Michael Gove's Academies Act was rushed through parliament last week and now Goddard Park is working through the summer to become one of the first new primary academies
Goddard Park primary doesn't sit in a leafy suburb of Swindon; its catchment comprises a swathe of modest housing estates where many families manage on low incomes or on benefits. It is a medium-sized primary of 420 pupils in the 11th poorest ward in the south-west; a significant proportion – 38% – of children currently enrolled are eligible for free school meals.
Those facts don't scream "outstanding school", observes its headteacher, Mike Welsh, who is also president of the National Association of Headteachers.
But Goddard Park was top-rated at its recent Ofsted inspection, and it is capitalising on that in a bid to become one of the first – perhaps the first – primary school to become an academy in September under Michael Gove's Academies Act, which was rushed through parliament last week.
Welsh has only just received final confirmation that his application has been approved: the pressure is now on to get every last bit of administrative nitty-gritty sorted over the summer holiday so the school can fully opt out of local authority control and be launched as an academy on 1 September.
Full info
http://m.guardian.co.uk/?id=102202&story=http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/aug/03/michael-gove-primary-school-academies
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