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Betws Primary School
Consultation Document to Federate with Ffaldau
Please see the below document regarding the federation with Ffaldau.
Consultation Document
Proposal to change how The Betws and Blaengarw Primary Federation and Ffaldau Primary School are led and managed.
The Governing Bodies of The Betws and Blaengarw Primary Federation and Ffaldau Primary School are consulting on the proposal to form a formal collaboration between the three schools with effect from September 2022.
These changes are explained in the sections below.
There is a form at the end of the document for your responses.
Introduction
The Governing Bodies of The Betws and Blaengarw Primary Federation and Ffaldau Primary School have agreed to propose a formal collaboration arrangement between the Betws / Blaengarw Federation and Ffaldau Primary. This would mean the three schools working closely together under the leadership of a single Headteacher with a Head of School in each school and would replace the current interim arrangements.
Betws Primary and Blaengarw Primary schools are already federated, this means that they work closely in partnership sharing a governing body. The current proposal would allow Ffaldau to work closely with the other two primaries as part of a formal collaboration. Under these arrangements the three schools would share an Executive Head Teacher but Ffaldau would retain its governing body.
The three schools already work together as part of the Coleg Cymunedol Y Dderwen Cluster of Schools. There are many similarities in the requirements for teaching and learning and it is felt that there is a great deal to be gained for our pupils by working in even closer partnership.
A period of formal collaboration would allow the governors time to evaluate the impact of joint working and to explore the possibility for the future expansion of the current federation between Betws and Blaengarw to include Ffaldau.
What does it mean for your school?
Under this arrangement each school will retain its individual name, identity and vision. The two existing Governing Bodies ( Betws/ Blaengarw governing body and Ffaldau governing body) will continue to fulfill the statutory duties for the individual schools including financial and strategic responsibilities.
Overall, this formal collaboration shouldn’t make a big difference to the day-to-day lives of the school community, but it will enable us to learn from each other’s successes and build a strong partnership to face future challenges.
These proposals are not about saving money, the budget for each school will stay the same, but it would allow us to share staff skills and expertise in an efficient and effective way.
Seeking your views
It is very important that parents/carers or anyone else with an interest in the schools, who want to make a comment do so. We want your views and will make sure that all views are considered (see comments form at the end of this document).
What is formal collaboration?
A formal collaboration is an arrangement where two or more schools decide to work together for the benefit of all pupils and their school communities. All schools have strengths; sharing these strengths can help schools make education better for all their pupils.
In practical terms, it means the schools will share an Executive Headteacher (Mrs Schofield) who will carry out the legal and strategic responsibilities in each school. In each school the Head of School will be the lead professional working closely with the Executive Headteacher in the leadership and management of the formal collaboration.
The three schools will still have separate budgets. There will be opportunities to share costs and funding for activities such as staff training, joint school visits/sporting events for the children or to pay for a person to work across both schools where a school on its own could not afford it.
Formal collaboration is not a merger. The schools would remain separate schools and children will still go to their local school.
What are the benefits?
For pupils
- Shared experiences through joint curriculum work
- Enhanced sporting and cultural opportunities (eg shared art/ music provision)
- Improved pupil voice opportunities by working together to improve their valley
- Transition opportunities for Year 6 pupils entering the CCYD
For parents and community
- Develop excellent education within our communities
- Ensure the sustainability of provision within the local communities
- Provide opportunities to bring communities together
- Celebrate the unique heritage and identity of each community
For staff
- Opportunities to network and collaborate across the partner schools
- A shared vision for the curriculum and joint working across the schools to support its development
- Excellence in Professional Development
- Increased capacity for distributed leadership
What will change?
Pupils:
The purpose of the collaboration is to improve outcomes for children in the three schools. However, this does not mean that children should expect a big change in their day-to-day lives.
Where one of the schools has a particular strength, the staff should work together to make sure the children at all three schools benefit. By working together, we hope that we are able to use staff expertise across all three schools to enhance learning experiences for our children.
Parents/Carers:
As with the pupils, parents and carers should not notice a big difference in the schools. Hopefully over time parents and carers will start to notice small but significant ways in which the schools are improving the way things are done. On a day to day basis the lead professional in each school would be the Head of School. The Headteacher will share their time between each school but would be available on request.
