Admissions update

Our proposed admissions arrangements have been sent to the DfE and we are currently awaiting their decision on when the admissions process can begin. We will send an email to all parents who have registered an interest for the 2012 intake year groups to inform them of when this happens.

Things are really moving now!

We have had a great meeting with the Department for Education and Partnerships for Schools. Our plans are really moving forward now. Next stop is our consultation, opening admissions and recruiting our Head!

Map of all free schools approved for 2012

To view a map of all the free schools approved to open in 2012, please visit the DfE's page http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/map%20of%20approved%20free%20schools%20opening%20from%202012.pdf

Parkfield New School will be opening in 2012!

We have been accepted to open in September 2012. Our statement from Tony Spotswood, Chair of Governors, is now on our website. 


We heard from the DfE today that we had been accepted, and the Rt Hon Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education has announced in Parliament 20 minutes ago that a total of 55 new free schools have been progressed to the pre-opening phase for 2012, from a total of 281 applications. 


We are very excited and we would like to thank everyone who has supported us during our application phase. Lots of work on its way, but we are thrilled to get through and can now provide a real choice for children's education in Bournemouth, Poole and surrounding areas. 


More information will be announced in due course, and among the next stages will be opening our admissions, our public consultation, confirming premises and recruiting our senior leadership team. 


Please keep visiting our newly-updated website www.parkfieldnewschool.org.uk for more information as it is released.

Announcement

It has been reported in the press that Michael Gove is announcing the successful free schools tomorrow. It is thought there will be 55 that have been approved to open. Watch this space and we will update you as soon as we know.

DfE decision delayed

The Department for Education has confirmed that all applications for free schools in September 2011 are awaiting a ministerial decision, and this has delayed the notification date to find out if our Parkfield New School proposal has been accepted or not. The previous notification date was the end of September. 


The DfE confirmed this morning that a decision is expected in the next 2 weeks, although no concrete date has been given. 


So we are still playing the waiting game. Once we hear anything from the DfE, we will issue a news bulletin which will be emailed to everyone who has registered an interest to inform everyone of the outcome. 


Many thanks to all who are supporting us. Fingers crossed.


Parkfield New School

Interesting News Article today

The BBC has a great article today about how peer mentoring in young children can greatly help increase reading levels and maths ability, one of the many aspects that is naturally present in a Montessori classroom where older children, or children who have already learnt how to do something, teach their peers. This happens in all subjects, not just maths and reading, and at Parkfield New School this will be commonplace, not just in the primary years, but with our House system encompassing Years 7-11 in the secondary years, older students will also be given this opportunity in their individual learning time, which will take part every afternoon.

You can read the BBC article here.

Guidance on LA Admissions

It is only a matter of weeks until we find out if we have the go ahead from the Department for Education to open. Many of you have been asking us about admissions, particularly now the Local Authority's admissions process has opened.

We have issued a guidance sheet for all parents, particularly those who have a child entering into Reception, Year 7 (Bournemouth) or Year 8 (Poole), or who have a child transferring from Infants to Junior School in 2012 with regards to Local Authority admissions and applying to Parkfield New School for a school place. 

We recommend that you read this as it is important that you apply for school places for your child via the LA, and also to Parkfield once our applications process opens. You will not find a reference to Parkfield New School in the LA list of schools. This is because we have not had the final green light from the DfE.

The guidance sheet can be found on our website here..

If you are looking to transfer your child to Parkfield New School from their existing school outside of the normal transfer years, there is also information on this guidance sheet which will be relevant to your application to Parkfield, although this will be reissued to you once our admissions window opens in November.

We will be in touch in the coming weeks with the outcome of our application. 

Less than a month to go

There is less than a month to go until we find out if Parkfield New School has been given the go ahead to open in September 2012. Watch this space for more information.

Toby Welstead, Donna Goult and Jo Galloway outside the DfE offices after our meeting.

Parkfield New School to meet with the DfE this week

Representatives from Parkfield New School have been invited to discuss plans for the school with ministers this week. Our application to open a 580-place free school in 2012 has been shortlisted from 227 mainstream applications received by the DfE in June this year. The group, who have appointed the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust's CEO, Tony Spotswood, as their Chair of Governors, will then have to wait until the end of September to find out if the school can go ahead as planned in 2012. 
It is not too late to register your interest for a place at the school for your child. Please register your interest here.

Playing the Waiting Game

We are just waiting now for our feedback from the Department for Education, which we will get by the end of July. The next step we are waiting for is an invitation to meet with the DfE in August, so watch this space! If you have any questions, please email us at info@parkfieldnewschool.org.uk

281 applications received

The Department for Education has confirmed that it has received 281 applications for Free Schools in the latest round of submissions.

