Federation Consultation
Margaret Sargent
Chair of Governors
Barnack CE Primary School
Dear parents, carers, staff and members of our community,
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Over the last six years Barnack has been part of a ‘soft federation’ called “Spirit”, working closely with St John’s Church School, Paston Ridings Primary School and Winyates Primary School. The Governing Body are now proposing to move to a ‘hard federation’.
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The proposal is that these four schools come together as a federation, working under one shared Governing Body while continuing to operate as four individual schools.
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Before sharing more about the proposal, we want to be very clear about something that matters deeply to us: Barnack’s community will remain at the heart of everything we do. The school’s identity, its values and the special relationships between families, staff, children and the wider village community will continue to be a central focus. Becoming part of a wider federation would not change what makes Barnack special — it is about strengthening the support around the school so it can continue to thrive long into the future.
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During the last 6 years, the schools have been able to share leadership, strengthen governance and focus even more clearly on improving outcomes for children, while each school has continued to keep its own identity, ethos and community spirit.
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Parents at Barnack will already have seen some of the benefits of this partnership in action. Our schools work closely together to create opportunities that would be much harder to provide alone. For example:
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our PE team works across the schools to organise a wide range of sports tournaments and events, giving children more opportunities to compete, take part and enjoy sport
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we are able to share specialist teaching, including our Spanish teacher
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we have a shared SENDCo, which strengthens support for pupils with additional needs
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this collaboration has also helped us to provide additional support such as a Thrive practitioner, supporting children’s wellbeing and emotional development
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Most importantly, this collaboration supports the quality of teaching and learning across our schools. Our School Improvement Leader, Rebekah Iiyambo, recently recognised this, noting that:
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“The school demonstrates high academic standards which go hand in hand with a very impressive and well embedded culture of inclusion which is a clear strength. Attainment is exceptional, reflecting high expectations, effective teaching and well targeted support.”
Governors believe that formally bringing the four schools together in a federation would allow us to build on these strong foundations, supporting staff, sharing expertise and ensuring long-term stability for all of our schools.
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It would mean:
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one Governing Body with strategic oversight across the four schools - still with local connections
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no change to where children attend school
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no change to school names, uniforms, ethos or day-to-day school life
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each school retaining its own budget and admissions arrangements
In practical terms, federation would allow us to plan more strategically across the schools, strengthen leadership capacity, share expertise and make the best possible use of resources, while ensuring each school continues to be firmly rooted in its own community.
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This letter marks the start of a formal consultation period, and we are very keen to hear your thoughts. The consultation will run for six school weeks (excluding holidays) in line with statutory guidance. During this time there will be opportunities to ask questions, attend consultation meetings and share your views in writing.
Once the consultation period has finished, each Governing Body will carefully consider all responses before deciding whether to proceed with the federation, make changes to the proposal, or not proceed.
We believe this proposal offers a positive opportunity to strengthen the great work already happening between our schools, while protecting everything that makes each one unique — including the strong community and relationships that make Barnack such a special place to learn.
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Margaret Sargent
Chair of Governors, Barnack CE Primary School