Sabres - Save Breckland School

Welcome to the Save Breckland School page on BrandonSuffolk.com, here we will be publishing the latest updates from Sabres Educational Trust and their bid to Save Breckland School from closure and turn it into a free school in 2012.

 

 

Sabres update July 2011:

 

On Thursday 30th June it was our pleasure to be invited to attend the meeting, hosted by Breckland Middle School, for parents with pupils currently in Years 5, 6 and 7. When Breckland Middle School closes in July 2012 all parents need to apply for a secondary school for their children to start at in September 2012.

 

We were delighted sit alongside Ms Susan Byles, Headteacher at Mildenhall College of Technology, whilst Mr Paul Calver from the Local Authority outlined the admissions and transition plans. Schools in the area, with support from Suffolk County Council, are working together to ensure they provide the best quality transfer arrangements for all children regardless of whether they are transferring to our planned free school, MCT or other schools in the area.

 

Here is a summary of the process:

• In September parents will receive the Admissions Booklet which sets out how to apply for existing schools, ie. MCT or the Bury schools etc.
• This application must be submitted by 31st October 2011.
• Our Free School, although highly likely to open, cannot be guaranteed and so parents will be asked to prioritise an existing secondary school but also fill in a form expressing an interest in our Free School  if given the official go-ahead to open.
• We will have our final answer by the end of January 2012 and will then have another Public Meeting alongside our Education Provider when we can be very specific about what our school will offer.
• When we know that the Free School is opening, Suffolk County Council will write to all parents in the locality asking them to either confirm their initial choice or express a preference for the new school. Offers can then be made on March 1st 2012 to all parents in the area.
• If a parent changes their mind about which school they would like their child to attend there are procedures in place to enable this to happen at any time during the school year.
• Please note that our Free School’s admissions policy is all-inclusive and follows the Admissions Code which all school must.

The opening of our free school is considered to be probable because it extends parents’ choice about which school to send their children to. We were also grateful to be thanked at the meeting for all the work we are putting into this project and felt that parents’ questions were of very high quality and, again, highlight why a secondary school in Brandon is so important.

 

 

Sabres update June 2011:

 

POTENTIAL education providers gathered at the Breckland site last Friday to attend the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) Event.

 

Following a notice being placed in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU), the Times Educational Supplement, the Thetford and Brandon and the Brandon Life, we were thrilled to find out that the PQQ had been downloaded from our website by 140 interested parties so far.

 

The proposed Free School on the current Breckland Middle School site, and our vision of having an outstanding non-selective all-inclusive school for our pupils, retaining the site as a hub of community life, is generating a huge amount of interest .

 

What have we been up to lately?

• We've written a 6000 word PQQ which has been signed off by the Government and released for potential Education Providers to fill in
• We've begun work on the Specification ready for when the top five EPs are invited to tender for the award; we’re considering what Key Performance Indicators will be
• We've been meeting with Suffolk County Council about the Admissions Process for our enclave of Suffolk
• We've been keeping people up-dated via our website, Twitter, Facebook, the Brandon Life, www.BrandonSuffolk.com, and the Brandon Market Hill event.
• and we're looking forward to attending the meeting for existing parents of pupils at Breckland Middle School on 30th June.

Questions we've been asked recently are:

 

1. Why are you choosing to work with an Education Provider?
Although SABRES' members are working many hours each week before and after our day jobs begin and end on this project, we need expert professionals to work with. Gordon Warnes, Leader of SABRES, said: 'Instead of doing a second-rate job because of time constraints, we want a first-rate job done with the support of an Education Provider'.

 

2. When will you know who your Education Provider will be?
At the end of the extremely lengthy and intricate procurement process – we expect to be working alongside our preferred provider by the middle of December and have submitted our full application to the Department for Education shortly after.

 

Please take a look at Matthew Hancock MP's Blue Blog supporting our Free School proposal and also the Rt Hon Michael Gove's speech to The Policy Exchange from 20th June in which we are mentioned.

 

 

Sabres update April 2011:

 

Since the last article written about our Free School proposal when David Bell, Permanent Secretary to the Department for Education, their most senior civil servant, and Matthew Hancock MP visited our school, we have done an immense amount of work as a group:

• A staggering amount of reading, researching, summarising, questioning and writing formal documents
• Planning out the EU-compliant procurement procedure we must go through in order to appoint an Education Provider and complete the Stage 3 Business Case and Plan form
• Representatives from SABRES travelled to London to learn more from our legal consultants and then went on to meet our Department for Education (DfE) contacts to discuss our next steps.
• Our Admissions sub-committee has now written a fourth draft of the Free School's Admissions Policy, having consulted with Suffolk County Council, and this will now be circulated around local admissions authorities in Norfolk and Suffolk for their feedback.

