The Bradley Stoke Journal

Bradley Stoke Community School (BSCS) has officially registered its interest in becoming an academy, according to information released by the Government following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

The move could lead to BSCS receiving its funding directly from the Government (instead of South Gloucestershire Council) and would give the school more control over the pay and conditions of staff and over what they teach.

Shortly after the General Election in May, Education Secretary Michael Gove wrote to all state schools in England inviting them to opt out of local authority control and convert to academy status. Mr Gove also stated that some academies could be created in time for the new academic year in September 2010.

According to the Department for Education website, academies are “publicly funded independent schools that provide a first-class education”. Headteachers and Governors are told:

“Academies can benefit from greater freedoms to help you innovate and raise standards. These freedoms include:

• freedom from local authority control
• ability to set your own pay and conditions for staff
• ability to change the lengths of terms and school days
• freedom from following the National Curriculum”

Schools such as BSCS that are rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted will be ‘pre-approved’, effectively meaning that their applications can be fast-tracked.

Surprisingly, BSCS is the only school in South Gloucestershire to have registered an interest in becoming an academy. Nationally, 70% of all ‘outstanding’ schools are said to have done so.

Read on for a statement from BSCS Headteacher Dave Baker »

The embryonic Bradley Stoke Community Radio has published its first material, in the form of a podcast recorded at the recent Community Festival.

Reporters from the organisation, which describes itself as “an exciting new community radio station run entirely by volunteers living in and around the Bradley Stoke area”, were at a number of festival events and even managed to grab an interview with Britain’s Got Talent finalist and local resident Paul Burling (photo above) at the Community Fair.

The station has been promising to publish some of the festival interviews on its new website and the first of these, a short conversation with Mayor Ben Walker, has now appeared on the Podcasts page [QuickTime plugin required].

The interview with Paul Burling is said to be “coming soon”.

Julian Okoye, Vice Chair of the Bradley Stoke Community Radio Association (BSCRA) told The Journal that some of the interviews may also be aired on BCfm (Community Radio for Bristol).

BSCRA held a set of radio workshops at the end of February and is understood to be currently applying for a licence to broadcast on air for a seven-day period in October.

Anyone who would like to get involved, become a sponsor, share ideas or be kept informed of future developments is invited to get in touch with the group through its website.

The station faces competition from the well-established GLOSS FM (formerly Thornbury FM), which recently extended it broadcast area to include Bradley Stoke by re-siting its transmitter.

Jack Lopresti, recently elected Member of Parliament for the new constituency of Filton and Bradley Stoke (FABS), has made his maiden speech in the House of Commons.

Mr Lopresti’s big moment came during a debate on the Strategic Defence and Security Review on Monday (21st June), in which he urged the government to do more for the welfare of soldiers returning from conflict zones around the world.

The new MP, who took his seat in the chamber at 2:30pm on the day of the debate, described the wait before he was called to speak at 7:50pm as “nerve wracking” and says he was anxious “not to let anyone down”.

As tradition dictates, he opened his seven-minute speech with a message of thanks to his predecessor(s) – in his case, Doug Naysmith (Bristol North West) and  Roger Berry (Kingswood).

Mr Lopresti then went on to reference some of the defence industries active in his “wonderful” constituency, including EADS, Airbus, Rolls Royce and GKN.

There was particular praise for the “new and fantastic” A400M military transport plane being developed by Airbus, which Mr Lopresti noted will have its debut in the south-west at the Royal International Air Tatoo at Fairford on 16th July.

Also warranting a mention were the University of the West of England (UWE) and Frenchay Hospital (of which Mr Lopresti said he would “continue to fight for its existence as a community hospital”).

Returning to defence matters, the new MP said  (of soldiers returning from war zones around the world):

“… it is time for this country, and this Government, to take seriously the ongoing issue of the welfare and, in particular, the mental health of so many of our returning heroes.”

Mr Lopresti went on to relate some of his experiences as a serving Territorial Army soldier in Afghanistan before calling on the government to “honour their commitment to renew and strengthen the military covenant”.

Related links:

• Full text of Jack Lopresti’s maiden speech (TheyWorkForYou.com)
• Video of Jack Lopresti’s maiden speech (TheyWorkForYou.com)

A group of teachers from a Bristol secondary school have become the latest to complete a long distance walking route that passes through Bradley Stoke.

