Welcome

Thank you for your interest in the post of Principal at Foulstone Wombwell Advanced Learning Centre (ALC). This is a new post and a unique opportunity to bring together two schools in a brand new state of the art building which represents a new era of educational provision for the community we serve. It is proposed the school will become a Sponsored Academy in 2013 and the governing body has approved Navigate Academies Trust as the preferred sponsor. All parties, the governing body, the Local Authority and the sponsor are working collaboratively to ensure continued improvement at both schools. The sponsor will be involved in the appointment process.

Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council is putting local communities at the heart of service provision, by creating nine Advanced Learning Centres and two Special Schools - through the Building Schools for the Future programme, replacing all secondary schools within the authority.

Scheduled to open in September 2012, Foulstone Wombwell ALC will bring together two schools which are at a significant turning point. Foulstone and Wombwell were both placed in Special Measures in 2010. As you would expect, in response to these judgements, swift and effective action was taken to empower both schools to move positively forward from this judgement. This has ranged from additional external support, including interim support from a National Leader of Education and new collaborative arrangements aiding both schools to build capacity. The response to this support has been positive, leading to Darfield Foulstone moving from category, to Satisfactory with Good capacity to improve and Wombwell High making ‘Good progress’ as identified by recent Ofsted monitoring reports.

Development of the new ALC has been aided through the support of a Consultant Principal, who has been working on the early design of the learning environment, and the curriculum and staffing structure to ensure transition to the new Learning Centre is as seamless as possible.

We believe that the new ALC has the potential to be an exciting place to teach and learn and we will be looking for our new Principal to fully develop this potential and to provide the motivational leadership which will raise staff and student aspirations to ensure the ALC becomes an integral part of the local community.

If you are looking for a truly distinctive role to make transformational and sustainable change, then we would like to hear from you.

To find out more, we would encourage you to contact our colleagues at Navigate for a confidential conversation. Please contact Phil Watt or Veena Murray on 0844 800 5300; they will also be able to arrange visits to the schools.

Bob Bloomer, Chair of Temporary Governing Body