Free School Scrutiny
It was announced in October 2013 that Catmose College, in Oakham, and Uppingham Community College planned to submit a joint bid to open a post-16 “A” level ‘free school’ called Harrington College. The two academies have now submitted a formal bid to the Department for Education.
A special meeting of the People (Children) Scrutiny Panel at Rutland County Council is being held at 7pm on Monday 31 March 2014.
A ‘free school’ is a school funded by taxpayers, which is free to attend, but is not controlled by a local authority. Each ‘free school’ is responsible for their curriculum, as well as teachers’ pay and conditions, school terms and school day lengths.
Chairman of the Scrutiny Panel, Councillor Gale Waller (pictured right), said: “The proposal for a post 16 free school in Rutland has created a great deal of debate locally and this is a great opportunity to hear from the two schools about their proposal and for the public and councillors to have their questions answered. In addition, representatives of Rutland County College will also give a presentation about what their College offers and this meeting will be incredibly useful in that it will give those both for and against the plans the opportunity to voice their opinion.”
Members of the public also have the opportunity to make their voice heard at the Scrutiny meeting but need to notify the council in advance. Full details of how you can get involved have been published on the council website.
Do you wish to speak at the meeting?
Members of the public may submit petitions, deputations or questions about any of the items on the agenda for the meeting. Any request to do so must be received by the Corporate Support team by 4.30pm two working days before the meeting (Thursday 20th March). The time allowed for each petition will be three minutes and for each deputation and question with its response will be five minutes.
A question can be submitted at short notice as long as a written copy is received by the meeting administrator 15 minutes before the meeting starts. Only one minute will be allowed to ask a ‘short notice’ question and no supplementary question will be allowed.
The total time allowed at the meeting for petitions, deputations and questions from the public will be 30 minutes.
