Emmanuel Schools Foundation

 

The Emmanuel Schools Foundation (ESF) (previously the Vardy Foundation after its founder, Sir Peter Vardy) intends to set up a total of seven specialist independent schools in the UK under the Government's City Academies Initiative. Under this scheme the provision of some initial sponsorship gives the backer the right to influence the ethos of the school by hand-picking the initial board of governors, though one of the board members must be a parent of a member of the student body elected by fellow parents. This has led to complaints about 'crownyism' on the part of the ESF directors.

A key feature of all the Foundation's schools is the emphasis on its Christian ethos, although the Foundation is keen to stress that there has never been a religious dimension to its Student Intake Policy. In particular, students are encouraged to consider the claims of the Bible, including creationism, alongside the standard National Curriculum. These ideas are presented in assemblies and Religious Education lessons (years 7-11) and compulsory lessons for Sixth Form under the banner of ‘Philosophy, Theology and Ethics’.

At present the foundation runs three schools - The King's Academy in Middlesbrough, Emmanuel City Technology College in Gateshead and Trinity Academy in Doncaster. The Foundation put forward an 'expression of interest' to open a second Academy in the Doncaster area, this time in the town of Conisbrough. The scheme, which was enthusiastically backed by Conisbrough council's Aidan Rave and Doncaster Mayor Martin Winter, but the idea was shelved following a campaign the parents of Conisbrough's Northcliffe School.[1].

ESF has received the green light to build a fourth Academy in the Northumbria area which is to be named Bede Academy (after the famous St. Bede who came from the area).

The three schools that currently form the Foundation have formed a strong alliance. One such event that shows this spirit of friendship is the annual Emmanuel Schools Olympics which was hosted by The King's in 2004 [2],and Emmanuel College in 2005.

Core Values and Mission Statement

The Emmanuel Schools Foundation released its Core Values and Mission Statement in 2006. The idea is for all members of the ESF, both staff and students, to aspire to these ideals:

Honourable Purpose: We aim to be positive in everything, doing what is good and aiming to benefit others as well as ourselves.

Humility: We seek to do our personal best without bragging and to encourage others to achieve their best without being critical or jealous of their efforts.

Compassion: We care for those who are in difficulty and who are hurting, recognising that the world does not exist for us alone. Integrity: We can be trusted to be honest and truthful, to say what we mean and to do what we say.

Accountability: We recognise that having the freedom to express ourselves means we must also accept responsibility for our words, thoughts and actions.

Courage: We aim to do what is right, whatever the cost; we stand up for the weak, whatever the danger; we face our fears and find ways of defeating them.

Determination: We know that hard work and the refusal to give up are essential if we are to achieve anything worthwhile.

Its Mission Statement is thus:

To provide all students and staff with the opportunity to work hard to achieve their personal best

To encourage personal, moral and spiritual development within a Christian framework

To create a disciplined, sensitive environment where everyone is equally valued

Emmanuel College

Emmanuel College opened in 1990 following the City Technology Initiative, which was established in 1988. Emmanuel opened with just 150 Year 7 students and has grown to have a student body of 1250 (350 more students than the College was planning to accept). Emmanuel College serves what was at the time of its building one of the most deprived areas in Gateshead, being built on the site of the former St. John Fisher Comprehensive School, which had been lying dormant for some years.

Emmanuel College is one of the most successful comprehensive schools in the country and, despite wholly erroneous suggestions that this is because it attracts the best students, remains truly comprehensive. Its intake policy is such that it must accept the same number of students from every ability band; the Entrance Examination taken by every student measures students’ ability.

The GCSE examination results achieved by the first group of students at Emmanuel College earned them the achievement of being the best secondary school in Gateshead – further underlining why the College was the most popular town, receiving 500 applications for just 150 places.

Since then Emmanuel College has gone from strength to strength. Every year since 1996 the College has achieved the best GCSE results of any comprehensive school in the country.

In 2006 Ofsted praised Emmanuel College of Gateshead, claiming that it is "remarkable", and classifying it as an 'outstanding' school for the third inspection in a row. It is only one of twelve secondary schools in the UK to have achieved this. [3].

Emmanuel College has been led by John Burn MBE, Nigel McQuoid and Jonathan Winch.

The King’s Academy

The King’s Academy was the first Academy to be built by ESF, following the introduction of the City Academies Initiative in 2000. The ESF was approached by Middlesbrough Council to replace both Brackenhoe School and Coulby Newham Secondary School (as well as the Beverley School for the Deaf which had transferred its staff and students to Coulby Newham School in 2002). Following the £2M investment of Sir Peter Vardy, The King’s Academy was built at a cost of £22M on the playing fields of Coulby Newham Secondary School.

The King’s Academy has three specific features, the first its specialism in Business and Enterprise, something that is encouraged in all aspects of the cirriculum. The second is its distinctive Christian ethos, which according its most recent OfSTED inspection ‘underpins everything that is undertaken in the Academy’. The third feature is the inclusive manner in which it treats the 200 Special Educational Needs students, for whom places are reserved on account of Deafness, Hearing Impaiment, Blindness, Visual Impairment and Moderate Learning Difficulties.

