News 27th September 2022
Sturminster Newton High School: Public consultation on joining SAST
A public consultation has been launched by Sturminster Newton High School as they propose to academise and become a member of SAST.
The following letter has gone to all parents, families, staff and stakeholders at Sturminster Newton High School. We invite the wider community and existing members of SAST to also participate in the consultation.
——————————————————————————————————-
Dear parents, carers and our local community,
As you may be aware, for some time Sturminster Newton High School has been considering the possibility of becoming an academy and joining a multi-academy trust. The school leadership team and the governing body believe this is the most effective way to deliver top quality outcomes for students and sustained training opportunities for staff, thus ensuring top quality learning and teaching. Recently the Department for Education also stated that it seeks to ensure all schools are academies within multi academy trusts before 2030.
The full governing body passed a resolution proposing that SNHS becomes an academy and joins the Sherborne Area Schools’ Trust (SAST) during the summer term.
SAST is a strong local MAT, with a mix of primary and secondary schools across Dorset and South Somerset. Their vision is:
Delivering educational excellence through aspiration and collaboration
And the Trust’s values sit at the heart of what they work together to do:
SAST encourages collaboration across schools, to improve teaching and learning, and improve outcomes for children. We believe that there will be huge benefits to working together with our neighbouring schools.
This letter is to advise you that we plan to organise a formal consultation on the proposal to become an academy within SAST between September 27th and October 25th 2022.
Key points of converting to Academy status within SAST
- Our school will retain its character and will continue to look, feel and be the same as it is now with the same uniform, school name, holiday pattern and admission policy.
- The Headteacher and Governing Body will continue to lead our school on a day to day basis, as they do now, and parents will continue to be represented on the Governing Body.
- SAST will provide some centralised services such as School Improvement, HR, IT, Finance, Estates Management and Procurement, to our school which will help us operate more efficiently, and ensure that funding is focused on teaching, learning and support for children.
- A formal TUPE consultation will be held for all staff later in the conversion process, once an academy order has been granted.
We have an online consultation form, which we would encourage stakeholders to complete:
> Link to Consultation Feedback Form
A public meeting has been arranged for Wednesday 19th October 2022, 4.30-6.00pm, in the school hall, where you will have the opportunity to comments and ask questions as well as meet members of the Trust.
Yours sincerely,
Jason Davis, Headteacher
Rob Watt, Chair of Governors
