Students asked to help design new school uniform

STUDENTS at Coventry’s two rival private schools - which are due to merge this year have been asked to help design the new school uniform and tie.

But the suggestion has angered some parents, some of whom claim they are yet to receive what they consider proper communication from the schools on the merger.

As reported last October, Bablake School and King Henry VIII School announced they were to merge and become one establishment by September 2021.

They scrapped their initially proposed name of ‘Coventry School’ in favour of Bablake and King Henry VIII School (BKHS) after feedback from the school community, and have since pressed on with steps to become one establishment.

According to the foundation’s website, they planned to reveal their new uniform and brand by February.

We were contacted by parents through the action group, ‘Action 4 Henry’s and Bablake’ who claim decisions like getting children to design the new tie has done little to replace the ‘proper communication’ they were hoping for with the foundation.

Speaking anonymously, a parent with two children at King Henry VIII school said: “If the Foundation genuinely believes that asking the students to take part in a ‘design the new school tie’ competition is a suitable recompense for its lack of communication and consultation, they are ignorant of the strength of feeling across the school community.”

On the decision to merge the two schools, who share a combined history of 1,150 years, they said: “I am extremely disappointed in the recent decision - taken in the midst of the biggest crisis in our lifetimes - to merge two successful and historic schools. We chose Henry’s because of its location, its pastoral care and its academics - and because it wasn’t Bablake.”

We asked Andrew Wright, the former Bablake headmaster who is leading the merger, about parents’ concerns.

Mr Wright said: “Throughout that time our schools have been on a continuous journey of adaptation, responding to the varying demands and circumstances of their time. Then, as now, decisions have been taken based on balancing the educational needs of current families with the imperative to be sustainable for generations of families to come.

“Against the backdrop of lowering demand for independent education in our region, which has already seen other schools’ groups take the decision to consolidate, our Foundation took the difficult, but necessary, decision to do likewise.” Addressing the concerns around communication and designing the new tie, Mr Wright said: “There is a place for all stakeholders in the new Bablake and King Henry VIII School and many have already been involved in important decisions about our new name, uniform, vision and values.

“We have also invited pupils and others to be involved in activities such as designing new school and House ties, researching and proposing new House names, and making presentations about the significance of those names to the whole school community.”

We reported last week that the Charity Commission opened a case into the merger as part of an ongoing regulatory compliance case into the charity.

The merger is being assessed as part of an ongoing regulatory compliance case into the charity, and is not a finding of wrongdoing.

A compliance case is often opened to assess information.

According to the Coventry School website, things are set to move quickly to get Bablake and King Henry VIII School (BKHS) open for September 2021.

This newly designed uniform is to be revealed imminently, architect plans ready for both sites in April, leadership announced in May, pupil handbook published in June, and doors open in September.

PLANS for Coventry City Council to loan millions of pounds to Birmingham Airport and two hotels hit by Covid have passed the first hurdle.

The authority’s cabinet backed all three loans at a meeting on March 9.

Birmingham Airport will be loaned £5.7 million by the council in its capacity as one of seven West Midland local authorities who are shareholders of the airport holding company BAH.

Loans will also be given to the council-owned Coombe Abbey Hotel and developer and operator Castlebridge Group for the construction of the boutique Hotel Indigo at Friargate.

The council has not disclosed how much is being loaned to the hotels, with figures withheld from the public in private reports.

Public reports however show Coombe will have been loaned £5.8m by the council as of March 31 this year, which incorporates the £1m they were loaned last year.

All three will receive formal approval at full council next week.

Hotel Indigo: Taxpayers have already contributed cash for the project in the guise of up to £1m for a ‘public realm scheme,’ up to £685,000 for infrastructure, and an undisclosed fee for the acquisition of the site.

Around £16 million is said to be pumped into the site overall to create the first four-star hotel in Coventry city centre for more than 50 years, but councillors have been told Castlebridge is short of funding due to Covid-19.

While the loan figure has not been revealed, the council has said it is a ‘small amount, compared to the overall cost of the hotel.’

Cabinet member for jobs and regeneration Cllr Jim O’boyle said: “Whilst we had hoped that Castlebridge could have found their funding they are somewhat short because of the Covid dividend.

