Step 2

The next meeting will be in early June and will involve a screening of the Channel 4 Dispatches film, The Children Left Behind. James Wetz will be available for questions and there will be an opportunity for discussion and a chance to get this project underway.

Here is the link to setting up a school. It is quite accessible and clearly lays out the procedure.
http://www.dfes.gov.uk/schoolorg/guidance.cfm?id=26

Below is part of the original draft of the flier that was going to be distributed. It provides more detail about the nature of the school we are hoping to make.

We are currently exploring the possibility of using the site of the Brooks dry cleaners on Sevier Street in St. Werburghs. The intention is to build a community school on a human scale with between 300 to 500 students, where all children would be known to their staff and peers helping them to feel a sense of attachment to the school. The Brooks site would be ideal especially with the close proximity of the proposed new mosque and access to local resources such as the City Farm, Climbing Centre, Scrap Store, Mina Road Park, the Narrowways, allotments, Circomedia, City of Bristol College and several local primary schools. The school would be accessible to all children within this community between the ages of 11 and 18. Eligibility would be based purely on proximity to the school and there would be no entrance examinations or fees.

Some points for discussion:

A curriculum developed in collaboration with students, parents, the QCA and the Children and Young Peoples Services would make the education meaningful and relevant and provide equal opportunities and equal access to the curriculum. Students’ involvement in the curriculum design helps to create a positive learning culture and permits students to actively opt into the education system increasing the chances of academic success.

Smaller classes of between 15 -20 students would allow for more 1:1 between students and teachers. Smaller classes would make it much easier for the needs of each individual to be recognised and for these needs to be accommodated in the teaching and learning. Students could be arranged in smaller groups and attached to a learning guide who would support them throughout their educational career at the school.

English as a Second Language could be offered to parents so that they can access the curriculum alongside their children. Parental involvement in the school, helping to design a curriculum that is relevant to all pupils is vital in helping to ensure its educational success.

We would want to create an environmentally sustainable education establishment where environmental issues are built into the curriculum, encouraging a sense of responsibility for both the immediate environment and global issues regarding sustainability. Because it would be a local school, all students and staff would be encouraged to travel by foot. A Travel Plan would be developed for staff travelling from further afield. Cross curricular opportunities would combine academic and vocational courses and qualifications to make a more holistic education providing students with both the practical skills and the theoretical background. The size of the school would permit the possibility of sharing facilities and resources as well as easy access to local amenities where various skills can be developed and pupils would get hands on experience.

The staff must be able to offer specialist subject(s) at ‘A’ level so that expertise filters down to younger years. High expectations from the outset would be made known to all students and links forged with the local universities to actively promote higher education through partnerships with the universities and modelling the practise of going on to higher education.

This would not be a faith school, though all faiths and cultures would be reflected and responded to through the curriculum and all given equal weighting.

We feel that this community greatly feels the loss of the old Fairfield school and that we need to see what wider community interest there might be in exploring this project and campaigning for it.