United for education

The Magnus Church of England School, Newark, looks set to become a National Challenge Trust School.

It will be under the wing of the Minster School, Southwell.

The move is designed to improve academic achievement at the Magnus, which has been in special measures since June 2008.

It will be committed to ensuring at least 30% of its pupils achieve five good GCSEs, including English and maths, by 2011.

As part of a consultation period, which runs until April 27, parent and community meetings will be held at the Magnus on Monday from 5pm-7pm and at the Minster on Wednesday from 5pm-7pm.

A decision on the proposal is due in May. If it is agreed the head at the Minster School, Mr Phil Blinston, would become the executive head of both schools.

The principal deputy head at the Minster, Mrs Barbara White, would become the head of school and Mr Ian Anderson, the current head at the Magnus, would be head of school there.

The proposals are contained in a county council report leaked to the Advertiser on Wednesday.

They were drawn up by an interim executive board appointed at the Magnus after it went into special measures.

The report says: “Clearly, the experience of the staff and governors at the Minster School in developing a robust school improvement will be of enormous benefit to the Magnus School in raising its own academic performance.

“There is evidence that collaborative working, formal partnerships or federations between schools can benefit all those involved. There is greater flexibility for schools to share good practice, innovation and resources.”

The report says money will be provided to both schools over the next three years to help cement their partnership.

A charitable trust would be formed to hold the Magnus land at Earp Avenue in trust. It would also appoint a new governing body.

The trustees would be appointed from the Minster School’s governing body, the Magnus’s interim executive board and possibly the Southwell Diocese.

The Magnus could be out of special measures in two years but the trust arrangement could last for ever.

After Ofsted found the school was failing to provide an acceptable standard of education for its pupils an informal working relationship was set up between the Magnus and Minster at senior management level.

It is acknowledged the Magnus has made progress but last year it failed to reach the Government’s target of 30% of students gaining five or more A to C GCSE grades, including English and maths.

The Minster’s last two Ofsted inspections found it to be a good school with outstanding features.

Mr Anderson, who took over at the Magnus just before it went into special measures, said the proposed changes would have a positive impact.

He said intervention at any school with less than the 30% GCSE pass-rate was inevitable in some form, and last year’s results were below 20% and particularly bad in maths.

“This option did not even exist when we went into special measures as it has only been around since the autumn,” said Mr Anderson.

“Had the option been available I suggest we would have gone straight to it.

“There is a lot that we can learn through the interchange between the two schools and these are lessons we will learn much more quickly than if we were discovering them all by ourselves.”

Mr Blinston said: “Both schools have ancient foundations and both are committed to ensuring high quality provision relevant to today’s students. As Minster School continues its own journey of continuous improvement we look forward to more joint working with our colleagues at The Magnus School.”

An Ofsted inspection team was at the Magnus last week for an interim inspection and their report is expected next week.