November 2005

National Middle Schools’ Forum

Newsletter – November 2005

1) Message from the new Chair of the Forum - Sue Kennedy

It is with great pleasure that I have taken over the role of Chair for The National Middle Schools’ Forum. Our outgoing Chair, Ian Bradbury, has done a tremendous job in driving the Forum forward and he organised a wonderful conference in October. I know that he will be a difficult act to follow

During my years in education I have worked for four different Local Education Authorities, West Sussex, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. Moving myself out of a comfort zone to take on my second Headship at The Greneway School, Royston, Hertfordshire has been a very interesting challenge and one I feel extremely happy with.

I am particularly passionate about the middle years in education and was very impressed at conference by our colleagues from Canada who spoke so memorably about the learning needs of the middle level learner. As middle school Headteachers we are becoming a smaller, ‘very select’ group and I therefore feel that linking with colleagues from both within England and more globally will be a crucial part of the Forum’s development during the future years. Sharing of good practice will also be an essential aspect of the Forum’s role and this should now be much more effective with the launching of our new web site. Please do use it and if you can contribute in any way that would be appreciated.

The Steering Committee meet once a term and we often invite very interesting speakers to discuss educational issues with us. You are all welcome to attend and we would be delighted to greet you.

Bedfordshire, which was the authority I was working with until July, will host the conference next year, and colleagues from Hertfordshire will also be supporting. I hope that we will see you all attending or if you cannot make it, why not send your deputy?

Have an excellent school year and I shall look forward to working alongside you all.

Sue Kennedy

Greneway School, Royston, Hertfordshire

2) Visit the new NMSF website

The new website for the Forum was launched at our conference on October.

Click this link:   www.middleschools.org.uk

On the new site you will find:

• Conference 2005 – reports and presentations available to download, together with the papers and reports from the AGM
• Reports and materials – research about middle schools and examples of papers produced by local areas facing reorganisation available to download
• Careers in middle schools– ITT providers who currently run middle years courses; a page of ‘testimonials’ from middle school teachers about the benefits of a career in middle schools; a list of current middle school vacancies through our link with Eteach
• Steering Committee – a list of members, dates of meetings and minutes.
• International links – a list of clickable links to international sites concerned with middle schools and middle years.
• A searchable list of all middle schools in this country – you can list them by county or by area.

Please check the details for your school in the list of UK middle schools, and email me any alterations or additions.

I would welcome comments and suggestions for future improvements.

3) The new White Paper

A few initial thoughts.........

 “All schools will be able to have Academy style freedoms.  All schools will be able to take on external partners.  No one will be able to veto parents starting new schools or new providers coming in, simply on the basis that there are local surplus places.  The role of the LEA will change fundamentally. “

 Tony Blair – 24/10/2005 – Speech on Education

a)    Is the Prime Minister signalling that decisions in future will be based upon quality of education rather than surplus places? If so middle schools would welcome this. Popular and successful middle schools have been closed recently against the wishes of parents, in order to remove surplus places in a number of areas.

b)    Tony Blair also wants popular and successful schools to be able to expand. It may be that the newly proposed independent trust schools, proposed in the white paper, will offer middle schools a way to achieve this through the support of their local communities.

c)     Parents have shown that middle school systems are popular and well supported. Voters on the Isle of Wight recently voted to retain the middle school system on the island at the local elections in May.

There are important issues here for us to explore further.

4) Steering Committee

Our next meeting will be:

Tuesday 22nd November 2005 at 11am - at London Diocesan House, 36, Causton Street, London SW1P 4AU

Kate Moorse and Jeremy Tafler of QCA will be joining us to discuss further the current review of KS3 and associated assessment arrangements. They are particularly keen to learn about the middle school perspective on continuity from KS2.

If you would like to attend then please email me so that I can send you the relevant papers.

Nigel Wyatt

Executive Officer

Tel: 01722 710511

Previous Newsletters

September 2010    July 2010    June 2010 no 2    June 2010    July 2009    February 2009    November 2008    September 2008    June 2008    January 2008    December 2007    June 2007    March 2007    December 2006    October 2006    July 2006    June 2006    May 2006    February 2006    January 2006    November 2005    Autumn 2005    Summer 2005    Spring Term 2005