Kenilworth School still in academy conversion talks despite Government u-turn

Kenilworth School is still in talks to convert to academy status despite the Government announcing they will no longer force all school to become academies.
Kenilworth SchoolKenilworth School
Kenilworth School

However, the Government’s decision may affect the school’s plans to incorporate other schools into a multi-academy trust.

Richard Hales, a governor at Kenilworth School, reiterated the school’s desire to convert despite the Government u-turn, and said it was a way of getting income and funding from different sources.

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He added: “The government’s announcement makes no difference to our plans to be honest.

“We’ve got no desire to be a huge trust with lots of schools in it. If we become an academy we would be on our own for the first year, and then our preference would be to approach the Kenilworth primary schools after that.”

Kenilworth School first announced the plans to potentially convert to academy status on March 11, just five days before the Government announced it wanted all schools to convert by 2020.

This spurred the school’s governors into action, who felt they needed to act quickly so the school would stay in control of its own fate.

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In a previous interview, chair of governors at the school Sue Casey said: “We want to be in control of our own destiny. We’re an outstanding school which achieves incredibly good results, and what’s important is to keep it that way.”

But following criticism from several Conservative backbenchers and Warwickshire County Council, education secretary Nicky Morgan went back on her original plan.

Anyone wishing to contact the school about converting to academy status should email their views to [email protected]

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