Call for a Bristol fee-paying school to become another academy

A CALL has been made for another Bristol private school to become an academy to meet the demands of parents in the north west of the city.

Liberal Democrat Paul Harrod said the move would be a more realistic option than the campaign backed by Tory Charlotte Leslie for another new secondary school at Stoke Lodge.

But Labour's Sam Townend said the right course of action was to support and build confidence in the schools that are already there.

The three, who will contest the Bristol North West seat at the General Election, all say they want to encourage more children from the constituency to stay in Bristol state schools for their secondary schooling.

North west Bristol has a council-run secondary school in Henbury and a charity-sponsored academy, Oasis Brightstowe, in Portway. Two other council schools, Cotham, and Redland Green, which opened three years ago, are nearby but are very over subscribed. Bristol has an unusually high proportion of fee-charging schools across the city, including three in the north west: St Ursula's, Red Maids' and Badminton.

Mr Harrod said the conversion of two former fee-charging schools – Colston's Girls' School and Bristol Cathedral Choir School – to state-funded academies a year ago had been popular and successful and he would like to see other schools take this route. He has not yet talked to any schools about his idea.

"Bristol still has 10 fee-paying schools," he said. "Of course most of them are likely to remain such, but I know from talking to parents that, particularly during the recession, it is getting harder and harder to pay those fees. We have a once in a generation opportunity to re-balance Bristol's school system, and see more places available to non fee-paying pupils.

"Academy schools can provide a first-class education and I hope that the local authority will be ready to work with the Government and any current fee-paying school to bring them into the state sector."

Mr Harrod, who was himself educated at the independent Bristol Grammar School with assistance to pay his fees, said: "Cathedral and Colston's Girls' schools have already gone down this route and I think it would be to benefit of all pupils in Bristol if more were to follow."

Ms Leslie said that if another fee-charging school did become an academy she would support it but that in the meantime she was seeking parents' opinions, and more than 100 had signed a petition in favour of another new school at Stoke Lodge.

Many people in Henleaze and Westbury-on-Trym believe Bristol City Council built its last new school, Redland Green, in the wrong place.

"The key thing is to keep more children in Bristol for secondary education. We must base policy on what parents want," said Ms Leslie, who was educated at Badminton.

Independent schools can apply to the Government to become academies but are likely to be accepted only if they will provide a positive addition to choice and diversity of schooling, without creating too many empty desks in neighbouring schools.

Mr Townend said he was not opposed to parent-promoted schools, but they would have to be planned to fit in with others. He said he was in favour of independent schools coming into the state sector provided they were free and non-selective.

Councillor Clare Campion-Smith, Bristol's ruling Lib Dem cabinet member for children, said: "It is an interesting idea as changing demographics are increasing pressure on school places in north Bristol."