The Bishop of Truro yesterday gave his blessing to the new Federated Schools system as part of a visit to the Islands. This unique endorsement means that the Secondary School on St. Marys is the only Church Secondary School, South West of Plymouth.
The Visit coincided with the official date of Federation for the one secondary School and four primary schools in a unique ‘pooling of resources’ experiment which the new Head Teacher, Paul Mulligan, describes as “a symbolic new start for us”. It is thought that the new Federation will be called ‘The Isles of Scilly Community School’, and may pave the way for similar projects on the mainland.
A conference was held recently between all parties involved in the project, including governors and teachers from all the Islands. The number of governors will be radically cut from a previous un-federated total of 61, to a new number of just 17. This has already been labelled by some parents as an excessive streamlining.
It is thought that the Federation will ultimately benefit students and will give them much needed continuity in their Schooling lives. The practical differences will be more difficult to see, the main one being the one Head teacher moving from Island to Island which could prove a problem in the winter. Measures which will deal with other streamlining issues include making previous off Island Heads, now ‘Assistant Heads’, and cutting back in administration costs.
In a recent WMN article, The Chief Executive Councillor, Phillip Hygate said “It means that off-Island Staff can focus more on teaching rather than bureaucracy”. Interestingly, the same article closes with the statement ‘IExtensive consultations with Parents, Teachers and School governors was carried out before the decision to Federate the Schools was made./I’ – The glaring omission of course, being the Students.