“Nevertheless we believe this is the right thing to do in order to make this regeneration project a reality. We think this is a good use of an investment in order to create regeneration.”

Coombe Abbey Hotel: The historic venue has seen revenue fall 70 per cent during the pandemic due to closure.

It received a £1m loan last summer - branded as a taxpayer bailout by opposition Conservatives at the time - but needs more with the council told it has exhausted all of its cash reserves and could cease trading by the end of March.

Speaking on the loan, cabinet member for finance Cllr Richard Brown said: “The Covid effect has been horrendous for Coombe. In 2020 they only had 78 days of normal trading. This is effectively a refinancing to allow a much-loved asset to bounce back.”

Birmingham Airport: The airport will receive an emergency loan of £5.7 million from Coventry City Council, taking the total package from Midlands councils to £32.8m.

Cllr Brown added: “Once again Covid has hit airports particularly hard. Other airports such as Heathrow, Manchester Airports Group, and Luton have all had cash injections.

EXTRA cash will be pumped into a new regional recycling facility in Coventry to expand capacity.

Members of the council’s cabinet gave initial approval for a £1.9 million loan to improve the plans for the Material Recycling Facility on London Road.

Final approval will be given at full council next week.

Currently, the city outsources recycling to a number of privately-operated facilities across the country, but there are said to be “significant” rising costs which stand at around £1.6m per year.

The council said the project will result in savings of around £1.4m a year - almost double that of the initial £847,000 saving prediction when the plans were first proposed in 2019.

The project is a partnership between eight local councils including Coventry City Council and was given formal planning permission in January.

Councillors were told the extra £1.9m loan is required to expand capacity as a result of new partners joining the project, with the amount of recyclable material increasing from 125,000 tonnes to 175,000 annually.

Speaking at cabinet on Tuesday, March 9, cabinet member for city services Cllr Pat Hetherton said: “The build means that we are able to increase the facility capacity and the building footprint to accommodate a technologically advanced intelligent facility, to be able to deliver higher purity levels of recyclate as well the flexibility to ensure that it can react to legislation and consumer habits, with the introduction of new and changing materials and things like plastic bags.

“This is referred to in the business case as being a game-changer so we need this loan to take this through.”

When it was first outlined in 2019, the site was set to cost £34.5 million with Coventry pumping in £10.7m for a share of 27.72 per cent.

At the time, that deal was in partnership with five other authorities but since then two further councils have come on board which has reduced Coventry’s share to 21.5 per cent although the final revised costs will only be known once procurement has concluded.

When asked about the funding involved, a council spokesman said: “We have not finished the procurement - and our partners are at varying stages of approval so we are not in a position to give a certain final cost.

“We have asked cabinet for a top level amount - but the final amount needed should be less than this.”

The eight partner councils behind the facility include Coventry City Council, North Warwickshire Borough Council, Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, Rugby Borough Council, Stratford District Council, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, Walsall Council and Warwick District Council.

MOTORISTS are being urged to step-up their security following a spate of number plate thefts in Nuneaton.

Thieves struck three times in a matter of hours in the Marston Lane/maple Park area of town last night (March 10).

Police are investigating any links between the thefts, which first happened at 6.40pm in Marston Lane.

Officers said they received a report of a number plate stolen from a vehicle.

Then, at just before 10pm, another report of a theft of number plates came into Warwickshire Police, this time in Woodstock Road.

At 10.13pm, thieves struck again, this time on Waverley Avenue.

As well as investigating the crimes, police want people to be on their guard - and to step up their security to protect themselves from becoming a possible victim.

Sergeant Andy Scruton from Nuneaton and Bedworth Safer Neighbourhood Teams said: “Stealing number plates allows criminals to change the identity of another vehicle. We advise people to use security screws to attach their number plates that make it harder to steal. These screws are available online and from car accessory shops.”

As part of the ongoing investigation, police want to hear from anyone with any information about the thefts or who might be responsible for them.

Anyone with information can call Warwickshire Police on 101.

Details can also be passed on via the independent charity Crimestoppers, which is free to call from a landline and confidential, on 0800 555 111.