Calls to cut ties

PLANS for an alliance between The Minster School, Southwell, and Newark’s Magnus School have moved closer, despite concerns.

Minster School governors this week started formal consultation over the proposals.

If approved, the schools would be twinned, with staff from Southwell mentoring those at Magnus to help it out of special measures. The Minster head, Mr Phil Blinston, would be executive head of both.

It would be the third such arrangement in the country.

The proposal met with strong opposition from Southwell Town Council.

The council leader, Mr Peter Harris, said the Minster School was not in a position to be involved in a partnership with the Magnus.

He said: “The school’s performance is average. Across the country there are better schools.

“The Minster School is trying to be excellent, only the average A* to C performance over the last few years has got worse, not better.

“This is not a school performing as an excellent school. It needs to concentrate on its own performance and it hasn’t got the capacity to help other schools that are failing.”

Mr Harris, a former head, said there was limited research available into the success of having an executive head of a two schools, one of which was failing.

“The research there is suggests the opposite,” he said.

Mr Harris also criticised the consultation carried out so far.

He said: “Parents had less than 48 hours notice of the meeting at the school and the community had no notice. There has been an abject failure by the Minster governors in this process.”

Mr Paul Handley, a town councillor, said he had written to the Minster School expressing similar views to those of Mr Harris.

He said: “Parents are expressing concerns that some of the changes as part of this are already starting to be implemented by the school ahead of schedule.”

The Magnus School Interim Executive Board this week published a statutory notice, outlining its intention to go ahead with the alliance.

People have four weeks to object or make comments.

A decision is expected to be made at the end of next month.

Mrs Beryl Rimmer, a town councillor, said: “It important a very real consultation takes place, rather than lip service consultation, because this will have a very big effect on children in this town.”

The chairman of the board of governors at the Minster School, Mr Nigel Turner, will attend the next full town council meeting on Wednesday, June 17.

A meeting for parents is planned for June 11 at The Minster School, where staff will outline improvement work they are already doing with other schools, and governors can try to answer any concerns.

Mr Turner said in a letter to parents that initial consultation found the majority of people were in favour of the proposal.

In a statement, the board of governors said changes had not started to be implemented.

It said consultation was conducted by the Local Education Authority on behalf of Magnus School’s interim executive board.

It said more than 7,000 copies of the consultation document were distributed to individuals and organisations including the town council, parents, Newark and Sherwood District Council, staff and Newark Town Council.

It disputed the suggestion that the school’s performance was falling, claiming that, while pupils achieving five or more A* to C grades dropped from 80% to 68% between 2005 and 2007, the figure rose to 71% again last year when including maths and English.