Bristol secondary school's link-up with primaries

One of Bristol's largest secondary schools is joining forces with some of its feeder primary schools in a move which they claim will benefit pupils in the future.

Ashton Park School and three primaries have announced they intend to form the South West Bristol Learning Trust.

The plan is to work with partners including the city council, Bristol City Football Club, the University of the West of England and the Bristol education technology centre Futurelab.

The schools say the switch to being run by a co-operative trust, rather than solely by the local authority, would – if agreed – give them greater freedom.

They would manage their own assets and admissions, although Ashton Park stresses it has no plans to change current arrangements or give preference to applicants from other schools in the trust.

The primaries involved are Ashton Vale, Compass Point and Luckwell. The idea is for the trust to be set up in such a way that other schools can join in future if they wish.

Each school would keep its own governing body, which would employ staff, and would be represented on the trust, a charitable foundation that would set the vision for all the schools.

Headteacher Chris Gardner said the proposals would help ease the transition between schools, improving learning for people aged nought to 19.

"This is an exciting opportunity for our local community to really get engaged with the learning of their children," he said.

"The co-operative trust model has a very strong focus on community involvement."

He said the partners would all bring strengths to the trust: the council through continuing to support the school, the Co-operative Group through its values and ethos, Bristol City with its study centre and sporting excellence, UWE for research, and Futurelab to work with the schools on technological innovations.

Both the Government and the Conservatives have backed the co-operative trust model for schools.

Children's Secretary Ed Balls said: "Co-operative school trusts put power in the hands of those who know best what is needed in their area, by allowing local communities to come together and have direct power over the running of their local schools.

"They mean that everybody with a stake in the school's success – parents, teachers, support staff, and even pupils – can all get involved in the running of their school.

"And most importantly, they can help to raise aspirations, improve standards and ensure that parents have more choice of good local schools."

The Government wants to see 200 new trust schools set up within the next year and Mr Balls has given the go-ahead for the South West Bristol schools to move forward with their plans.

Bedminster Down School was given similar approval earlier this year and will begin consultation on its plans to set op a co-operative trust after half term.

The South West Bristol schools started consulting staff, parents and students on Friday.

Bristol already has trust schools at the Bridge Learning Campus in Hartcliffe, and Orchard School Bristol in Horfield.