11th November 2005

Written by Administrator

Friday, 11 November 2005

As reported in the last Friday Flier, the community focus groups are now up and running; just to remind you, the four groups cover: pedagogy (mainly being developed by College), governance, community and design of buildings. The process we are all adopting is for these groups to meet independently of each other but regularly come together on Forum evenings. All will be coordinated by our Overall Project Manager, Lara Newman. The latest Forum was on Wednesday 2 November and below are precises from the groups’ notes. Governance Group The group considered the Funding Agreement (the legal document we will sign at the end of Feasibility if all goes well) which includes issues such as trustees/charitable organisation, admission policy, special educational needs policy and the exclusions policy. They also looked at TUPE (transfer of staff), budget, and organisation. The group’s next meeting will focus on: Governance and its relation to Steiner, leadership, and the vision statement; it will be at William Braid’s house on Tuesday 15th and anyone interested to join would be welcome. Do contact the Group’s chair, Andrew Marshall (01873 860248) if you can’t make the meeting but have any comments to pass on. Community Group The group looked at the use of the existing buildings once the Academy is built; issues included: the mortgage, the buildings’ role, early years use, and ownership. There is the question of how to retain a sense of community and how the buildings would be cared for. Perhaps a Trust would be needed to take charge of the buildings, and a commercial and fundraising arm might be needed to pay the mortgage. Other ideas for use of the buildings include: teacher training, after school clubs, school shop, workshops for parents and wider community, café, library, meeting rooms, caretaker and student accommodation. The group is considering the site: physical placement, landscaping and links between various areas including a need for a central courtyard. Also being examined is the future role of parents, including helping new parents to be aware of the principles of Waldorf Education. The group is very aware that this project could be an exemplar for community involvement in other Steiner Academies. Contact the Group’s chair Ed Waghorn (01981 540 936) if you need any more information. Design/Buildings The group examined the very important question of how the school community will be able to influence – in fact be an integral part of – the design process. It is very important that either a Steiner architect or a Steiner architectural consultant be deeply involved with this project, and we need to reflect the many concerns and issues of the whole school community in a design brief. Since this meeting some of us from the Project Steering Group (PSG) met Chris Terry (DfES architect), and we agreed to use an architect drawn from the DfES framework on the understanding that the design team chosen will take on a Steiner-trained architectural consultant. This approach was fed into the following Design/Buildings meeting held on Tuesday 8 November. In that meeting we spent a fascinating time with Mike Whitfield playing teacher at the blackboard while we brain-stormed to come up with a list of issues for the short-listed architects to take on board. Into this process was fed the many comments that arose from a Steve Briault ‘visioning day’, some many months ago – yes, it did come in useful after all. Once again, we welcome anyone to join this group (we are a bit short of the female impulse). Contact Mike (01981 580350). If you can’t make meetings don’t feel left out, feed into the discussions by phoning, e-mailing, writing letters, or the time-honoured method: grabbing someone in the car park. The Reception office has re-arranged the pigeon-holes and there is one for each of the groups as well as the PSG. One last point: next Tuesday 15 November, we have invited the short-listed architects to visit the school, so if you bump into strangers asking difficult questions do tell them what we are all about. The formal interviews will then be on 28 November, away from school thanks to the kind offer of Chris Aylmer to host them, and we expect to have our new design team with us at the next PSG meeting on 2 December, and then at the next Forum.

Last Updated ( Thursday, 15 November 2007 )

 

< Prev