Executive Head Teacher: Mrs Sue Jezard Stokenham Area Primary School Stokenham Kingsbridge Devon TQ7 2SJ 01548 580551 [email protected]

8th November 2019

Dear Parents and Carers

Proposal to join Education South West Multi Academy Trust

Governors are proposing the South Hams Federation joins Education South West’s Multi Academy Trust (ESW). Education South West Multi Academy Trust schools are all in South Devon, and are a mix of primary, all-through and secondary schools:

Primary Schools: Christow, Blackawton, East Allington, Kingswear, Rydon and Stoke Fleming All-through schools: Dartmouth Academy Secondary Schools: Coombeshead Academy, Kingsbridge Community College and Teign School.

Key points of joining Education South West Multi-Academy Trust

Common values shared by South Hams Federation and Education South West:

 A strong moral purpose where the needs of children always come first.  A culture of ambition and high aspirations.  A commitment to ensuring that all children achieve well, regardless of their situation or starting point.  A commitment on the part of Education South West that each school or group of schools within the Trust has its own identity within its community which is supported by Local Governing Body comprising parents, staff and community members.  A culture of openness and a belief that sharing best practice helps to improve the education that we can provide for all of our children.

We want all our staff to continuously develop their expertise because this will ensure the children get the best education possible.

Education South West will bring the benefits of:

 Kingsbridge Community College is a Teaching School that works with its alliance of schools to provide a wide range of training for teachers and support staff.  Kingsbridge Community College was the first of 32 schools across the country to gain a licence from the DfE to run the National Professional Qualification suite of programmes for middle, senior leaders and headship.  Kingsbridge Community College is also a Research School, amongst the first five such schools to be appointed nationally, helping teachers improve their practice based on up-to-date educational research evidence.  Being part of a larger group of schools provides the opportunity not just to recruit the best staff but to retain them by offering them wider opportunities across our schools.

Loddiswell Primary School Kingsbridge Community Primary School Malborough with South Huish C of E Primary School Modbury County Primary School Stokenham Area Primary School

In considering joining Education South West, the over-riding concerns of governors are to ensure that our schools continue to provide the best possible standard of education and care for our children. With this in mind, your views are important to us and we are extremely keen to hear your thoughts.

To assist with your understanding we will be holding the following open meetings:

Loddiswell Monday 18th November 3.30pm Stokenham Tuesday 19th November 3.45pm Modbury Wednesday 20th November 3.45pm Malborough Thursday 21st November 3.30pm Kingsbridge Friday 22nd November 3.45pm

Roger Pope (CEO, Education South West) will be attending the Open Meetings at which you can ask any questions in relation to this change but I have included with this letter a list of frequently asked questions. Should you wish to respond to the consultation, please return the following form to the school office or email your comments to [email protected] with ‘ESW Consultation’ in the subject line.

Consultation begins from the date of this letter (8th November 2019) and will end at 4.00pm on Friday 20th December 2019. All responses should be received by this last time and date to be recorded as part of this consultation.

Yours sincerely

Jane Greaves Chair of South Hams Federation

Attached: FAQs for Parents & Carers Appendix A Formal Consultation Response Form