The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, made a visit to Bath last Thursday to spend time with staff and pupils at the city’s Bath Community Academy in Rush Hill.
Bath Community Academy (BCA) was formerly known as Culverhay School. Just three years ago the school was deemed as failing, pupil numbers had dropped significantly and it had been placed in Special Measures by Ofsted.
At the time, Bath and North East Somerset Council, under the Conservative administration, announced their intention to close it.
Local parents and students mounted a vigorous campaign to save their school.
When the LibDems won control of the Council they reversed this decision, made the school co-educational and handed it over to the Cabot Learning Federation, an organisation with an outstanding reputation for turning schools with problems into success stories, as a sponsored academy.
By February 2013 the re-named BCA was out of Special Measures, and it has now been declared to be the ‘most improved school’ in the South West, a recovery that its principal, Adam Williams, is very proud of.
He said: “The transformation of this school has been eventful, purposeful and carried out in extreme haste, but we have turned a corner and the future for BCA and its pupils is now looking bright, as Nick Clegg observed today.”
During his visit, Nick Clegg said: “I’ve been so impressed by the quality of work and the commitment shown on all sides – staff and pupils alike – by those I’ve met here.”
“This is clearly a vibrant and thriving school, which is benefiting significantly from the Pupil Premium which I have championed. It is great to see this funding reaching those that need it most and make a tangible difference in the classroom.”
Approximately one third of students at Bath Community Academy are eligible for Pupil Premium payments, which supports disadvantaged students and has been described by Nick Clegg as a ‘fairness premium’.
Nick Clegg arrived at the school in the morning with the Leader of the Council, Paul Crossley, the B&NES Cabinet Member, Dine Romero, and Steve Bradley, the LibDem candidate to succeed Don Foster as MP for Bath.
Mr Clegg spent time with the school’s Principal, Adam Williams, and was then given a tour of part of the school where he assisted in the creation of a curry in a domestic science lesson, and then took part in a radio interview conducted by a group of students.
