Sir Geoff Hurst Academy

Sir Geoff Hurst Section 10 Consultation

Online consultation event at 5.30 pm on Thursday, 14th November recording is here

The Sir Geoff Hurst Academy is a proposed SEMH Special school, with 15 residential places to open in Chelmsford, Fox Crescent, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 2BN. The proposed school is a new building. The local authority selected and provided the site as part of the Essex Council local authority competition process.

The school is being proposed by TBT, which was formed on the 1st of April 2019. Its predecessor organisation, The Beckmead Family of Schools, was an outstanding, ambitious organisation frequently asked for support and guidance by special schools, Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) and Alternative Provision (AP) settings across the country. TBT is currently commissioned for 628 children and young people between the ages of 5 and 19 on ten different sites and provides a unique mix of expertise and experience for vulnerable children, young people, and their families. TBT is an Approved Academy Sponsor approved by the Department of Education to enter the ‘pre-opening’ phase for Sir Geoff Hurst Academy.

The Sir Geoff Hurst Academy is a new 7-16 school, scheduled to open in January 2025, offering 65 new places when full, 15 of which will be offered with residential provision (Mon - Thu). It will initially open into a new building. Sir Geoff Hurst will address a significant local increase in pupils with an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) that specifies Social Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) as their primary need and additional associated needs such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Essex County Council has evidenced high demand for this type of specialist provision from parents across Essex. Given that maintained placements are currently unable to meet this level of demand, the new school will alleviate pressure on places while reducing High Needs cost pressures for the LA. Sir Geoff Hurst will complement and enhance the existing provision.

In its opening year, Sir Geoff Hurst will provide 64 much-needed pupil places for students across KS2, KS3 and KS4 who have a formal diagnosis on their EHCP. Many will be disengaged from formal school settings, permanently excluded, subject to fixed-term suspension, or at risk of permanent exclusion, and those whose needs cannot be met in mainstream education. When full, the school will have a capacity of 64 pupils. There will be 15 residential places in three “houses” on the school site.

The Special School will partner with the voluntary sector to deliver positive diversionary activities and a wraparound youth offer for pre- and post-school-day enrichment and weekend and holiday programmes.

Sir Geoff Hurst Academy

CONSULTATION OVERVIEW

Consultation on the proposed Sir Geoff Hurst Academy

The consultation period is 7 pm Friday 18th October 2024 - 7 pm Friday 29th November 2024.

The Beckmead Trust is consulting on its proposals to open a new SEMH special school, Sir Geoff Hurst Academy, Fox Crescent, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 2BN, on 1st January 2025

All are welcome to attend the online consultation event at 5.30 pm on Thursday, 14th November by clicking here.

This will be an opportunity to meet representatives of the Trust, ask questions and share your views.

Introduction

The school is being proposed by TBT which formed on the 1st of April 2019. Its predecessor organisation, The Beckmead Family of Schools, was an outstanding, ambitious organisation which was frequently asked for support and guidance by special schools, Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) and Alternative Provision (AP) settings across the country. TBT is currently commissioned for a total of 628 children and young people between the age of 5 and 19 on ten different sites and is providing a unique mix of expertise and experience for vulnerable children, young people, and their families. TBT is an Approved Academy Sponsor approved by the Department of Education to enter the ‘pre-opening’ phase for Sir Geoff Hurst Academy.

The Sir Geoff Hurst Academy is a new 7-16 school, scheduled to open in January 2025 offering 65 new places when full, 15 of which will be offered with residential provision (Mon - Thu). It will initially open into a new building. Sir Geoff Hurst will address a significant local increase in pupils with an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) that specifies Social Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) as their primary need and additional associated needs such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Essex County Council has evidenced high demand for this type of specialist provision from parents across Essex. Given that maintained placements are currently unable to meet this level of demand, the new school will alleviate pressure on places while reducing High Needs cost pressures for the LA. Sir Geoff Hurst will complement and enhance the existing provision.

In its opening year, Sir Geoff Hurst will provide 64 much-needed pupil places for students across KS2, KS3 and KS4 who have a formal diagnosis on their EHCP. Many will be disengaged from formal school settings, permanently excluded, subject to fixed term suspensions or at risk of permanent exclusion, and those whose needs cannot be met in mainstream education. When full, the school will have a capacity of 64 pupils. There will be 15 residential places in three “houses” on the school site.

The Special School will partner with the voluntary sector to deliver positive diversionary activities, a wraparound youth offer for pre- and post-school-day enrichment, and weekend and holiday programmes.

Background

Free schools and academies approved to open by the Department for Education must conduct a thorough and transparent statutory consultation with parents and local stakeholders before a final funding agreement can be implemented.

This is known as a Section 10 Consultation in reference to Section 10 of the Academies Act 2010. The Act states you should consult such persons as the trust thinks appropriate. The key question for which trusts must consult is whether the trust should set up the free school.

