St. John’s to become Academy
Published on Wednesday, January 18th, 2012 at 3:01 pm
An outstanding Catholic school and sixth form college has become the first for the Newcastle and Hexham Diocese in Durham to convert to an academy.
St John’s in Bishop Auckland, which has 1,400 students, aims to continue its work as a National Support School, sharing its best practice in teaching and learning, behaviour and leadership across the region.
Now known as St John’s School and Sixth Form College, a Catholic Academy, it has also played a role in laying new ground for the transfer of land from local authority ownership when schools convert.
Elaine McLaine, a solicitor with regional firm BHP Law who specialises in academy conversions, explained: “Land owned by the local authority, which has buildings on it for voluntary aided schools for sport, has to transfer to the academy trust as part of the conversion process.
“The seamless way in which we were able to negotiate this with the local authority has shown the Secretary of State that they do not need to give consent in such cases. In this sense, St John’s has provided a model for the Department for Education for future conversions.”
Gerard Moran, executive principal at St John’s and a National Leader of Education, said greater freedoms over the curriculum and resources would allow the academy to continue providing the best education for young people.
He explained: “Our aim was to go through the conversion process making the most important decisions for the future but also continuing as an outstanding, outward looking school.
“The professional advisors we employed, BHP Law and Avec, have been superb. We were attracted to the fact that we would get people who not only had experience of working with schools but would also support us by working in partnership with the school and its governors.
“We work to the principle of employing local firms when we can so we were delighted to find local partners who had the competencies we needed.”
Principal Frank O’Neill added: “The governors took a very careful approach to the process with a view to accountability and enhancing our ability to participate in the partnerships we already have.
“We look forward to continue working collaboratively with our partners. It’s a very exciting development for us and for the other schools in the area that we support.”
St John’s was built in 1967 and extended in the 1970s, including the addition of a swimming pool. It underwent a £9m refurbishment between 2003-05.
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