Head sets out vision to create academy link-ups

Garforth Community College is among the region's 51 outstanding schools who have declared an interest in joining the academy programme.

The Government has said all schools rated as outstanding by Ofsted are now pre-approved for academy status while every state school – primary, secondary and special – has also been invited to apply.

For many schools it will mean opting out of local council control to stand alone as an independently-run organisation.

Garforth's principal Sir Paul Edwards wants the college to become an academy, however, to allow it to work in partnership within "a family of schools."

It already enjoys many of the freedoms of an academy as it became one of the country's first trust schools in 2007.

The Schools Partnership Trust was originally created to run both Garforth Community College and its feeder primaries in the outskirts of East Leeds.

Since then the trust has become the sponsor of two new academies which opened in September – South Leeds and De Warenne in Conisborough, near Doncaster.

It is also bidding to open another academy to replace Rossington All Saints' School in Doncaster and Sir Paul told the Yorkshire Post the trust wanted to open up to six in the region in total, all working together.

"For Garforth Community College becoming an academy is the next logical step. It is actually tidying up our organisation. We sponsor academies and becoming an academy ourselves ensures we have a synergy with the same type of school across our organisation."

Academies were originally created as a way of transforming standards at struggling secondaries by closing them down and replacing them with new schools based in new buildings backed by a private sponsor.

They were run independently from council control with the freedom to set their own admissions, timetable and employment arrangements.

Now the new Government wants all state schools to bid to have these freedoms and become independent state schools funded directly from the Department for Education rather than through town halls.

"We have found the benefit has been in working in partnership with our family of schools," Sir Paul added. "By working in partnership you can enjoy economies of scale and broaden your curriculum offer. I think schools which opt to become wholly independent academies might find it very difficult."

Sir Paul said the Schools Partnership Trust was committed to running schools within a 50-mile radius of Garforth and had resisted the move to become a national sponsor across the country. By working "locally and regionally" the trust ensured its schools could share both resources and the same approach to education.

A list published by the Government last week named 95 primary and secondary schools in the region among 1,500 across the country which have declared an interest in joining the academy programme.

It included a range or primary, special and secondaries – including selective schools such as Skipton Girls High.

Any outstanding school which wants to become an academy has to agree to help raise standards at another school before getting approval from Government.

Legislation is currently going through Parliament which will allow the Government to create an academy order which would release schools from local council control and mean they become directly funded from Whitehall. Ministers expect the process of becoming an academy to take three months.