schools

A new Free School for Headington?

TonyOX3

There might be a new primary school coming to Headington. The sponsors are on twitter as @HeadingtonCS and their website says they want to open “a new state-funded primary school with an inclusive Christian ethos”.

The group behind it is Chapel Street Community Schools Trust @ChapelSt, a registered charity chaired by Labour peer Baroness Maeve Sherlock @MaeveSherlock. You can tell them what you think of their proposal by answering their questionnaire, although apart from the first question about the “Christian ethos” all the other questions are asking you to vote for Mom’s apple pie and world peace so the results will be predictable and frankly worthless.

Chapel Street questionnaire
Chapel Street questionnaire

We might query how committed they are to Headington when we see from twitter that they are also interested in opening a school in North Abingdon and a secondary school in Radcliffe (between Manchester and Bolton). All three have virtually identical online brochures.


The company currently runs 7 schools including the Tyndale Community School in Cowley which opened in 2013 – controversially, as the City Council said the premises were unsuitable. The group also came in for criticism in South London in 2014 when it opened a free school with just 12 pupils. The Wimbledon Guardian quoted a local councillor describing the school building – the former home of the Salvation Army in Morden – as “a corrugated iron hut“.

While Baroness Sherlock has impeccable Labour credentials and a track record of involvement in worthy causes (see her entry in Wikipedia), Chapel Street has been criticised by the British Humanist Association for its roots in the Salvation Army which has what might be described at best as an ambivalent attitude to homosexuality and gender issues. Although its public statements are inclusive it is widely reported* that the Army does not recognise single-sex relationships and requires all its unmarried officers to be celibate – which of course means any couple in a same-sex partnership of whatever status in law.

One final comment. As their name suggests Chapel Street likes to call its schools ‘Community Schools’. As the British Humanist Association points out:

[The] schools are not Community schools – a legal term referring to a form of maintained school which does not have a religious character – but are in fact ‘faith’ schools, legally designated as Christian. The BHA complained to the Government about the misleading nature of the schools’ names, but the Government replied saying ‘Free Schools have the freedom to choose the name of their school. We do not dictate to schools what they can or cannot choose.’

If Chapel Street can find somewhere to open their new school (bets on a postcard please – or in the Comments box), the way the law stands there’s every chance they will be able to go ahead.

* See for example Huffington Post (2013), Daily Mirror (2015), Pink News (2014)

Headington Headlines #245

TonyOX3

Your weekly round-up of local news for 14 – 20 December.

The Hospital Energy Project information machine has still to start functioning. Despite several attempts by a number of people including me, there’s still a discrepancy between the Trust/Vital and County Highways over when the All Saint’s Road work will be finished. The Trust say 27 January, the County’s traffic order says 17 January. They both agree it starts on 4 January.

On the positive side a meeting this coming Tuesday should see a Liaison Group set up, with representatives from the affected roads, Councillors, the Hospital Trust and contractors Vital Energi taking on the task of sorting out the inevitable problems. It’s not a public meeting but does include people who volunteered at the open meeting on 9 December. I will be reporting on the outcome. There is another article, including a mention of the liaison meeting, in the Oxford Mail.

BBC local TV news on Tuesday night featured a report on parking spaces, or the lack of them, for car club cars (see also HH 240). Headington Transport Group’s Charles Young was featured; also Cllr Roz Smith.

Despite widespread cynicism in some quarters, Headington/Barton/Risinghurst “Team Purple” came top of the City Council’s recycling league competition last week.

Skipton Building Society’s first anniversary celebrations went well, as this report tells. It was also covered by @ThatsOxfordTV as part of Headington’s @LiveAdvent2015, with photographer @RossMackenzie talking about his work.

Holy Trinity Church, Windmill School and Headington Quarry School staged an outdoor, travelling nativity play in Quarry on Friday with real sheep and ponies. Their route went from the Coach House in Quarry Road, to the church, and then to the Mason Arms before finishing at Headington Quarry School.

I can’t really make one of my own tweets the favourite of the week, but here it is again.

Active posts on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum this week:

  • Disruption
  • Lost watch
  • X90

A Merry Christmas to you all!

Headington Headlines #239

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 2 – 8 November.

Catalin Horhota, of no fixed abode, was sentenced to life imprisonment for a series of rapes, sexual assaults and burglary. The rape and sexual assaults happened in Roosevelt Drive in September last year.

The application to build student housing on the site of the old Friar pub in Marston (see HH236) was agreed in principle by the East Area Planning Committee on Wednesday. Final permission will be granted after a legal agreement on conditions has been reached.

A resident of Derwent Avenue had to call the Fire & Rescue services when his electric shower caught fire while he was using it.

There’s only one of the new houses at The Willows (the old Barton Road cricket ground) still unsold. Carpe diem!

The heat transfer scheme between the JR and the Churchill was discussed at the Ward Focus meeting two weeks ago. I wasn’t at the meeting but have gathered some information about it. There will be more in the public domain for local discussion soon, I’m told.

The Head of @WindmillOxford criticised the government’s proposals for more stringent tests for 7-yr olds.

Streets in the @BartonPark_ development will be named after people with strong connections with Barton, as well as plants and animals (“flora and fauna”), says @OxfordCity. One of the people mentioned, Vashti de Montfort Wellborne, appears in a stained glass window in St Andrew’s church, Old Headington. Read about her here on Headington News’ website.

My favourite Headington-related tweet of the week:

Active posts on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum this week:

  • Builders’ vans
  • Car sharing
  • Gearing up to support your cherished Oxford Headington and Marston forum
I cover news from the OX3 postcode in Headington and out as far as Barton, Sandhills and Risinghurst (see map). To feed into next week’s summary you can comment on this article, or tweet either with the hashtag #ox3 or @mentioning @TonyOX3.