Academy Information for Godmanchester Primary School
Introduction
Over the last year the School’s governing body has been considering whether we should convert to Academy Status. We recognised that this would be an important and complex decision so we have been working hard to understand all that’s involved.
What is Academy Status?
Academy status means being more independent from Local Authority control than at present. We would have more flexibility – including with finance and curriculum – but also have more responsibilities to manage.
Our thinking on Academy Status
The Governing Body would like to move to academy status and we are consulting on this. This web site has been set up to present the findings of our consideration, and support our consultation on this.
We aim to make a decision which enables the school to best drive our school vision to continually develop our children, and ensure that the management overhead does not distract from that in a disproportionate way. We acknowledge there are uncertainties about the future and especially future financial settlements.
Here is our school vision which we have used to help test our academy thinking: Download School Vision PDF Document
There are three key documents about academy consideration that we are keen to share:
A) Balancing Three key Areas
We have produced this document as our overall summary of the position. We see this as balancing three areas:
- Outcomes for children: that children will benefit from the change.
- Management overhead: that we will recognise and respond to this.
- Risks: that we will need to manage.
We believe that the benefit for children can be further improved with the flexibility that we would have, and this outweighs the management overhead, and recognising that the risks are important ones that we can manage.
Here is the document: Download 3 Key Areas PDF Document
We have also created two other more detailed supporting documents along the way and these are also here.
B) Summary of Benefits and Constraints
This is a table which outlines the specific areas.
Here is the document: Download Benefits and Constraints PDF Document
C) Challenge Questions
The teaching unions have asked some questions for Governing bodies about academy status. We have looked at these and answered them.
Here is the document: Download Challenge Questions PDF Document
Our Consultation
We want to hear what people think of our recommendation to convert to an academy. You can email us at governors@godmanchester.cambs.sch.uk
Frequently Asked Questions
The Department for Education provides a range of questions and answers which can be found here
