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Written by Administrator
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Thursday, 15 December 2005 |
We now have a Design Team (i.e. the architects) on board. The
interviewing process went well, in fact it was apparently very
difficult to choose between two of the four contenders but finally
Fielden Clegg Bradley Architects won through. Those who turned up for
the evening community meeting heard a report from the interviewing team
and - with a sigh of relief - gave their blessing to the decision. The
Project Steering Group confirmed the appointment a few days later, so
it’s all systems go.
Three members of the design team – Julia Kashdan-Brown, Andy Theobald
and Keith Bradley – visited us last Wednesday morning and we discussed
many issues including: community involvement, the role of the Steiner
consultant, and evolving the design brief. To help those of us in the
community who were not on the interviewing panel, the architects are
going to give their presentation again, this will be part of the next
Forum – tomorrow – so by the time you read this a very enjoyable
evening will have been had, I’m sure.
We will all be seeing a
lot more of Julia, Andy and Keith over the coming months; one point:
clear lines of communication are very important through this
potentially confusing time, so if you have any questions or suggestions
to do with the the design/build aspects either ask Mike Whitfield who
chairs the Design/Build group or Lara Newman who will be our overall
liaison with the architects.
Other issues being dealt with:
the Governance group are exploring how the legal structures can embody
the ethos of the school; they are looking at such things as whether
trustees are the way forward or perhaps a co-operative, and how the
role of College could be reformed.
Testing is still being gone
through with a fine tooth-comb; on the one hand it is acknowledged that
using a test that does not relate to our curriculum is innapropriate,
on the other hand there does need to be some form of accountability.
This issue has been gone into deeply and a more comprehensive report
will be made in the new year.
Admissions and
over-subscriptions criteria are also being examined, problems we have
never really had to face before! Assuming we will have more demand for
our limited resources we will need clear and fair procedures for
deciding who is able to join our school.
Also being considered
is the role of IT in the Steiner curriculum. It is clear that the Upper
School has a need to take on more IT but that it is not really
appropriate lower down the school. More on this issue will be
forthcoming; we are thinking of inviting someone to do a workshop on
how to tackle IT.
Looking forward – Lara has produced a
colourful chart showing what we have to tackle next term: January –
finalise the admissions and testing policies, formulate the overall
vision statement, form the education and design brief, and produce
curriculum statements. February – agree the format and role of the
‘principal’, produce the ICT vision statement. March – agree the
principles of governance and the Special Educational Needs policy. All
other key Academy policies should be in place by the end of May for the
funding agreement to be signed in June.
And of course, during
all this time we will be working closely with the design team as plans
for the new buildings start to appear. Next term the community will be
involved in this process in many different ways: workshops, group
meetings, forum meetings – I hope everyone comes back from a Christmas
break refreshed and raring to go.
The last Project Steering
Group meeting is next Monday 19 December. Do contact any of us it you
have any issues or concerns that you’d like to air.
Michael Phillips
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Last Updated ( Monday, 20 November 2006 )
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