Letter to Parents
28th November 2006
Heighington CE Primary SchoolHopelands
Heighington
Newton Aycliffe
DL5 6PH
01325 300326
admin@heighington.darlington.sch.uk
28th November 2006
Dear Parents,
The Governing Bodies of both Heighington CE Primary School and Bishopton/Redmarshall Primary School met yesterday in separate meetings to discuss the future of each school. In particular, the possible federation of the two schools and how they can work together for the benefit of all involved with both schools.
Each Governing Body decided to explore the opportunities of formally federating and this letter is the beginning of a formal consultation period where you can find out all the details of this unique opportunity for our schools.
What is a federation?
A federation is a group of schools agreeing to work together for the benefit of all pupils and their school communities. This could entail sharing curriculum, teaching, ICT, sports facilities or even budgets. All schools have their own particular strengths or advantages, which can be in terms of facilities, staff expertise or local resources. Sharing these assets can help every school make education better for all.
What are the benefits of federation?
School federations enable the sharing of best practice, facilities, expertise and to learn from the strengths of excellent teaching in different phases. Some federations have identified, partly through the use of data, that student responses to environment, teaching techniques and learning differ radically, and they are keen to utilize these findings.
Avoiding duplication of effort or resources often leaves teaching heads and professionals with more time to devote to the core business of teaching and learning, rather than to administrative or management duties. The same principles could be applied to having common policies on behaviour and admissions, amongst others.
Some quick benefits from a federated approach are; combining forces to achieve enhanced purchasing power: to gain economies of scale from single rather than multiple maintenance contracts for buildings and grounds, ICT equipment and support, school catering and caretaking.
Working together in federation can enable a group of schools to coordinate either curriculum, teaching or learning strategies for localised coherence and can also facilitate inclusion and diversity across a federation.
What happens next?
Before any decisions are made, the Governing Bodies of both schools would like to know what everyone connected with the schools thinks. We are sure you will have questions and will be holding consultation events. This will give everyone the opportunity to find out all there is to know about federations and what the proposal is for the two schools. We will let you know when these will be held and what format they will take.
We would like to stress that no decision has been made and that the Governing Bodies of each school will meet again to consider everyone?s views after the consultation has ended.
Yours sincerely,
M.N.Parker
Headteacher Back to top