Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Grammar joins comprehensive in ‘academy trust’
Head hails ‘opportunities’ as schools sign up
Barton Court in Canterbury is joining a comprehensive school in Thanet to form a multi-academy trust.
The city grammar school and the Charles Dickens in Broadstairs will create the Barton Court Academy Trust (BCAT), which will “work in partnership to provide high-quality educational provision for the communities they serve”.
Barton Court head teacher Kirstin Cardus will act as the academy’s executive head and “lead professional”.
In a letter to parents, she said: “This is an exciting time for the school, as well as the trust.
“Opportunities for us to recruit and retain the best-quality staff have both been evidenced in the short time we have been working with the Charles Dickens school, with teachers and school leaders now wishing to join multiacademy trusts which can offer a much wider scope and opportunity for their own professional development.
“There are also numerous opportunities for economies of scale as national school budgets are being squeezed.
“We can ensure both schools can still deliver value for money through procurement at reduced prices, thus freeing money that can be spent on children. Staff have enjoyed sharing good practice across the trust for the benefit of both school communities and the children they serve.”
Ms Cardus says the vision for BCAT will be to attain an outstanding Ofsted report.
One parent who has children at Barton Court said: “Forming partnerships with other schools and establishing these multischool academies seems to be the fashionable thing in education.
“I think Barton Court needs to convince parents that joining up with the Charles Dickens School is the right thing to do.
“It may well be in the long run, but it doesn’t seem particularly logical to do this with a school which is so far away.
“Most of us are concerned about improvements being made to Barton Court and I wonder whether this academy is just stretching things too far.”
Barton Court is also applying to open a non-selective free school on the site of the former Geoffrey Chaucer School in Spring Lane.
In 2013, the school enraged parents with plans to relocate the school to Herne Bay. The plans were shelved in August 2014.
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