News 6th October 2022
St Nicholas Primary: Public Consultation on joining SAST
St Nicholas CE VA Primary School in Child Okeford has launched a public consultation on their proposal to academise and become a member of SAST.
The following letter has gone to all parents, families, staff and stakeholders of the school. We invite the wider community and existing members of SAST to also participate in the consultation.
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Dear parents, carers and our local community,
As you may know, for some time we have been considering our options with regards to becoming an academy and joining a multi-academy trust. The Department for Education has set out its vision that all schools should become academies and join a MAT before 2030.
The school leadership team and the governing body believe that this is the best way to deliver excellent outcomes for the children at our school, and on 18 March 2021 the governing body passed a resolution proposing that St Nicholas CE VC Primary School becomes an academy and joins the Sherborne Area Schools’ Trust (SAST).
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 6th October and 7th November 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 will continue to manage our school on a day to day basis, and parents will continue to be represented on the Local 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.
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 Thursday 20th October 2022, 4.00-5.30pm, at the school where you will have the opportunity to comments and ask questions as well as meet members of the Trust.
Yours sincerely,
Jill Watson (Headeacher) and Lynne Crichton (Chair of Governors)
St Nicholas CE VA Primary School.
