A Commentary on the Solution Proposed by County.

The consultation document only puts forward one high level outline solution which it describes as a detailed solution:

The detailed proposal is to reorganise the school so that Key Stage 3 is based at the Watchetts Drive site and Key Stages 4 and 5 at the Tomlinscote Way site. It is proposed that this physical change takes effect from 1 September 2012

The consultation document contains no detail about the large split site school it proposes. For the proposal to be credible, and to show that it has been properly thought through, topics such as Specialisms, Curriculum, Tutor Groups, Teaching Continuity across sites and so on, must be addressed.

The consultation document does not even commit to this solution, it merely presents it as ‘The form a link between Tomlinscote and Kings International might take ‘.

The single greatest factor in delivering the transformation is leadership and management. The single greatest risk is leadership and management. It is not clear that the LEA, new head or governors have any experience of either creating or managing a large split site school. The Hay Group report also quotes the ‘obvious mistake’ of staffing senior leadership of the newly formed school with teachers from just one of the schools, this mistake would appear to have already been made.

There is considerable cost associated with implementing the proposal. Some cost items are identified in the consultation document, but they are not quantified and no funds are committed.

The document puts forward no alternatives of its own to closing Kings.

See the Full DOCUMENT HERE