Staff at a primary school in Branston have made the decision to turn it into an academy.
The governors at Rykneld Primary School in Main Street have been considering its future for the past five years and this month made the choice to join the John Taylor Multi-Academy Trust.
Gary Staddon, Rykneld's head teacher, said that interest in joining John Taylor, based in Barton under Needwood, peaked 18 months ago.
This was due to "closer collaboration with local schools" but he has vowed to "keep the Rykneld identity."
There are currently four schools in the trust. These are John Taylor High School, Thomas Russell Infant’s School – both in Barton – Yoxall St Peter’s C of E Primary School and Kingsmead School in Hednesford.
A new secondary school is being built in Tatenhill, which will aslo be run by the The John Taylor trust (MAT).
He said: "Around 18 months ago, we became particularly interested in pursuing the benefits of closer collaboration with local schools within a multi academy trust and the John Taylor MAT has a very good reputation.
"From a location perspective, and considering benefits to our community, this MAT became even more attractive to us when we heard the new Free School in Tatenhill would also be part of the John Taylor trust.
"Everyone at the school felt strongly that we wanted to keep the Rykneld identity.
"As well as the potential benefits of working closely with schools in the trust, we wanted to retain what makes our school unique and successful.
"So from a day-to-day perspective little has changed.
"The children wear the same uniform, experience the same curriculum and staff continue to plan, teach and assess in the way that we feel is best for our pupils.
"Over a longer term, we hope, through collaborating with other schools in the MAT and exploring the financial benefits of working in partnership, we will see further improvements and successes, for example through enhanced training opportunities and sharing good practice and resources."
Mr Staddon says that becoming an academy, which has 506 pupils, will give the school staff more flexibility and choice to allocate funding where they see fit, instead of receiving ring-fenced resources – money that must be spent in certain areas.
"Previously some of our funding has been retained by the local authority to provide specific services – we now receive all of that money and choose how to spend it," said Mr Staddon, whose school was rated good at its last Ofsted inspection in 2012.
"We also anticipate future savings through joint grant bids and service agreements which will hopefully mean we have more money available for other necessary resources.
"This is more crucial than ever as unfortunately the current climate in education is one of rising costs and budgets that are not increasing at the same rate."
Mr Staddon told the Burton Mail that as with any transition period, staff have been challenged at getting to grips with a lot of new policies and procedures in a short space of time, but have received support from the trust and feel confident going forward.
"We are excited about working closer with the existing and future schools in the MAT and look forward to strengthening our relationships with them in order to continue our drive to provide the best possible provision for our children," he said.
"This is always an exciting challenge and being part of the MAT will provide us with increased opportunities for growth which we look forward to exploring.
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"Things are going well so far but, with any significant change, things can appear initially challenging as we become familiar with new policies, procedures and, for example, software packages.
"We are still adapting and getting to grips with some of these aspects which will take time to become routine but, being part of a close collaboration within a trust, gives us greater support and confidence during this transitional period."
