Gunthorpe Church of England
Primary School
‘Feeding Minds, Touching Hearts’
David’s Lane
Gunthorpe
Nottingham, NG14 7EW
Tel: 0115 966 3481
Head Teacher Mr M. Armitage
March 2017
Dear parents,
The governors of Gunthorpe School have resolved that the school become an academy and join the Aspire
Multi-Academy Trust. The benefits of this are many and will help maintain a school in this village for many
years to come. You will have heard from the media that schools are facing real financial issues and ours is no
exception. We have to manage a decreasing budget and increasing costs. It is unlikely that the school will
become an academy in April as first thought however, but there are advantages in transferring towards the
end of the academic year. We will keep you informed as we know more.
The joining of a multi academy trust allows the school to look at new forms of leadership within the support of
a bigger organisation. The governing body have looked at the potential cost of maintaining a head teacher and
this has been dismissed as unaffordable and at best inadvisable without significant cuts elsewhere in school.
They then looked at the potential for employing a ‘Head of School’, which is a post available to academy trusts
where there is an Executive Head teacher.
Mrs Brown has agreed to act as ‘Head of School’ for a year with the support of Mrs Fox and the rest of the
staff team. There will also be support from the head teacher at Archbishop Cranmer School in Aslockton
acting in an executive capacity. The board of the trust will appoint a Chief executive officer who will have
overall responsibility for all the schools in the trust.
The five schools in the trust including ourselves will be Kirkby Woodhouse Primary, Sir John Sherbrook Junior
School in Calverton, St. Peters Church School in East Bridgford and Archbishop Cranmer Church School in
Aslockton. Head Teachers from the schools are already working together, in an informal capacity, in a real
effort to expand opportunities for children in all our schools. The teaching and support staff from all the schools
are to hold a conference on Friday 26th May, when we will have a further opportunity to discuss how we can
improve the educational opportunities for all children within the MAT.
On transferring to academy status, the school name will not alter and the uniform will remain the same. The
school ethos will be as it is now, as we share our ethos with the other schools. The governors feel that the
leadership plan which has been put forward will offer continuity during the period of adjustment.
Finally, the governing body are keen to appoint new governors to take the school forward. We would be
particularly pleased to accept anyone who feels they could support the Christian foundation of the school as it
goes through this period of adjustment.
Kind Regards
Linda Brammer