• 227 are for mainstream schools
• 34 are for alternative provision schools (such as Pupil Referral Units)
• 20 are for schools for children with Special Educational Needs.

Of the 227 mainstream applications

• 77 (34%) are for primary schools
• 81 (36%) are for secondary schools
• 65 (29%) are for all through schools  (inc. Parkfield New School)
• 4 (2%) are for 16-19 schools.

Of the 227 mainstream applications 

• 12 (5%) applications came from existing Academy providers
• 126 (56%) applications came from local groups.

It's in!

Our application has been submitted to the Department for Education, so it is a bit of a waiting game now. Over the summer we will be continuing to raise the profile of the school in the area, so if you would like to volunteer to help us, please email info@parkfieldnewschool.org.uk.

IB Diploma students do better at University

A new piece of research has been released today, which details the success of IB Diploma students at university. “These results reinforce yet again that the IB Diploma Programme gives students the knowledge, skills and attitudes that enables them to excel in university. The programme is well recognised by the world's leading universities and truly prepares students for the working world” said Adrian Kearney, Regional Director for Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

Key findings include:

Achievement – Approximately a fifth (19%) of IB entrants with a full-time first degree achieved a first class honours award compared to 14.5% of first degree qualifiers who held A Level or equivalent qualifications. IB entrants are almost twice as likely to study Medicine and Dentistry (5.1%) as A Level entrants (2.9%). More than double the number of IB entrants attended the top HEIs compared with A Level entrants, when taken in proportion.

Continuation rates (measure of attrition/dropout) – Results show that across most subject areas IB entrants were less likely to leave their institution in the following year without gaining an award, than entrants holding other types of qualifications. 91.1% of IB entrants continued at the same institution compared to 89.5% for A level entrants.

Activities of IB leavers – Six months after leaving tertiary studies, IB students (36%) are almost twice as likely as their A Level and equivalent peers (18.8%) to pursue further study full time, and more likely to be employed in graduate level jobs and in higher paid occupations than A Level and equivalent leavers. A greater proportion of IB than A level leavers are employed within professional, scientific and technical activities.

Salaries of full-time employed IB leavers – The median annual salary of IB leavers in full-time paid employment was higher at £20,500, than that of A Level and equivalent leavers at £19,000.

Bournemouth 2026 Partnership

We are very proud to have signed up to the values and commitments of the Bournemouth 2026 Partnership and as such have the opportunity to link up with various partners from around the town in order to seek opportunities for local joint working on the achievement of targets and share best practice and learning within Bournemouth.

Chair of Governors and Governing Body

We are currently looking for Governors and a Chair of Governors to be part of our exciting new school. Check out this file Being a Governor for more information.


If you would be interested in becoming a member of our Governing Body, please email us at info@parkfieldnewschool.org.uk

April Newsletter now available

Our April newsletter is available on our website. View it here.

Have Your Say

We have created a new section on our website 'Have Your Say' where we are asking for your input into our plans. Currently we are asking:


Should we follow a 3-term or 6-term structure?


What should we call our Communities (primary) and Houses (secondary)?


What would you like to see the school offer? Breakfast clubs, Afterschool clubs, Holiday clubs, etc.


Look here for more information.

Steering Group Announced

The names of people behind the Parkfield New School proposal have been announced. For more information, visit our website page Who Is Involved? here.

Website Relaunch!

Tomorrow will see the relaunch of our website, which will contain up-to-date information on the plans for the school. Other new features include:


Bios on the Steering Group members    
Information on the School admissions process    
The School's Vision and Ethos    
Further curriculum details    
...and much more.


Check it out tomorrow at www.parkfieldnewschool.org.uk

What have we been up to?

Since the last post, we have:

• Visited one of the best state schools in the UK that offer the International Baccalaureate. They have offered to share best practice with us and support us in opening.
• Spoken to educational consultants to make sure our application is the best it can be.
• Attended a conference from the New Schools Network in London where we managed to talk to some people who will be opening their Free School in 2011.
• Received over 470 registrations of interest to date.
• Been in the Advertiser.
• Been joined by Donna Goult, project manager, who has been hard at work ensuring that we have the right team to see the project to opening in 2012.
• Been reviewing our application to ensure that it is going to maintain essential 'value for money' with public funds and at the same time delivering effective and excellent education for the students in Bournemouth & Poole.
• Found two more potential sites, although more investigations are needed with them.
• Spoken to two local councillors regarding the school. They are very interested in our plans.

The Steering Group is meeting later this week and we will update the blog as soon as we have more news. 

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Parkfield New School

Deadline: 16th May 2011

We have over 420 registrations of interest now, and we are hard at work on our proposal which we intend to submit on May 16th as soon as the application window opens. This year the Department for Education is being a lot more strict with what they want to see, and when they want to see it by. We are currently in the process of contacting all the people who have said they would be interested in joining the Steering Group, some of whom we hope will become directors of the company we will set up to bring this to the Department.

