School is ready to go it alone (From Tewkesbury Admag)

School is ready to go it alone

CHIPPING Norton High School could become part of a "mini local education authority" in a bid to take more control of resources from Oxfordshire County Council.

Head teacher Richard Graydon is one of seven heads in West Oxfordshire considering taking advantage of the Government's Foundation Partnership scheme.

They believe the move would give them wider responsibilities in areas such as school improvement, with access to associated funding devolved from the local education authority.

They also say that standards would improve if the council delegated more power to schools - as in Gloucestershire, which consistently outperforms Oxfordshire in terms of GCSE results.

Mr Graydon said that some responsibilities, such as school transport, could be run much more efficiently at school level.

More than 60 per cent of his pupils rely on school buses and many were affected by delays in issuing travel passes for the current academic year. "There was mayhem with pupils left at bus stops, getting on the wrong buses and parents no knowing what to do.

"It would be far better to administrate this locally where schools have detailed knowledge of the area."

The county council's director for learning and culture, Keith Bartley, is backing the move and said other groups of schools in the county could follow suit.

But Mark Forder, branch secretary of the National Union of Teachers in Oxfordshire, said schools "cutting themselves off" was not the way forward.

"Although some heads might think that the could do a better job and would like more power, we don't think that would necessarily help everybody.

"They're not democratically elected. That is not to say a partnership of schools is not a good thing, but we don't feel cutting off from the LEA to form a mini education authority is the way forward."