1100 students and the majority of the staff who had worked at both Coulby Newham and Brackenhoe transferred to the King’s Academy on 8th September 2003.

It is worth noting that at the time the King’s Academy was coming into fruition the Academy initiative was meant to replace "failing" inner city schools, according to local parents and teachers, one of the schools that The King's Academy replaced was neither failing nor had an inner city location. Coulby Newham School was regarded as good in its OFSTED reports in 1995 and 2000 and in 2002 HMI stated that it was even better than at its last inspection. HMI stated quite clearly that the new school should build on the work already done at Coulby Newham.

In the Academy's first few months of operation some 10 times the national average of pupils were permanently excluded, many were critical of Nigel McQuoid, the then Principal for what was labelled ‘heavy-handedness’, others agreed that misbehaviour and disrespect should not have been tolerated.

The King’s Academy was targeted by the media before its opening and articles were written about it being a faith school. The King’s Academy is not a faith school – it does not select its students on a religious basis, nor does it promote a certain Christian denomination. (See also Creationism Controversy)

Richard Coupe was the Principal Designate throughout the process of establishing the King’s Academy, but was replaced before the Academy was opened, by Nigel McQuoid. At that time McQuoid was also Principal at Emmanuel College and he ran both schools for a period of 9 months before a replacement was found for his position at Emmanuel. McQuoid stepped down from his role as Principal of the King’s in August 2005 to become the Director of the Foundation and was replaced by Christopher P. Drew, who was educated in nearby Stockton-on-Tees.

Trinity Academy

Trinity Academy opened on the site of Thorne Grammar School in September 2006. Although all Thorne Grammar School staff had a TUPE right to transfer across at the same rate of pay and working conditions there are several anomalies where jobs have been changed, shared out and then made redundant. A significant proportion, in excess of 30, of the Thorne Grammar School Staff either retired or found other employment in preference to moving to Trinity Academy. At the end of the 2005-6 academic year more staff have left (20+), it is claimed that some have left due to stress.

Trinity Academy has officially permanently excluded very few pupils. In part this is because some pupils decided not to take up their place at the new Academy, of which all students were offered the opportunity.

Trinity Academy has massively improved the fortunes of its pupils: 63% of its pupils achieved 5A*-C grades in 2007, compared with the highest results ever achieved at Thorne Grammar of 34%. It has been highly commended by both OfSTED and Jim Knight the Schools Secretary for the massive improvement it has brought to academic standards.

Current Principal Ian Brew has led Trinity since its inception.

Bede Academy

Bede Academy is to be the 4th school to join the Foundation. Set to open in 2009, the so-called 'all through' Academy will cater for students between 3 and 18 (however, to school will initially open with Reception years to Year 9, as it replacing a middle school in the senior years). Miss Gwyneth Evans, currently a vice-principal at Emmanuel College, has been named Principal Designate of the senior years with Ms Liz Clubbs, currently Headmistress of South Beach First School, is to be principal for Nursery and Primary Years. They will take up their positions from January 2008 in order to ensure a smooth transfer from the schools that are set to be closed. Although the Principals Designate have been named, it is not certain that Clubbs and Evans will be the Principals on the opening of Bede Academy (cf. Richard Coupe, who was Principal Designate of The King's Academy but later made way for Nigel McQuoid to take up the reins).

Creationism controversy

A lecture given by Steven Layfield in 2000, prior to his taking up the job of Head of Science at Emmanuel College, Gateshead, on The Teaching of Science: A Biblical Perspective [4] advocated the teaching of Intelligent Design in schools. In 2002, a group of leading scientists including Richard Dawkins alleged that creationism was taught in Emmanuel College biology classes[5], however, after inspecting the material used to teach science at Emmanuel College, [Ofsted] decided that the matter did not need to be pursued further.[6]

An Ofsted inspection in 2006 described the school as 'Outstanding' and found no problem with its science provision.[7] John Dear, Head of the Science, Electronics and Engineering Department at the King's Academy, has said on many occasions that the teaching of creationism does not form part of the curriculum in science lessons, but the idea of a creator God is discussed freely in Religious Education and presented to pupils in assemblies. [8]

Controversy emerged again in November 2006 when it emerged that Steven Layfield was a director of Truth in Science, a body which had sent material to British schools questioning the theory of evolution. However a statement was released by Emmanuel College denied that Steven Layfield's private involvement reflected the views of the School. Steven Layfield subsequently resigned from the board of Truth in Science.[9]

External links

• Official site
• Former Pupil Views
• Beware the Black Shadow, an anti-Emmanuel, anti-creationist Schools campaign site
• Marc Draco, another anti-Emmanuel Schools campaign site targeting Kings Academy primarily
• Conisbrough And Denaby Parents Action Group, a group against the Emmanuel Schools Foundation from taking over Northcliffe Comprehensive (the group has won its case)
• What a creation... The Guardian, January 15 2005
• They aren't faith schools and they don't select The Guardian, December 5 2006

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