The following figures and commentary are as of January 2006.
Church of England Primary provision increases at about 0.01 per cent per annum. This is significant in the context of falling rolls and given the very large number (for the historical reasons given above) of small rural primary schools in our portfolio. In the North-East we have added significantly to our primary stock eg:
- St George's CE Aided Primary (partly replacing Sadberge)
- Junior/Infant amalgamations into primaries in Stockton (Holy Trinity, St Mark’s), S Tyneside (All Saints), Gateshead (St Aidan’s).
Broadly our percentage increases because our schools tend to remain full and are perceived by parents as doing a good job. They are (together with those of our Roman Catholic colleagues) often at the top of primary league tables and usually have excellent added value regardless of location. Some statistics about this are set out below.
Our secondary provision has increased as already stated. We anticipate far more than 100 schools and aspire to 10 per cent of the secondary sector. Much of the additional provision has been because Local Authorities have worked with dioceses to re-launch schools under the church’s umbrella. Most of these so far have been Voluntary Aided schools, though with the occasional Voluntary Controlled. However, the current trend is strongly towards academies.
Examples include:
- All Saints Ingleby Barwick (Stockton) – a new school to provide for demographic drift
- St Hilda’s, Hartlepool – a re-launch and re-build of Hartlepool’s lowest achieving school leading to marked improvement of behaviour, morale and results. This project is also an example of strong community support for the Church’s involvement to make a difference in the most challenging part of north Hartlepool.
- Venerable Bede, Sunderland – a new school to cope with demographic drift. 80 per cent of the pupils come from the bottom 20 per cent of demography. This school has not existed long enough to produce GCSE results but its SATS are well above national average
- Whitburn Comprehensive, South Tyneside. This is a very successful school and the Local Authority has partnered with us to rebuild it and make it even more successful. The funding for new buildings is in place.
- All Saints, Newcastle – a Voluntary Controlled re-launch in partnership with the Local Authority and the University in the most challenging area of east Newcastle. This school is moving strongly forward under new leadership after an initial hesitation.
These are very varied projects but in every case they are looking to further improvement of both resources and outcomes. The Church of England takes the view that a strong school ethos (and in our case of course a strong Christian school ethos) is a powerful way to get improvement. The Church of England recognises that schools cannot be transformed over night and that there will inevitably be ups and downs in the process of change.