change the ethos of the school but gave it a greater opportubity to respond locally to local needs.
Mr Lay talked about the school's high success rate in exam results and how it leads the table of Suffolk senior schools in value added results.
But he also pointed to a poll of parents which showed 42 per cent still found the school was better than their expectation, which meant they needed to get the message of success across to the public even more effectively.
The new academy status offered several advantages, he said, including the fact that it now owned the site, both land and assets.
This meant they could now take decisions more quickly about new facilities, rather than being subject to local education authority approvals. For instance, they were currently exploring the possibility of building a gym on the site, which the community could also use.
The new status also gave them direct responsibility for staffing, and gave greater power and responsibility to the governors as trustees of the school.
There was also some financial benefit in the form of around £250,000 extra funding, although this was not huge in a budget of nearly £6million.
The school is building partnerships with its primary schools, allowing for sharing of resources, continuity for students, greater buying power, more contracts for work and more international links.
Finally Mr Lay put forward some ways in which businesses and organisations could help the new academy, such as supporting work-related initiatives, supporting curriculum projects, providing volunteers for clubs, supporting a new Foundation Fund they were setting up and considering commissioning public artwork from their art department.
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