"Have Life and Have it to the full"
John 10:10
We are proud to be part of the Our Lady of the Magnificat Multi-Academy Company. A family of Catholic Schools united in our faith and witness to Christ. We serve our communities, working as one to enrich the learning experience of all of our young people, so that they may achieve their God-given potential.
OUR VALUES
We uphold the dignity of humanity in all that we do. It is of paramount importance across our family of schools that every person in our communities is recognised, acknowledged, and respected for their God given individuality and are embraced with the love of Christ.
We aim to be completely transparent in all that we do. We are guided by ethical principles in all our work ranging from resources management to the development of our people.
Inspired by Our Lady’s service to God, we bear witness to the Gospel and provide an enriching encounter with Christ for all our communities. Our schools aim to serve our parishes and all in our communities regardless of background or faith. We also commit to nurturing a sense of service and vocation amongst our staff, children, and young people.
We aspire to be the highest performing Catholic Multi-Academy in the country as we recognise that the quality of education provided by our schools will determine the life chances of our young people.
Please click here to visit the Our Lady of the Magnificat website and find out more about our growing Academy.
Academies are schools that are state-funded and state-governed but are not under the direct control of the Local Authority (LA) and so have more independence over what they teach, how they operate and how they spend their budget. All academies are charities and therefore are entirely non-profit making.
A MAC is a group of two or more academy schools working in a legally agreed formal collaboration called a Multi-Academy Company. The MAC is the legal employer for all staff and determines a number of common practices and procedures across the MAC, whilst still encouraging each academy to have its own individual identity. The MAC is run by a Catholic Senior Executive Leader (CSEL/CEO) with a Headteacher or Head of School in each member academy. The CSEL/CEO is held responsible by the Board of Directors. For more information on the Our Lady of the Magnificat please visit the website
The Labour government introduced the first academy schools in 2002. At the time, academies were only for long-term under-achieving secondary schools in inner city areas and for brand new secondary schools in areas where there was a shortage of high achieving schools. They were sponsored by charitable organisations such as religious bodies, or by entrepreneurs and companies. The Conservative-led coalition government moved quickly after the election in 2010 to offer academy status to all good and outstanding schools and introduced the free schools programme (legally a free school is an academy).
The Governing Body will be consulting with all staff at the school, parents and various other stakeholders, local schools, and other community members.
You can respond to the online form link provided on the school website. You can also write to or email the school. Please put ‘Academy consultation’ in the subject line in the email or on the front of the envelope.
The responses will be reviewed by the Governing Body, and therefore will be a factor in the decision-making process. Responses will be made to each question and posted on the school website.
Questions can be submitted with using the question form on the school website, email or by letter as described above. Questions received before the consultation meetings will be answered at the meetings.
The educational experience for children would continue to improve through initiatives that are developed or supported by the teaching staff , supported by the expertise, networking and best practice being part of Multi-Academy will bring. There are no plans to change the school uniform or any other day-to-day arrangements.
Conversion to an academy should not influence the admissions process because all academies have to comply with the legally binding Code of Practice on School Admissions in exactly the same way as state-maintained schools. Academies are still required to comply with the relevant codes in respect of admissions, exclusions and special education needs.
The decision to academise and join the Multi-Academy is not likely to affect other local schools, which may be considering their own future options and acting accordingly. It is possible that other local Catholic schools might express an interest in joining the Multi-Academy.
In LA controlled schools, the LA provides the school’s budget and retains a proportion of that budget to fund some central functions. Maintained schools also purchase some services from the LA such as payroll services, financial management systems and buildings maintenance. Schools then choose how to spend the rest of their budget. The vast majority of a school’s budget is spent on staffing and essential services, such as utilities. Academies receive their entire budget directly from central government from the Education and Skills Funding Agency without any ‘top slice’ being taken by an LA. An academy is then free to choose how to purchase services. Academies can still opt to buy services from the LA if they choose. Academies are therefore responsible for securing best-value in the procurement of a wide-range of supplies and services. A MAC is funded by a contribution of a certain percentage of the participating schools’ budgets. As larger organisations, MACs should be able to realise economies of scale that lead to savings for individual schools, through such activities as joint purchasing and procurement.
One of the ‘freedoms’ afforded to academies is the right to set their own terms for staff pay and conditions. Understandably this is, and has always been, an issue of great concern for all teaching and support staff and their unions.
The Governing Body wants to make it clear that we fully recognise and appreciate the enormous effort and commitment of current School staff in contributing to the school’s success and our pupils' outcomes. The concerns and welfare of our staff have been very much to the fore throughout the Governing Body’s deliberations.
It is quite clearly in the best interests of the school and our pupils, in particular, to continue to have motivated, contented and engaged staff and this remains a priority for the Governing Body throughout this process. Although academies have the freedom to set their own pay and conditions, the Multi-Academy Board has no plans to move away from the present nationally agreed pay and conditions. In any case all current staff at the school have the right to retain their present posts, as well as conditions of service, should the school become an academy as a result of the TUPE regulations.
All qualifying staff would transfer from the employment of the LA to the employment of the Multi-Academy. Qualifying staff are generally those who have contracts of employment at a converting school on the date of conversion to academy status. This transfer takes place within the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) for staff transfer, which ensures that staff retain all of their existing rights, terms and conditions and pension arrangements, including continuity of service. The pension arrangements for staff would be unaffected by the transfer.
The TUPE Regulations provide that the current employer’s rights and obligations arising from a contract of employment existing on the date of transfer shall, by reason of such transfer, be transferred to the new employer. Staff are able to respond to the consultation as part of the academisation process, including a meeting for all staff to discuss their views. In addition, there will be a further formal consultation process (involving trade unions) as stipulated by the TUPE regulations