One of the first tasks for St John’s Academy’s new Principal, Nicky Edmondson, is to see the new Sixth Form Centre open and fully occupied. It will begin to be used early next month and will have an official opening later in October.
When Marlborough News Online met her, Mrs Edmondson had just come from a sixth form assembly. The pictures (a selection from the art department) are not yet up on her office wall and her name is not yet on the notices at the Academy’s entrance. She is very busy getting to know everyone and has had, we heard, an enthusiastic welcome.
She has previously worked in this area – at Kingsdown School in Swindon (as deputy head) – and has now moved from Cornwall where she was Headteacher of Penair School, Truro. She and her husband – a retired art teacher – are now living near Upavon.
She is open about the economic problems facing many schools and about St John’s ‘historic deficit’ due to the building of the new school on Granham Hill. However: “We are not having to make reductions in teaching staff. We’re able to staff our classes with well-qualified specialist teachers – not all schools are in that position.”
“We’re pleased we have been able to produce a balanced budget for the year.”
They are now recruiting a science teacher: “Recruiting specialists is difficult – especially in maths and science.” The school has had to restructure some of its support staff – and has not always been able to replace posts like for like when those staff move on.
Nicky Edmondson is especially pleased with the language tradition she is inheriting: “We expect the large majority of students to take a second language at GCSE. Our international links are very important to us – and well taken up by students.”
One such link is with the Dutch Bilingual Organisation of schools in Holland that teach most of the syllabus in English. St John’s had visits from three of these Dutch schools – fifty students from each one.
One of the criticisms that is heard about the Excalibur Academies Trust that runs St John’s, is that it has signed up so many local primary schools that their pupils will crowd out some students from the town and from St John’s very wide and varied catchment area. Nicky, who is not a director of the Trust, says: “There are no imminent plans for further primary schools to join Excalibur.”
She acknowledges that St John’s has a large catchment area – when she was driven round it in the summer holidays, it took three hours: “We’re a popular school!”
One of the conditions on the planning permission for the Sixth Form Centre was that a travel plan should be produced to ensure sixth formers were not parking in the narrow residential roads to the east of the school.
Mrs Edmondson says that the plan has been drawn up – she had just been giving sixth formers ‘the very clear message’ that they should not drive to school unless they have to: “They are positively discouraged from coming to school in their own vehicles.” There are reserved parking places for sixth formers – allocated on need, especially on the distance they have to travel to school.
In addition, the school is encouraging staff to ‘car share’ and as an incentive, parking spaces close to the school are kept for ‘car shares’.
Mrs Edmondson is very happy with the school’s curriculum, which she describes as “broad, balanced and rich”: “It is an absolute privilege for me to have this role. We’ve got excellent staff and talented students. Because it’s such a fast changing world, we have to prepare our young people for the challenges and opportunities in a global society – so the curriculm has to keep up.”
” We need young people to be passionate about wanting to make a difference – makes changes for the better.” Her aim is simple: “To build on what is already an outstanding school.”
Nicky Edmondson started her career teaching English – and she has kept on teaching English. It is interesting to note that this year she will be teaching English to three groups of St John’s students.
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