Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Is far from over
‘This is a really exciting opportunity and the chance for genuine collaboration between the Langton, Canterbury High and Christ Church’
would operate in conjunction with the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment, the leading professional body for securities, investment, wealth and financial planning professionals.
Pupils can qualify for bursaries worth £900 and go on work placements in London.
The other two legs would be Langton’s sixth form college and a Canterbury High centre offering vocational qualifications, performing arts and sport, which would be run by The Canterbury Academy.
Canterbury Christ Church University and Barton Court Grammar School are vying for the right to create the free school to open either in September 2019 or 2020.
Barton Court’s proposal is not an extension of the gram- mar in Longport, but a totally new free school run as a comprehensive for all abilities.
The demand for school places will intensify with the building of new homes in Canterbury – and especially because of the 4,000-house Mountfield Park development planned for the south of the city.
Christ Church is working on plans for an free school for 11 to 18-year-olds, which would also allow trainee teachers to work in classrooms under their qualified counterparts.
Vice-chancellor Prof Rama Thirunamachandran said: “Opening a university-governed school in Canterbury would enable us to add directly to the city’s capacity to provide for the needs of its young people. We are planning to provide an education that prepares our school students both for employment or higher education and for fulfilled lives contributing to society.”
The Langton and the High School are leaning more towards the Christ Church proposal.
Mr Karnavas said: “Simon Langton leads the way in science education and the idea for a STEM college builds upon their expertise. Nothing is as yet concrete with the plans in a very early stage, and both schools would happily work with other providers, to establish something special for the children and community of Canterbury.”
Ken Moffat, head of school at the Boys Langton, added: “This is a really exciting opportunity and the chance for genuine joined up collabo- ration between the Langton, Canterbury High and Christ Church.
“The chance for a Christ Church-sponsored Free School will offer new openings for the young people of Canterbury and is widely supported by the head teachers in Canterbury and on the coast”
Even the police are eyeing up the old Chaucer as a potential base for the Canterbury arm of their Volunteer Police Cadets programme.
A Home Office initiative, it is open to 13- to 17-year-olds who would support community policing and learn about “responsible citizenship”.
The Chaucer site comprises 20 acres and 4.8 of those are being made available for housing with the rest saved for education.
Plans for the Chaucer are varied, complex and at the embryonic stage. But for all those who watched with sadness as the school declined and eventually shut, they surely herald an exciting future.