The Government has signed the funding agreement; the U.K. now has the first Catholic Free School opening in Camborne in September. (The team has been working so hard that the news possibly left them a little fazed, but in time it will all sink in!) Thanks once again to everyone who had shown their support and prayed constantly.

Local Paper : 'Win-win'

An article in the Western Morning News today describes how both the Sure-Start Children's Centre and the new school will benefit from the Council's sale of the Trevu building - to the benefit of the town. The full article is here.

Advert in papers this week: good news!

"The historic County Grammar School in Camborne will become a school again in September 2012. St Michael's Catholic Secondary School is delighted that Cornwall Council has agreed to the sale of the site because it is the ideal location for Cornwall's first 'free' school and faith secondary school.  The school will serve much of Cornwall as it is particularly well placed next to the railway station and close to bus transport. Close links with St John's Roman Catholic primary school and the Catholic parish church situated opposite will be cultivated but St Michael's will not be exclusively for Catholic pupils.
Eventually there will be 300 pupils [11-16] in the school in classes of 20. A new building will accommodate specialist teaching areas. The principal-designate is Neil Anderson B.Eng.Hons., head teacher of St Michael's, currently in Chicago to present to American schools and teachers the innovative AstraZenaca Young Scientist Explorative Quest project  which he has trialled successfully in St Michael's and local primary schools this year. That project is another 'first' for Cornwall". 
Enquiries about enrolment in 2012 to St Michael's 01872 242 123

For all parents of Year 6 children

This important information was sent out in letters to all those parents who have given their details to St Michael's. It is equally useful for any parent who might be interested; the details should appear in parish newsletters this weekend:

We can announce the good news that St Michael’s will open in September 2012 in the old County Grammar school building , currently the Trevu centre, Trevu Rd Camborne.

It was not possible to include St Michael’s in the list of schools from which you could express a preference when filling in the year 7 admission forms in 2011. Therefore on March 1^st, you will receive notification of the secondary place allotted to your Year 6 child which will NOT be St Michael’s. If you would still prefer St Michael’s, do not accept or refuse this offer but wait for an official form from us. We expect this to be available in April when we have signed the final agreement.

The form will give two or three weeks to consider applying and then, if you wish to proceed, you must return the form to St Michael’s. Please do not refuse the offer that you already have at this stage. We can admit 60 pupils to Year 7 and in the event that we are oversubscribed, we shall apply our admissions code.[A copy of this is available on the website].  Only when you receive a firm offer from us, must you decide whether to accept our offer or to confirm the original school you were allocated.

Cornwall Council knows that this procedure is being followed and understands that you may not be able to reply to their first offer promptly.

Enquiries about enrolment in 2012 to St Michael's 01872 242 123

There will be an opportunity to find out more by visiting St John's parish hall in Camborne any time from 2pm to 7.30pm on 20th and 27th March.

Lecturing in Chicago

Our Headteacher Neil Anderson has flown off to the Windy City to give a lecture on the 'Explorative Quest' project. This is a scheme created and funded by AstraZeneca, the leading pharmaceutial giant, that has a large presence in the U.K.
Mr Anderson has been pioneering this project in St Michael's and also in other local primary schools. It seeks to encourage children in data logging using the latest high-tech instruments.

Project Team Meeting

Today a meeting of 17  people - including project management consultants and 4 civil servants from London - met with the steering group in Truro.
All is now set for opening in September (although the funding agreement has yet to be signed of course).
The consultation of the local community will take place in March.
The new site will be transformed in two main phases.
There is much to be done in the next few months including development of curriculum and policies; assisting teachers to transfer from the present school and recruiting more staff; deciding how to build in ICT and working towards the funding agreement.
There was a very positive feel to the gathering.

Full steam ahead

Ian Gamble visited St Michael's for two days this week from Prospect (educational consultants).

He was able to meet a spectrum of representatives (parents, governors, parish priests etc) as well as look at all our work.

