Academy fact-finding mission success

The move to turn Maltby Community School into an academy sponsored by Rotherham firm U-xplore has split opinion.

A school campaign group handed over a petition slamming plans for the town's first academy, claiming that Rotherham Borough Council was making a mistake.

Campaigners said that consultation over the plans was “sketchy and rushed” and that the record of academies in other parts of the country was not good.

But academy status will give the school access to new funding although it will be taken out of local authority control and monitored closely by the Government for improvement.

Cllr Turner, chairman of Wentworth Valley Area Assembly, arranged a fact-finding visit to Trinity Academy at Thorne, formerly Thorne Grammar School, by a co-ordinating committee of the assembly and was impressed by what he saw.

He said: “We found a brand new school surrounded by sports fields. Before any pupil is admitted to Trinity Academy the parents must sign an agreement.

“Paragraphs dealing with drugs, weapons, attendance, discipline and detention are all proscribed and must be accepted.

“In essence, the school was orderly, functional, self absorbed and tidy.

“There is a tremendous accent on a wide range of sports and healthy competition. There is a theatre, travel and active links to the community an business.”

He added: “Maltby Academy is obviously at the beginning but since the arrival of head teacher David Sutton, significant improvements in the school and its academic results have already taken place.

“Listening to Mr Sutton energetically propounding his intent and that of his associates made it difficult not to appreciate that this new framework will provide better opportunity, better facility, better discipline and direction to the school.”