Northstowe Secondary School

Thursday evening saw presentations from four organisations bidding to run the new secondary school in Northstowe. Three could be described as local; the fourth is definitely not. Again, the concept of competition comes from government legislation and during the break there were some interesting discussions about the merits of competition - and how much it all costs and whether it is worth it. I guess that we won't know the answer to that question for many years.

The first presentation came from Cottenham and Impington Village Colleges, under the banner of the Greater Northstowe Learning Trust. They plan what is described as a loose Federation - the two existing schools will set up the new school and once it is established, it will essentially be on its own. Then we heard from the Diocese of Ely - who are also bidding to run the first primary school, who told us about their plans to run a school in conjunction with a company called Edison Schools. The third bidder is Kunskapsskolan, who are a Swedish organisation, looking to extend in the UK - they have won bids to run a couple of schools in Richmond in Surrey. They offer a very different kind of learning, which is completely personalised to individual students. Finally, Swavesey Village College told us about their plans for an all through 4-16 school (albeit based on 2 sites) based on what is called hard Federation with the college.

After the presentations there was an opportunity for questions, although it was very clear that most of the audience were not genuine members of the public, but either politicians, or supporters of one or other bid, although there were some good questions. It was amusing to see representatives of schools bidding to run the new secondary school south of Cambridge at the meeting - "checking out the opposition" as one admitted to me!!

The closing date of comments is mid August and then the Council's cabinet will make a decision on the successful bidder in October. So one of my holiday tasks is to read all four bids in detail before submitting my own comments to the council. If you want more details for bother the primary and secondary competitions they are available on the Cambridgeshire County Council website - www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/education/schools/planning/