It's about time the crap caused by Rutland County Council was sorted out.
Oakham School backs the newly proposed Harington School
Oakham School backs the newly proposed Harington School
17 March 2014
Oakham School is pleased to announce that it is to join Catmose College and Uppingham Community College in sponsoring Harington School, the newly proposed Sixth Form Free School.
Commenting on the announcement, Nigel Lashbrook, Headmaster at Oakham School, said: “We are delighted to be a part of the proposed new academic Sixth Form provision. “This is a fantastic opportunity for Oakham School to be a further part of the education on offer to the local community. We are more than just a school, we are, and always have been, an educational charity. An integral part of our original statutes, set down by our Founder in 1584, is to provide an academic education to local pupils. Being a part of Harington School will allow us to perform this much more effectively, to more children, than we can ever hope to do through bursaries to Oakham School. We will, of course, continue to offer bursaries and scholarships to Oakham, but through our involvement with Harington School, we will be able to give hundreds of young people from Rutland the opportunity to go to a top university.”
The proposal to set up Harington School has, until now, been led by the Principals of Catmose College and UCC; Stuart Williams and Jan Turner. They were both concerned that many pupils, after studying at their own schools, choose to leave the county to study A Levels. It is their aspiration that Harington School should provide a rigorous A Level academic education for 300 local pupils (150 intake per year).
“The expectation of students at Harington School is that the vast majority will apply for places at the most prestigious universities either in the UK or abroad,” says Jan Turner, Principal of UCC. “Most notably, there is an intention that 5% of pupils will win places at Oxford or Cambridge and 25% of students to attend a ‘Russell Group’ University (one of the top third of HE providers in the country).”
Principal at Catmose College, Stuart Williams, said “we wanted a sponsor who was already managing a successful academic Sixth Form to help us to set the right foundations for Harington School from the very beginning. We are delighted that Oakham, who have a long-standing reputation of offering an excellent provision for sixth formers, through both their A Level and IB programmes, have jumped at the opportunity to join us in sponsoring Harington.”
The Free School bid was originally proposed by the Principals of Catmose College and UCC. To date, the application for Harington School has already won approval from the New Schools Network (an independent charity that supports Free School bids). Jan, Nigel and Stuart are urging members of the local community, particularly parents and students, to register their support for the Sixth Form, as this will be critical in the application process. “We need to be proactive,” says Stuart. “The population of Rutland is set to grow over the next few years, and the number of pupils aged 15-19 is due to reach 3000 by 2015. This will place significant pressure on the current provision available locally, and so we should be planning for additional provision now.” To date, the location of the proposed school has not been agreed. This will be taken forward by the DfES in the next stage of the process.
For more information about the proposed Free School please visit www.haringtonschool.com.