Staff:
Members of staff that are directly affected by the proposal will have already been consulted about the changes. Any changes that are proposed further down the line, again will involve prior consultation with the members of staff affected. Overall, the collaboration should mean that staff get more support, more development opportunities, and an improved programme of training; all of which should make for improved teaching and learning at both schools. It is also expected that staff will have improved opportunities for both personal and joint development as there is an opportunity for more collaborative work across the schools.
Members of the Local Community:
People who live around the schools should not notice a great deal of change. The schools will keep their own name and remain as separate local primary schools serving their local catchment areas.
Frequently asked questions……
Will the pupils keep swapping schools?
No. The children will still go to one of the schools just as they do at the moment.
Will pupils have to change school uniform?
No. The schools are still three separate schools and the children will keep the uniform of their own school.
Will the teachers keep swapping schools?
No. The class teachers will work at one of the schools as they do now. There could be some opportunities for teachers to do some work across schools, but they will not have to keep changing from one to the other.
Will the schools keep the same name?
Yes, each school will keep their current name. It is important to recognise that although they will be working together and will share some ways of working these three schools have their own characters and their own communities. However, we would like to work with the children to create a name for the collaboration.
What happens if the formal collaboration does not work?
The formal collaboration can be reversed if for some reason it is not working as well as it should. The Governing Bodies could decide to stop the arrangement and go back to having completely separate leadership teams.
Will applying for my child to start at one of the schools be any different?
No. You would still apply to the school of your choice just like you would do now. The admissions authority for the three schools is still Bridgend County Borough Council and the process for applying would be just the same.
Will the schools keep the same budget?
Yes. The schools are still three separate schools and will be funded exactly as they are now. Where the three schools want to club together they would work under the principle that none of the schools would be subsidising the other.
Will the schools share an Estyn inspection?
Under this arrangement, Ffaldau’s inspection would be separate from Betws/ Blaengarw, Betws and Blaengarw Primaries are likely to be inspected at the same time as they are a federation.
What happens next?
It is very important that everyone has the chance to find out more about the proposal and to let us know their views. The consultation period runs from Monday 4th April- Monday 30th May.
We will be holding meetings at the following times for parents/carers or anyone else with an interest in the schools so that they can turn up to find out more and tell us what they think:
Betws Primary, 7th June 2022- 2.30pm
Betws Primary, 7th June 2022-6pm
Blaengarw Primary, 8th June 2022- 2.30pm
Blaengarw Primary, 8th June 2022 -6pm
Ffaldau Primary, 9th June 2022-2.30pm
Ffaldau Primary, 9th June 2022-6pm
You can send us your views by email with subject “Consultation response” to:
admin.blaengarwps.bridgend.cymru or admin.betwsps.bridgend.cymru or admin.ffaldaups.bridgend.cymru
or you can complete the form at the back of this document and drop it off at any of the schools.
Staff at the schools will be invited to a separate meeting and we will hold meetings for the student councils to gather the views of pupils.
At the end of the consultation period we will collect up all the responses that we have received. These will be put together into a report and the Governing Bodies will meet jointly to consider the responses to the consultation and then meet separately to make a decision on whether to proceed with the proposal.
Comment Form
You are able to respond to this consultation in two ways.
- You can send us your views by email with subject “Consultation response” to: admin.blaengarwps.bridgend.cymru or admin.betwsps.bridgend.cymru or admin.ffaldaups.bridgend.cymru
Or
2. Fill in the form below and return it by either dropping it in at one of the schools or posting it before 30th June 2022. marked as follows:
Consultation Response, FAO Chair of Governors
To either:
Chair of Governors, Betws Primary, Betws Road, Betws, Bridgend, CF32 8YD
Or
Chair of Governors, Blaengarw Primary, Station Street, Blaengarw, Bridgend, CF32 8BA
Or
Chair of Governors, Ffaldau Primary, Ivor St, Pontycymer , Bridgend
Please help us analyse these results by indication your interest in the proposals:
- Parent/Carer of pupil
- Governor
- Member of staff
- Other (Please specify………………………………………………………)
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Please provide any comments or suggestions you might have on the proposal ( please use additional sheet if needed).
Please return this form by June 30th 2022. All responses will be treated in confidence and will be considered when the Governing Bodies meet to decide whether or not to go ahead with the proposal.