He gave a very positive assessment of the project, stating that he thought things were extremely well in place so far (amongst the best of all the free schools he'd dealt with).

Consultation

We are about to begin the statutory consultation process shortly. This will be the opportunity for everyone - especially in the local community - to express their support.

Creating our curriciculum

Our headteacher, governors and teachers are beavering away with Department of Education consultants on the structure of the new curriculum. This is an area over which Free Schools have considerable freedom. At the moment we are giving particular care to how we will provide ICT (Information and Communications Technology) as it is vital that we are completely up-to-date with the latest developments. We are of course considering various 'cloud-based' systems.

Westminster once more

 

Today we visited the Department in London once again. It was our first meeting with the group of civil servants which has been allotted to oversee our project, including, it seems the head of the department. A plan is being mapped out for the future; there are so many areas to tackle within the next 10 months, including admissions, recruitment of staff, curriculum and the building itself. Not the least of the problems will be where to hold venues for meetings, given that the Department is not exactly around the corner from west Cornwall...

Article on local news

There is a piece on BBC Cornwall website here

Success!

Today Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, has announced that he is putting St Michael's School in Truro  forward to the next stage for conversion into one of the nation's first 79 Free Schools. It will be the first Catholic Free School.

So many of you have been praying for this over the past 8 weeks. Your generous prayers have been answered. Cornwall will now, please God, have its very own Catholic State Secondary school.

Especial praise must go to the steering committee who have worked with ferocious and unstinting enthusiasm to put all the paperwork together.

Now the hard work will begin in a new way....
Here is the building in Camborne where we hope to take up residence. It was once the Grammar school.

Expedition to Westminster

Well the great day arrived - the Government interview for our proposal for Cornwall's first Catholic Secondary School (and the U.K.'s first Catholic 'free school').

After the overnight train to Paddington, we were able to celebrate Mass at the high altar in Westminster Cathedral and ask Our Lady's prayers in the fine Lady chapel.

Below- last minute preparations in Starbucks!

The meeting at the Department of Education headquarters in Great Smith Street began at 10am before a panel of four civil servants. We felt the six of us worked very well together, providing an articulate and confident response. We won't know what they decide yet until the end of September/beginning of October.

Here we are breathing a sigh of relief afterwards (our headteacher had already scooted off to catch the plane for World Youth Day in Madrid!)

But so many of you back here in Cornwall were praying that we could almost feel it.
                                     A very big thank you to you all!

Prayers are answered

The Department of Education has decided that our application is up to scratch and they have invited us for interview on 15th August. 

On TV

ITV Westcountry broadcast a piece on free schools last night, with a decent few shots of St Michael's.

The submission goes in

After a phenomenal amount of work: meetings, information gathering and not a little stress the form has been completed and sent off electronically. There was a slight scare (!!) that the Department had not received it, but they have just confirmed that it has arrived. So now we wait...

We will have to reapply...

We have just be informed that there is a new process for applications. The new deadline for our (re)application is in June; we then might be called to interview any time up to August and will hear if we are successful in September.

A step forward

Last Monday the Government moved forward our proposal for our own free school opening in Cornwall in September 2012. The proposal now goes to the next stage - 'business and planning' so we are not there yet: please keep on praying. Of course we also still need to prove evidence of demand; do speak about it to any parent who might be interested. For although it will be a school where the teaching and ethos will be fully Catholic, it will open to all children.

Appointment of new headteacher

Following the interview this morning, we have appointed a new head for St Michael's who will, please God, lead the school through the transformation into a new future as a free school.

Neil Anderson is a physics teacher from Plymouth; he taught at St Boniface college. 

He is a man of great vision, a strong Catholic faith and a particular devotion to Our Lady. May God bless him as he takes up the reigns.

Coalition Government could be in our favour

After 5 days of uncertainty, we now have a Conservative-Liberal Coalition. After much careful listening, it looks as though Free Schools remain on the manifesto agenda: so our hopes are still alive!