Highwoods Primary School set to become academy (From Essex County Standard)

Highwoods Primary School set to become academy

8:00pm Monday 4th March 2013 in News

A COLCHESTER primary school is set to become an academy.

Highwoods Community Primary School is poised to convert on April 1.

It means the school will have more say over the curriculum its pupils will be taught.

But Nigel Hookway, headteacher at the Tynedale Square school, has ruled out changing the school’s name or altering the uniform.

“This is not about changing the school, it is about giving ourselves a little more independence,” he said.

He added: “We will be looking at areas such as the curriculum.

“We have just received the new curriculum, released by Education Secretary, Michael Gove.

“There are a few things in there we would be unhappy about if we were still a local authority school, so that’s something we will definitely be looking at.”

Instead of being funded by Essex County Council, which takes ten per cent of the Department for Education grant, from April 1, it will receive its money directly from the Education Funding Agency.

Mr Hookway stressed that does not mean the school will necessarily be financially better off because that money will have to be used to buy services such as cleaning, accounting and legal, which would have otherwise been provided by the county council.

The head added: “This is not something we have arrived at lightly, we have be gradually working at this for a year or so.”

The school was last inspected by Ofsted in January, which found it to be ‘good’.

Its next inspection is not due to take place until 2014.