Now that’s a real Church school!
Charlotte’s bid to open home to 20 pupils
SHE’S got experience of home schooling her two young children.
Now Charlotte Church wants to scale things up and throw open the doors of her house to teach even more.
The singer, who is married to musician Jonny Powell, has put in plans to create a school that she says will ‘liberate’ the youngsters who enrol. The 33-year-old intends to teach music to the pupils at her home in Dinas Powys, south Wales. It will be a non fee-paying school and will educate 20 children from the age of nine.
Miss Church said: ‘Since I’ve had kids I have become much more interested in education and child development. We started looking at schools and different mainstream options available to us.’
She added: ‘It started to become apparent that mainstream is struggling with underfunding and overcrowding – teachers are incredibly tested.’
The idea is part of The Awen Project, set up by Miss Church, which she hopes will grow into a charity to set up other schools. The school will be created in a temporary two- storey annex of her home before a permanent site is found, if plans are approved. Miss Church, who has two children with ex-fiance Gavin Henson – Ruby, 11, and Dexter, ten – said she has been on a ‘massive research mission’ for the past 18 months, visiting schools across the UK. Pupils at her school would be given a say over class rules, how lessons are delivered and what food children will eat. The star said her two children would attend the school – which would of life’. admit Pupils pupils would from study ‘all walks for qualifications such as GCSEs and BTECs but Miss Church said that the school would ‘still have lots of creative freedom’. Welsh is not currently planned to be taught as a subject – but the pupils would learn the language in a ‘Welsh kitchen’. She said: ‘I totally believe in the transformation of the whole education system and I think it’s possible. I want to play an active part in making that change.’ Miss Church says the new school has not been registered yet but Welsh schools regulator Estyn has been positive. Vale of Glamorgan Council is set to make a decision on the plans this month, but there have already been objections. Dinas Powys Community Council claimed the new school would be ‘detrimental to the character of the neighbourhood’. Miss Church said she wants to discuss the plans with the community, adding that ‘it’s not going to be an issue’. Further details about the school, such as how many teachers will be employed and the enrolling process, have not yet been confirmed.