If you would like to know how you can help, please email us info@parkfieldnewschool.org.uk.

FREE SCHOOL APPLICATION PROCESS HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED

The Department for Education has announced this today as the process for all Free Schools wishing to open in 2012. We are still waiting exact details, but the timescales will be:

On Beyond Zebra...

This is another snippet from the first ever Free School's Conference in which Dr Mark Feinberg, co-founder of the KIPP charter (free) school movement in the USA gives his version on why Free Schools will help our children to succeed in education and in life. Although a little bit of fun, this really helped us to value the opportunities that free schools can offer children in this country.

First National Free Schools Conference Jan 2011

This was an exciting and highly motivating day.

The Benefits of All-Through Schools

An all-through school is a school that takes a child through from Reception to Year 11 or 13. 

They are found mainly in the independent sector. Parkfield New School will be an all-through school, and the Department for Education's Innovation Unit has done some research which has revealed that there are many benefits of attending a school that is 'all-through'. Here are some of them:

• raised attainment in all Key Stages throughout the school(s) by reducing the performance dips that can occur when pupils transfer from one school to another - Creating an all-age institution provides a unique opportunity to make significant changes to the continuity, progression and relevance of the curriculum. It can help overcome the weaknesses that can occur as children transfer between primary and secondary schools or, in a three-tier system, between lower, middle and upper schools.

• improved teaching and learning by the sharing of expertise across phases and by offering increased opportunities for personalised learning.

• improved pastoral care for children in challenging circumstances by offering a ‘joined-up’ strategy for special and behavioural needs, and can also be said for gifted and talented students.

• flexibility in areas such as curriculum design, delivery and school leadership/management – as planning is not broken up by phase boundaries.

• improved continuity for multi-agency involvement across phases for pupils, carers and families, especially for full-service/extended schools and maintaining closer community links for longer. 

• A common ethos which can provide:

•  purpose and direction for all staff and pupils
•  continuity in learning and behavioural approaches or expectations
•  consistency in classroom management and practice
•  a shared set of core values and goals which provide a strong framework for the social, moral and spiritual development of pupils.

To view the whole document, please visit www.parkfieldnewschool.org.uk/allthrough.pdf

Week 3 of campaign: update

At the end of Week 3 of our campaign, our results and achievements have been:

• Our total registrations of interest have exceeded 300, with the current total at 302. We have also had some excellent comments from parents (and teachers) letting us know why they would like an alternative to the existing schools in the area.

• We have also had excellent support from local teachers and members of the public, and even support from abroad.
• This week we have had coverage in the Advertiser and on the BBC news website.
• We have had interest from local councillors and a local MP has contacted us requesting a meeting - more on this shortly.
• We have informed the Local Authorities in Bournemouth and Poole of our plans.
• We are continuing to build our steering group so that we have a balanced group of core competencies within the team.
• We have registered our interest in becoming an IB candidate school in 2012 offering the Middle Years Programme in Years 7 & 8 on opening. We are also negotiating the possibility of offering the Diploma Programme from the outset.
• We are setting up our first focus groups and we are hoping to get a Montessori specialist from the Montessori Schools Association to run our Montessori information evening that so many of you have signed up for.
• We have discussed our plans with the New Schools Network, and we have been working on our draft plans for them to advise us on shortly.
• We have located five potential premises (3 in Poole, 2 in Bournemouth) and have a local commercial estate agent looking out for more for us. We are also undertaking a fact finding exercise in how much a new eco-build would cost, as this may be as cost efficient and tailored to our needs.
• The popularity of a location of a school is fairly balanced between Bournemouth and Poole, with Bournemouth being slightly ahead now. Our poll on here shows Poole to be in the lead.

Increased demand for Parkfield New School

In a matter of days, and following coverage in the Bournemouth Echo, demand for a new Free school in Bournemouth or Poole has doubled with now over 200 registrations of interest for September 2012. 


This is very promising and interest is still coming in fast. If you want to register interest for a place, please follow the link on the 'For Parents' page of this blog, or on our 'Give Your Support' page on our website.

Article on the IB Diploma programme

Read it here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/international-baccalaureate-my-students-walk-the-road-less-travelled-2223903.html

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP)

Montessori Primary video

Week 2 of campaign: Over 100 registrations of interest so far!

Dolphin Centre Consultation

We were in the Dolphin Centre in Poole yesterday as part of our consultation period. We now have over 100 registrations of interest for places at Parkfield New School for 2012, and also support from local teachers and members of the general public.

Welcome to our new Blog!

Here you can find out updates on our application to be a Free School as and when they happen.