ACADEMY STATUS

At their meeting last Wednesday 16th March, the Governors decided that we should progress our move towards Academy status for St Peter’s. I was most grateful to those parents who came to the Consultation Evening. As I said in my previous letter to you, we continue to work with the Catholic primary schools to ensure that regardless of the status of our schools, Catholic education in Gloucestershire will be protected and maintained at the highest possible level in the years ahead. From the Governors’ perspective the only reason we are looking at Academy status is to ensure this principle becomes a reality not only for the protection of the young people in our school at present, but also for your sons and daughters who may be joining us in the future or, indeed, for your grandchildren in the years ahead. There is a determination to do everything that is necessary to ensure that the quality of education we offer is not only maintained at its present outstanding level, but is developed and improved in areas where we think there is still room for us to move forward for the benefit of our young people. My contention is, if we get this right, you will see very little difference in what happens at St Peter’s on a day to day basis, but if we did not move along this route within twelve to eighteen months – yes, as soon as that – you would begin to see the difficulties we were experiencing in trying to maintain the curriculum we have and the staffing we enjoy. Thus, making it very difficult to offer our young people the opportunities they at present enjoy.

Those of you who could not attend the meeting or, indeed, those who would like more information, please go to the School Website where there is a ‘frequently asked questions’ section on academies. If there are questions you would like the answers to but you were not able to make the Consultation Meeting, simply email us with a question, or phone us with a question and we will do our best to answer it. Not just for you, but by placing it on the ‘frequently asked questions’ perhaps dealing with what other people are thinking of but have not been able for one reason or another to ask the question. I cannot stress strongly enough that this decision to progress is, I believe, the best way forward to preserve and protect the very reasons you wanted your sons and daughters to come to St Peter’s in the first place.