Historic primary school gets academy status

Tenbury Primary School is the latest in the region to go for academy status, meaning a greater degree of independence from local authority control, with funding coming direct from the Government.

The Church of England primary school will join Moreville Primary School, near Bridgnorth, and Bitterley Primary School, near Ludlow, as part of a group overseen by Bishop Anthony Educational Trust, which was created by the Diocese of Hereford in 2013.

Jill Grant, headteacher at Tenbury Primary School, said: "The governors have been looking into this for almost two years now, looking ahead at where we are going to be in the future.

"There is a feeling that the Government may eventually make all schools academies and we wanted to be proactive and make sure that we joined the right multi-academy trust and make out own decisions for the school.

"The Bishop Anthony Educational Trust has a lot of experience and we wanted to continue our links with the Church ethos."

She said a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on with the Bishop of Hereford, Richard Frith, attended by former teachers, staff, pupils and governors.

Bishop Anthony Educational Trust also includes Hereford Academy and St Thomas Cantilupe Primary in Hereford.

Tenbury High Ormiston Academy is part of a different multi-academy group, the Ormaston Academy Trust.

A special assembly was held in celebration of becoming an academy at which extracts from log books for the school between 1877 and 1982 were read by pupils Will Duggan, Scarlett Perry, Tilly Sheppard, Jess Aston, Cerys Redding and Rory McCrann.

Afterwards all of the 200 pupils were given coloured balloons to release from the playground.

In a letter to parent, Mark Yarnold, chair of governors at the school, said: "It is clear that as local authorities are forced to make economies the support they are able to offer their schools is under pressure. "Therefore, many schools are considering alternatives to this model. One alternative is to convert to academy status.

"We are proud that Tenbury Primary School is a good school offering a high level of education to our children and we want to be in a position to become even better."

He said the governors board believed academy status was right for the school and its pupils.

The school was recently rated as outstanding following an Ofsted inspection.