TBT devised and implemented a consultation exercise, which sought the views of parents, stakeholders and the broader community on whether the trust should enter into a funding agreement with the Secretary of State for Education and open Sir Geoff Hurst

Vision

The values of love, flourishing, social justice and community will drive the vision. Love will be enacted through person-centred, nurturing, empathetic, compassionate education and care. Flourishing will be enabled throughout the school and staff, promoting transforming, energetic practice that allows all learning community members to thrive. Social justice will be delivered by school systems, high expectations, and pedagogical excellence that ensures fairness, equality, and democracy for all members of the school community and its partner organisations, which will maximise progress in learning and personal development for all pupils. In essence, we offer a fusion of education and care based on the principles of social pedagogy. We see outreach work to improve the practice of supporting children with complex SEMH and autism needs in mainstream schools by sharing expertise as a key strand within the collaborative ethos of the new school.

Our overarching vision involves collaboration with specialist and mainstream schools, agencies and the private, voluntary and charity sectors of the communities in which we work. Our schools already liaise closely with LA teams and health professionals, including CAMHS personnel, educational psychologists, therapists, and careers advisers based on individual pupil needs in order to maximise the well-being and future life chances of our children and young people.

To ensure the provision transforms lives by empowering young people to develop resilience and ambition, the vision for the alternative provision is to:

Create a centre of excellence
Create an alternative approach for disengaged pupils with vocational opportunities, pastoral support, mentors and partners.
Support the most vulnerable groups of young people
Deliver a truly wraparound service
Offer a broad curriculum based on national best practice
Create a unifying presence in Brent, with strong relationships with Brent schools
Reduce permanent exclusions
Ensure successful reintegration into the mainstream, where appropriate
Guide students into secure employment and achieve strong post-school outcomes
Reconnect young people with their passions
Build trusted relationships with staff and youth workers
Support transition arrangements at all stages.

Ethos

As with all the schools within the TBT, the provision at Sir Geoff Hurst will be an inclusive learning environment in which all pupils are valued, nurtured and treated with dignity and respect to secure progress across subject areas and in personal development. To offer our robust KS4 and post-16 provision and Integrated Youth Offer to guide students into secure employment and achieve strong post-school outcomes, our ethos focusses on strong collaboration with specialist and mainstream schools and agencies and the private, voluntary and charity sectors. We will undertake outreach work to improve the practice of supporting children in danger of exclusion in mainstream schools, and sharing expertise will be a key strand within the collaborative ethos of the new school.

We will ensure that the school becomes a flagship school for practical outreach work. Our track record includes outreach excellence, providing multiple benefits to children beyond our schools.

Consultation methodology

TBT decided to complete the 6-week statutory requirements. During this period, TBT offered opportunities for stakeholders to engage with the trust at any time.

As part of its general communication strategy for Sir Geoff Hurst, TBT published a webpage that is available for public access. The webpage included details of the school’s proposed vision and ethos, referrals policy, curriculum and delivery of learning approach, and an FAQ. Information could also be found on the online consultation forums with a link to the online survey. The FAQ was frequently updated to answer questions raised by stakeholders throughout the consultation.

An online survey was set up using Survey Monkey, which can be viewed in full in Appendix 1. This survey comprised four questions about the proposed school, each with space for respondents to add comments and explain their views. It also asked respondents to provide details on their identification within the community (e.g., parent/community member/local employer, etc.), with a ‘prefer not to say’ option and a possibility to provide further additional details on who they are in a free text box.

A database of local stakeholders in Chelmsford and Essex as a whole was collated and included:

Local schools: All-through, primary, secondary, independent, Prep School, PRU, and special schools
Faith settings
Health settings
Community centres, leisure centres and sport clubs
Youth centres / clubs
SEND and inclusion support groups
Members of parliament
Essex and Chelmsford Councillors
Lead stakeholders within Essex Council children and families, SEND, and inclusion departments
Members of advisory committee for schools at Essex Council
Libraries
LGBT support groups
Teaching Unions
Housing associations and trusts.
Local media.

Statement of Provision

Introductory statement

Sir Geoff Hurst Academy is a special school offering a nurturing, inclusive environment for 65 pupils with SEMH and associated needs with residential provision for fifteen pupils. We have high expectations for each child to leave as a confident young adult well-prepared for the future. The Sir Geoff Hurst Academy is being built where Rainsford High was located and where Sir Geoff attended school. A hero to many of us as the only man to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final when England was victorious in 1966, our CEO was honoured to meet Sir Geoff in person to ask for permission to name the school after him.

The school will be located in central Chelmsford and will deliver excellent practice and informative teaching aimed at supporting children and young people in accessing meaningful outcomes and life pathways.

The Beckmead Trust Schools are committed to pupils' academic, physical, social, vocational and emotional progress. To allow children to flourish in all aspects of their lives, the Trust believes in nurturing all school community members. We believe the environment needs to reflect this by being warm, purposeful and understandable.

The curriculum presents formal, informal and enriched opportunities for development and progress. This enables the children who graduate from Beckmead to become independent, connected members of their communities and the workplaces that may employ them.

Sir Geoff Hurst Academy is due to open January 2025

You have not allowed cookies and this content may contain cookies.

If you would like to view this content please