Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Local Schools Planning Closer Co-operation as Charitable Trust
Chestnuts and North Harringay Primary Schools are planning on developing closer co-operation within a charitable trust with the aim of enabling more effective collaboration between them.
Earlier this week Chestnuts and North Harringay Primary Schools published details of their plans for converting to trust status within a co-operative framework.
Essentially a trust school is still part of the local authority system, but is also supported by a charitable foundation (often called the trust). The trust appoints some of the governors. By involving partners in the trust the aim is to use their experience and expertise to strengthen the leadership and governance and hence to help raise standards.
There are different sorts of trust school. Our two local schools are considering adopting a 'coperative trust' model. To enable the change, both schools will require a change of category to become foundation schools. If the plans are approved, the schools will be established under the banner, "Green Lanes Co-operative Learning Trust".
The documentation jointly published by the schools explains that the new arrangements aim to:
enhance educational opportunities and improve outcomes for all children and strengthen partnerships between schools and others in the local community
expectations and standards for all pupils though sustained collaboration and partnership and by sharing evidence-based expertise in learning, teaching and leadership.
provide better professional development for all staff
improve the use of the schools’ educational facilities to best meet the needs of pupils, families and the wider community.
I know little enough about the proposed changes to offer any comment, but would be very interested to know what both parents and non-parents think. There is a very comprehensive set of documentation available explaining the proposals in more detail - see below.
One note of caution from me. In the four bullet points above, which I've taken as a set from the documentation, I see two of them referring to the inclusion of the local community. And, indeed the local community are expressly welcomed to attend the consultation meetings. That is to be welcomed. However, beyond parents, all consultees listed by the schools are institutional. Local people are not listed, neither has Harringay Online been contacted with a request to publicise the change to the wider community. I hope that this is an oversight, or that I'm jumping the gun, and that the schools fully intend to at least offer local people beyond the current parents the opportunity to contribute to the debate.
The proposed implementation date is 1st March 2013.
A consultation process has been put in place to run over the coming month:
Meetings
North Harringay Primary School: 14th November 2012
2:30 p.m. School Council
3:30 p.m. All Staff
5:00 p.m. All Parents and carers 6:30 p.m. Public meeting
Chestnuts Primary School: 21st November 2012
2:30 p.m. School Council
3:30 p.m. All Staff
5:00 p.m. All Parents and carers 6:30 p.m. Public meeting
In Writing
You can comment at any time from noon 7th November 2012 to noon on 5th December 2012.
Chestnuts Primary School
Black Boy Lane
London N15 3AS
Tel: 020 8800 2362 Fax: 020 8880 1372
Email: admin@chestnutsprimary.com
North Harringay Primary School
Falkland Road
Harringay
London, N8 0NU
Telephone: 020 8348 0948 Fax: 020 8340 8021
Email: admin@nhp.haringey.sch.uk
Online Survey
Offer your views via a short online survey.
Further Information
Find out more information on North Harringay School's website
Read more about Co-operative Trust Schools on the Schools Co-operative Society website.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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My only query so far: If a Co-operative Trust is a "good thing", why not a full Harringay Co-operative Trust including South Harringay Schools (Mattison/Pemberton) and even St Mary's on Hermitage ? No doubt, governors of a voluntary aided Catholic school would have their own views on that one. But have South Harringay Schs been part of the consultation so far?
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I am a parent governor from North Harringay... thanks for this Hugh, you have beaten us to it putting the consultation on HoL. Certainly we hope that everyone in the community who is interested will come to the meetings and also send in a response.
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Permalink Reply by Birdy_Too on
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I am naturally sceptical about this as I don't really see any benefits that cannot happen in their current status.
Of course I am willing to listen to the pro's and cons and decide after more research and after the meeting on Wednesday. Having spoke to many parents, they are equally as sceptcial.
Part one in a series of changes?
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I agree Birdy. This is a real bolt out of the blue.
And agree OAE, SHS is conspicuous by its abscence.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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It just seems mad not to involve South Harringay. Those two schools are more closely connected than any others in London given the distance they stand from one another - thank you Harringay Passage.
Julie answered the question of "why would HH want Academy status" very well, can anyone else answer this why? Does it have the same answer?
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Don't any South Harringay parents or governors wish to voice an opinion on this?
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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Probably not until we find out the reason why SH schools have not been included in this proposal. Wouldn't want to jump the gun. It's only under consideration at the moment. Better to get the facts straight with schools before speculating or commenting. The model is an interesting one and I would like to know more.
Chris is to some extent correct in his view that by being pro-active in moving towards this model, it is harder to push the school in the 'Academy run by a carpet manufacturer' direction and helps the community to maintain some control over its schools.
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Apparently SH schools were asked to participate but declined as they have a lot on their plates at the moment.
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Ta, Liz & John.
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Permalink Reply by Malcolm on
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I'm the chair of governors at South Harringay Infants. Both SHI and SHJ were asked in the early stages of this proposal whether we'd be interested in being involved. So sorry, no conspiracy or exclusion!
This was discussed at the SH governing body meeting, and the governors of SHINS felt that this wasn't something that would contribute to our priority, which is to make the quality of our children's education even better.
Presumably the governors of Chestnuts and NH feel that for their schools, this is something that will improve the education of their children.
I look forward to seeing how this experiment works out, and finding out what we can learn from it.
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I'm an NHP parent and have had a quick look at what Trust status actualy means. It seems to me that what NHP and Chestnuts are doing is quite different from moving towards becoming an Academy. In fact it seems to be a rather smart way of preventing that ever happening. If the Trust is created, and puts into a legal document the ethos as an inclusive community school, it will be much harder for the government ever to come along and force Academy status with a business sponsor on them, which does seem to be a real potential threat in Haringey.
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