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What is it?

The Bedfordshire Alliance of Nursery and Lower Schools is a unique consortium of Bedfordshire primary phase schools.  The School is the Member - not individuals.  Therefore when a school joins The Alliance it includes the Governing Body, Headteacher, all Staff and Pupils.

Supported by our LEA this county-wide umbrella organisation is actively working for Member Schools with a strong voice, publicising and promoting their interests in the teaching profession, pupil encouragement and school management requirements.  Ensuring your views are known The Alliance has built a respected reputation and our influential approach has, in many cases, proved to be effective.

The Alliance Diary of Events

To be advised

Member Schools will be informed of the time and venue of every Alliance event.

The Bedfordshire Alliance of Nursery & Lower Schools
Management Committee  

 

Name

School

Position

Tel.No.

Fax.No

Mr. Mike Jarvis

Maulden Lower School

Church Road, Maulden, Beds. MK45 2AU

Headteacher/

BA Chairman  
Until end of Summer Term 2006

01525-
402286

01525-
402286

Mrs. Jane Knapp

Peter Pan Nursery School

Edward Road

Bedford MK42 9DR

Headteacher/

BA Joint Vice Chair

01234-
350864

01234-
300304

Mrs. Lynne Birch

Templefield Lower School

Malham Close, Flitwick
Beds. MK45 1AJ

Headteacher/

BA Joint Vice Chair

01525-
713625

01525-
713625

Mrs. Ingrid Alsop

Shillington Lower School

Greenfields, Shillington
Herts. SG5 3NX

Headteacher/

BA Treasurer

01462-
711637

01462-
711637

Mrs Marilyn Ravenor

Willowfield Lower School
Five Oaks, Caddington
Luton, Beds. LU1 4JD

Headteacher/

BA Committee  

01582- 
735127

01582-
735127

Mrs. Anne McCormick

Queens Park Lower School

Chestnut Avenue

Bedford. MK40 4HA

Headteacher/

BA Committee

01234
352901

O1234-
269426

Mr. Steve Morrow

Flitwick Lower School

Temple Way, Flitwick
Beds. MK45 lLU

Headteacher/

BA Committee

01525-
755444

01525-
755446

Mrs. Ann Peace Elstow Lower School
Abbeyfields Road
Elstow, Bedford. MK42 9GP

Vice Chair of Governors

01234 - 302300 01234 - 307300

Mrs. Anna Snelling

Great Barford Lower School

Silver Street, Great Barford, Beds. MK44 3JU

Headteacher/

BA Committee

01234-
870341

01234-
870341

Mrs. Penny Storry

Harlington Lower School
Westoning Road
Harlington, Beds. LU5 6PD

Headteacher/

BA Committee

01525-
752500

01525-
752501

 
The Bedfordshire Alliance of Nursery & Lower Schools
Russell House, 14 Dunstable Street, Ampthill, Beds. MK45 2JT
Tel: 01525 405220  Fax: 01525 405128

Administration office e-mail: dorotha@schools.bedfordshire.gov.uk

A full list of Member Schools is available from the Administration Office

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"Learning Communities"

I am pleased to have been asked to provide an article for The Alliance
News Update that will support discussions that are currently underway relating to the concept of "Learning Communities". In many ways The Alliance can be viewed as a prototype learning community, initially based around primary schools in Bedfordshire who were seeking to benefit from working and learning together. My article will summarise some of the key features that I believe should be evident in what we might call learning communities.

Any learning community will need to highlight the importance of leadership, learning, classrooms and working together. Learning communities need to have not only high aspirations and high expectations, but also to have clear vision that is based upon a view that schools and LEAs can/do make a positive difference. At the same time, we must not forget that we will ultimately be held accountable and our impact measured.
Our vision, therefore, will be around sustainable school and LEA self-improvement. It will need to be underpinned by a focus upon leadership and learning, and developed and delivered via a flexible approach to learning communities. It will also require us to focus upon outcomes rather than intentions. A successful learning community is more likely to occur if these communities are flexible, evident at a number of levels and based around common principles and aspirations. Therefore, they can exist at: - a classroom level, a school level, a between school level (same/cross phase), an LEA level and between - LEAs and with other agencies (NCSL/LSC/HE).

The focus for a Learning Community should, I believe, be based around a common agenda, a common focus and backed up by a common purpose. This agenda is to ensure that learning communities:

  • have high aspirations for all learners (including ourselves)
  • provide clear, coherent and purposeful leadership
  • encourage collaboration and community solutions
  • encourage creativity and innovation
  • are visible and committed to the sharing of good practice.

This agenda will be linked to a common purpose, which is based upon a belief in the learning potential of all, and that schools and LEAs do make a difference. It also requires an appreciation that by working together we can achieve more and an acceptance that progress will best occur if there is a collective will to improve from within. All of these will need to be underpinned by a commitment to the value of reflection and the involvement of pupils in this process.

Over the last 12 months I have spoken regularly and in public about our focus upon learning, classrooms and working together. This is now embedded in our Education Development Plan and, I believe, very evident in many of the activities and focused upon by The Alliance and other initiatives in the LEA. Therefore, any attempt to define Learning Communities must highlight the need for such communities to offer improved classroom opportunities/performance and to exhibit a commitment to innovation and creativity. The classrooms and schools of the future, I am told by the TES (17/1/03), are with us today. My visits to a large number of lower/nursery schools over the last six months have given me tremendous encouragement that a creative and flexible approach to Learning Communities can provide the framework for significant and enjoyable developments in relation to our approach to learning and teaching. Our challenge is to make the most of the opportunities associated with a flexible but clearly articulated approach to learning communities. In so doing we must not forget that our success will be judged not only:

  • by what we do and say
  • nor by how we go about our business
  • nor by the kind of people we are
  • but above all by the kind of place we want Bedfordshire LEA to be.

 

David Doran - Strategic Director (Learning)

 

Activity Led Resourcing

 

Over the past few months schools will have become familiar with a funding proposal called Activity Led Resourcing. Indeed many lower schools responded to the consultation on ALR before Christmas. This is a very important development in determining schools budgets and therefore worthy of mention in this flier.

 

Activity Led Resourcing is an attempt by the Local Education Authority (at the request of the Government) to determine what it ‘actually’ takes to run a school.  In the past it has been difficult to understand the basis of the schools’ formula and in particular how the Age Weighted Pupil Unit (AWPU) had been determined.  The ALR research group have spend the last 18 months looking at every aspect of a school's activity and costing them either in terms of time or other resource.  A formula was then applied and relative ratios between year groups established. Consequently the requirements for providing education to a Year 1 child compared to a Year 8 child have been understood and costed appropriately.  In an ideal world the actual costs of these activities would then be funded at the appropriate level.  However, in our world, ideals do not apply and so compromise had to be agreed to ensure that this more transparent method would be successful. As a result the AWPUs for some year groups has gone up and for others it has gone down. There are winners and losers when dealing with a finite budget.

 

However, if we try to look at the principle of a child’s experience through their schooling years and avoid narrowing our vision to consider individual cases, Activity Led Resourcing provides a more transparent and fairer method to allocate public money. Many lower schools will be winners, but some will be losers – but in general the children will win because it is their needs that should guide us when we determine the share of the cake.

 

Anne McCormick - Headteacher

 

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Webpage amended by , ICT Support, Bedfordshire Education Service.
Copyright 2005.
Last revised: March 21, 2006

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