School's new bid to get specialist status (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

School's new bid to get specialist status

ABBEYFIELD School is making a second bid to achieve specialist status as a business and enterprise college.The Chippenham secondary school had its first application turned down by the Government last year due to what ministers described as 'significant weaknesses'.

But staff felt they had been misinformed about the qualifying requirements after being told the school's relatively short time in existence would not count against it.

Now with the next round of bids being considered in March the school is determined it will be a case of second time lucky.

The business and enterprise specialism is one of 11 schools can now attain to signify their excellence in a particular academic field. Abbeyfield's Chippenham neighbour Sheldon secured science college status in 2002, while Hardenhuish School became a maths and computing college last year.

If Abbeyfield achieves business and enterprise college status it will have a big impact across its entire curriculum and see a strong emphasis on vocational courses in the subjects. Pupils would also be encouraged to develop links with local businesses and even citizenship lessons would see a significant focus on economics.

The school's chair of governors, David Sage, said they could not comment on the new bid at this stage due to the fact they were still negotiating with the Department for Education and Skills. But speaking ahead of Abbeyfield's first application, headteacher Trish Shubrook said: "We are currently planning a bid for the status which will result in a whole host of benefits for the school and its pupils.

"As well as enabling us to provide business and business-related courses, we will be encouraging students to work towards building their own enterprise."

The school, which was built as part of a private finance initiative scheme, opened its doors in September 2000 and just two years later received a dazzling Ofsted report.

Its failure to achieve business and enterprise status in 2003 saw North Wiltshire MP James Gray quiz school standards minister David Milliband in the Commons last week.

He said: "The school spent time and money preparing a bid for business and enterprise specialism. It was told by the department that the length of existence of the school did not matter and the lack of exam statistics would not count against it, but was then very surprised to be turned down, apparently on the ground of its lack of exam statistics."

Mr Milliband said: "The department does owe an apology to Abbeyfield school, in that it was given mistaken information. However, its application for specialist status did not fail because of that error; rather, there were some significant weaknesses in its bid."