We are still on-track to open September 2012. The EU procurement process is lengthy, and could take us into early 2012, but is completely necessary. Gordon Warnes (Leader of SABRES) says: "Our Trust will be spending public money and so we must make sure that we dot every 'i' and cross every 't' legally and without impunity when procuring our Education Provider". Only then can we submit the next form in conjunction with the Education Provider.

Our school's Admissions procedure will be different to Local Authority controlled schools in Suffolk and Norfolk when parents are asked to prioritise their preferences chosen from the official LA-published booklet. However, we are fully aware of the massive support our proposed Free School has and will keep all parents who have expressed their interest up-dated via email or phone. Parents are still able to fill the Information Request form in which can be found on our website: www.sabreseducationaltrust.com.

Matthew Hancock MP has said he is "highly impressed" with SABRES members' energy and commitment to the campaign.

 

 

Sabres update February 2011:

 

Having submitted our Stage 2 Application Form to the Department for Education on Friday 19th November 2010, we are continuing to wait for our answer. We have been assigned a contact at the DfE and we are in regular contact about our proposal.

They are still receiving applications for Free Schools hoping to open in September 2011 so, although we know they are looking at our case closely, we understand that there are hold-ups.

However, we know we are going forwards and not backwards!

The DfE must work in conjunction with a variety of different agencies before coming to their conclusion and we are in no doubt that they are doing so: for example, on Friday 14th January 2011, we met with a representative from the Partnerships for Schools, owned and run by the DfE, and this was a very positive step for our quest.

We must just be patient........ which is achingly frustrating we know!

Here is an up-date of the progress we have made as a community in terms of proving demand for our Free School:

1569 community signatures & over 750 children's parents have signed Information Requests.

Thank you!

 

 

Sabres update September 2010:

 

Out of a situation as dreadful as the closure of Breckland Middle School, have come better opportunities than we ever thought possible for our town!

SABRES have continued to work incredibly hard since the terrible news last December that Breckland Middle School was definitely to close, with no hope of reprieve. We have been researching, asking many questions, talking to MPs, Government officials, Local Education Authorities, Education Providers, consultants, solicitors, accountants and many members of the community who have been asking us questions on the street.

It is absolutely the truth that, until now, we have been unable to talk about it properly because all we have been able to do is 'put our feelers out'. Things are still not concrete but at least we now have some idea of timings and opportunities – plus we have a much better understanding of what the process is. The possibility of a Free School is only now able to be talked about. Thank you for your patience.

We will need that all-important public meeting which will happen as soon as we have something definite to report and talk meaningfully about. In the meantime, SABRES have no secrets so do keep up-to-date with developments and ask any questions you like via our website. In addition, we have a Twitter account, a Facebook group, these monthly handout and we have already attended the Brandon Braderie in August.

 

 

Information about the campaign in 2009:

In 2012 Brandon will be faced with a major loss of its local school which was built back in 1964. It was built so it could be used as a Secondary School, and there is no reason why we should let the school be thrown away by Suffolk County Council.

Suffolk County Council have decided to close Breckland Middle School in the Summer of 2012, but it's very important that a campaign is carried out by everyone possible right now to contest the Suffolk County Council decision.

An action committee of 12 people has been formed with the objective to co-ordinate the actions of people who have stated they wish to assist the campaign to keep the school open. Using a variety of means of communication you will be able to keep up to date on the campaigns being run and the support actions required in support of saving the school.

Suffolk County Council have decided Brandon is too small to support a Secondary School, so part of a £32 million school reorganisation project will then require all children from Brandon over 11 to go on a daily 20 mile round trip to get to school.

That means each child over a 5 year period will have had to travel 15000 miles to get too and from school, even with just 400 pupils making the trip each day from Brandon, thats then over 6 million miles over a 5 year period.

Breckland could easily become an 11-16 Secondary School - it was before! We have already begun providing the new cross-curricular skills-based Key Stage 3 curriculum because we already have the expertise.

We need Suffolk County Council to cater for our unique situation - not close us because that's what is happening county-wide. Our own needs for our children and as a community must be listened to and at the moment they are not hearing us.