Northstowe First Primary School

This evening I went to a presentation by the two organisations who want to run Northstowe's first primary school. Recent government legislation means that Local Authorities can no longer simply open a new school - they have to run a competition and any organisation that is interested can bid. The Local Authority can also bid, but if it does then, logically, it cannot determine the outcome. Cambridgeshire has decided that unless there are no other bidders it will not put forward its own application to run any new schools, but that does mean that the Council's Cabinet can judge the competition - something which I prefer to the government being the judge.
Two organisations want to run Northstowe's first primary school - the Diocese of Ely and Swavesey Village College. Both presentations were interesting (although I have to confess that traffic problems getting out of Cambridge made me late) and both put the child and family at the centre of what they want to achieve. Both are also bidding to run the secondary school and there will be presentations tomorrow night in Bar Hill for this competition. The Swavesey bid is interesting because it proposes essentially an all-through style of education - from 4-16. There are a number of questions around how this can be delivered when the schools will be on separate sites, which I think will need to be resolved before the cabinet considers the competition. As far as the Diocese bid is concerned they have a partnership with a local church charity, the Church Schools Trust, which from experience worries me and I think their involvement will need to be clarified. However, it is an interesting process - but will education be any better as a result???