March 26 2004

Co-op specialist schools bid lodged

Dave Boston, Head at Sir Thomas Boughey joined other Co-op Heads in London to officially hand over their bid to become the first Co-op Business and Enterprise Colleges in the UK.

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools, Stephen Twigg MP, received the bids from the head teachers, accompanied by the
Co-operative Group’s Head of
Co-operative Strategy, Stephen Youd-Thomas and Matt Ball of the
Co-operative Party and Mutuo.

The bid is part of the biggest ever move to promote co-operative values and principles as a way of doing business.

The groundbreaking schools are Castle Manor Upper School, Haverhill, Suffolk; Andrew Marvell School, Hull, Humberside; St Benet Biscop Catholic High School, Wansbeck, Northumberland; Forest Gate Community School, London; Fulston Manor School, Sittingbourne, Kent; Cullompton Community College, Cullompton, Devon; Sir Thomas Boughey High School, Newcastle Under Lyme, Staffordshire; and Epinay Special School, Jarrow, Tyne and Wear

If their applications to the DfES for specialist status are successful, each school will receive up to £50,000 sponsorship from the Co-operative Group. And Epinay School – for children with learning and behaviour difficulties – would become the first special school in the country to earn specialist status as a Business and Enterprise school.

Pictured above with some of the head teachers involved are Stephen Youd-Thomas and Stephen Twigg MP.