There has been a lot of activity behind the scenes over the last few weeks. We have met with many key stakeholders in education across Bradford, including many secondary school head-teachers, senior managers at Bradford College, and Bradford Council’s Judith Kirk and Michael Jameson.
With all of these key stakeholders we are building productive working relationships, and many have already begun collaborating with us further. The Belle Vue Girls’ School (pictured) invited our CEO, Pauline Hagen OBE, to be the speaker at their awards evening in December. We have developed a close working relationship with Bradford Diocesan Academy Trust, with whom we have reciprocal board membership, and one of Bradford University’s Deputy Vice Chancellors, Professor Shirley Congdon, has agreed to be on our board.
We are currently planning the budget and estate requirements to ensure they meet the needs of Bradford’s young people. We expect to have a site near the centre of the city, which will probably be a new build.
Our trust’s teaching school, the New Collaborative Teaching School, is also active in Bradford, where we are working with other teaching schools to align CPD opportunities for teachers, and to support other schools across the region.
The college is scheduled to open in September 2019, so our first intake of students are currently in Year 9. Recruitment and IAG interviews will start from September 2017, and we will be recruiting a principal in 2018.
