Ingleton free school proposal (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Ingleton free school proposal

8:50am Thursday 20th October 2011 in Ingleton news By Kate Proctor, Reporter

PLANS to create a free school in the Yorkshire Dales are being formulated by a community group hoping to transform education in the area.

Led by ex-teacher Kevin McSherry and campaigner Tony Macaulay, the team hope to set up a new institution at Ingleton Middle School, which is due to close next year.

“We want to create a centre of excellence in education that is suited to the people living in the local area and relevant to the rural environment.

“The county council has chosen to close Ingleton Middle School but that doesn’t mean a school can’t be set up in the same place with educational values that I think will appeal to a lot of peo-ple,” said Mr Mc-Sherry.

The county council decided to close the school, which caters for 10 to 13-year-olds, from September 2012 but announced to the community that if they could come up with an alternative use for the building it could be handed over.

Mr McSherry said: “We’ve already had one meeting with the council, who have said that if someone can come up with a feasible and sustainable business model for the building it might stay within community control.

“The free school idea is in its infancy but we’re hoping to hear the thoughts of local people and see what support is there. We’re hopeful it will capture people’s imaginations.”

Free schools are a Conservative party initiative which allow new institutions to be set up and run by parents, teachers or community groups while receiving cent-ral Government funding.

Plans for the Ingleton school include changing the age ran-ge to 11-16. While preparing pupils for GCSE exams, there would be less emphasis on solely study ing towards qual-ifications.

“We want to set up a school with a unique philosophy. Education should intrinsically be a pleasurable expe-rience that chidren find joy in.

“There’s no such thing as a qua-ntifiable intellect and exams every five min-utes do not truly prepare students for life. It’s a really exc-iting prospect to try to do something new,” said the father of five.

The group will now hold meetings with the local community to find out if there is enough support for the idea before a formal application is considered.

Last week 50 people attended a meeting at Ingleborough Community Centre where several ideas were put forward for the future use of the school site.