The Green Man Challenge follows the course of the 45-mile Community Forest Path around Bristol and anyone completing the route in under 24 hours (walking) or 12 hours (running) is entitled to receive a certificate and have their name entered in a book of honour.

The current record of 7 hours 19 minutes was set in 2009 by ultra distance runners Martin Beale and Martin Indge.

The group of eight staff from Bristol Cathedral Choir School set out from Ashton Court on Friday afternoon and passed through Bradley Stoke early on Saturday morning.

The photo above shows the group taking a short rest at Sherbourne’s Brake, just off Baileys Court Road.

Seven of them went on to complete the challenge in around 21 hours, with the eighth having to drop out at Easter Compton with sore feet!

The challenge was staged to mark the retirement of teacher Peter Bond, who has served for 40 years at the central Bristol school. The walk also honoured the memory of David Perry, another long-serving teacher, who passed away earlier in the year.

Funds raised through the walk will go towards to the installation of a well in a Ugandan village.

Bristol Cathedral Choir School was formerly an independent fee-paying school but became a state-funded academy in September 2008. It has since become Bristol’s most over-subscribed state secondary school.

Entry into Year 7 is open to children from a wide geographical area that incorporates Bradley Stoke and many other towns beyond the city boundary.

Toby Cox, the young cerebral palsy sufferer from Bradley Stoke who travelled to the USA for an operation to help him walk unaided, is said to be “doing fine” three days after the procedure at St Louis Children’s Hospital.

Local people and businesses rallied round to raise the £38,000 required to pay for Toby’s travel and operation in response to the Help Toby Walk appeal started by Toby’s parents Donna and Ian Cox.

Writing on the appeal’s blog, Donna Cox says Toby has been in a lot of pain since the operation but he was able to sit up and have some breakfast yesterday (Sunday) morning.

Before leaving for the USA, Mrs Cox explained to The Journal that any money raised beyond the £38,000 target will go towards the cost of Toby’s post-operative physiotherapy, which, like the operation, will not be funded by the NHS.

Toby will also need paediatric exercise equipment at home that will enable him to establish strength and stamina in muscles that have not been used before.

The final fundraising event to be held before the family’s departure for the USA was a five-a-side football tournament organised by the Willow Brook Centre and Bradley Stoke Police.

Winners of the competition, which was contested by five local teams, were ‘Tesco Finest’ from Bradley Stoke’s Tesco Extra store.

Town Mayor Ben Walker was on hand to present the trophy (photo above) at Bradley Stoke Leisure Centre. [See more photos of the football tournament on PicasaWeb].

Before leaving for the USA, Mrs Cox told The Journal:

“We would like to thank everyone who has helped us reach this fabulous fundraising figure, and are also very grateful for the monies now received for his aftercare.”

“We have been witness to some amazing efforts, both big and small, we have been humbled by the efforts some people have gone to to help our little boy, and I personally have been reduced to tears on many occasions by people’s words and kind thoughts.”

Bradley Stoke Town Council has issued a press release to clarify its staffing arrangements after the profile of the Deputy Town Clerk mysteriously disappeared from the Council’s website.

Following the retiral of the long-serving David Chandler in January, Sharon Petela was appointed the new Town Clerk with Lesley Osborne continuing to serve as Deputy Clerk. But then, in early June, Mrs Osborne’s profile mysteriously disappeared from the Contact the Office page of the Council’s website.

In a possibly related move, the Council has recently held two ‘extraordinary and confidential’ meetings (from which the press and public were excluded) to “consider and action the recent Council Staff Pay Grading and Restructuring Review”.

Pressed by The Journal, the Council has now issued a statement confirming Mrs Osborne’s retiral with effect from 28th May.

The statement says that the departure “was kept low key in accordance with her [Mrs Osborne's] wishes”.

Mayor Ben Walker, wished Mrs Osborne well, saying:

“Lesley leaves with the best wishes of councillors and staff and the gratitude of many people from a host of organisations whom she has worked with during her time with the Council.”

[Ed: Best wishes to Lesley from The Journal as well - many thanks for your cooperation over the last couple of years.]

The statement goes on to say that the Council has not yet advertised the vacancy caused by Mrs Osborne’s departure, and that “no decision on the post will be taken until the results of the on-going staffing review are presented to Council.”