10^th July 2009

Dear Parent/Carer,

Further to yesterday’s letter from David Pugh, (of which there is a link above) please find enclosed the promised draft Proposal for Federation and draft Instrument of Government for Shalfleet and Yarmouth C of E Primary Schools.

The Federation Working Party, comprising governors from both schools, has worked exhaustively together over the last few weeks to create the best possible framework, as detailed in these two documents. We firmly believe that this gives us a strong and flexible foundation upon which to build a successful federation between our two schools and secure their long term future. The full Governing Bodies of both schools have already met together and given the proposals their full support and endorsement, as have both the Diocese and the Local Authority. Before however, we can proceed towards our envisaged federation in 2010, there are two outstanding legal requirements to complete.

Because the original Council consultation was done on the basis that both schools would close and then amalgamate as a single school on one site, there must now be a further official consultation period by the Local Authority to consider the federation of the two schools. As David Pugh’s letter suggested, the LA consultation must lie largely in term time and will therefore start on 1^st September.

Meanwhile the Governors of both schools are required to consult on their proposed arrangements for federation with their local communities and stakeholders. We would like to give parents, carers and the wider communities as much time as possible to consider, and feed back on, our recommendations, and therefore the consultation on this aspect will start as soon as possible, beginning Monday 13^th July and ending on Friday 11^th September. There will be an open meeting for both the schools, their Governors and their communities with the Local Authority on Monday 7^th September at 6.30 p.m. at Shalfleet School.

Any written representation you may like to make should be sent to the Chair of the relevant governing body (details below). Upon completion of the consultation, the governing bodies of both schools will meet to consider any responses and discuss the case for any possible amendments to the proposals, before making the final decision to proceed with federation. Once this is achieved, the process of federating our two schools will lie fully within the Council’s overall reorganisation timetable. We would like to stress that there will be no impact on the admission process of pupils for 2010 and beyond, as both schools enlarge to cater for years 5 and 6.

On behalf of our Governing Bodies, who have carefully considered every aspect, we have no hesitation in recommending the enclosed proposals, and hope that you will feel able to support them. Your comments and views will be welcomed.

Fiona Thorpe Kevin Shaw

Chair of Governors, Shalfleet Primary Chair of Governors, Yarmouth Primary

Baie House Port House

Bouldnor Road St James Street

Yarmouth PO40 0ND Yarmouth PO41 0NU

e-mail: fionathorpe@btconnect.com e-mail: kms@varsity-match.co.uk

Carla Bradshaw is taking over as Chair at Shalfleet from September and would also be very happy to answer any queries/hear any views you may have. Her details are:

The Old Coach House

Calbourne Road

Swainston PO30 4HX

e-mail: cvda@btinternet.com