Stour Valley Community School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Stour Valley Community School | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
 | |
Cavendish Road , , CO10 8PJ | |
| Coordinates | 52°04′48″N 0°35′23″E / 52.0801°N 0.5897°E |
| Information | |
| Type | Free school |
| Established | 2011 |
| Department for Education URN | 136757 Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Head teacher | Rachel Kelly |
| Gender | Coeducational |
| Age | 11 to 16 |
| Website | stourvalleycommunityschool.org |
Stour Valley Community School is a coeducational free school for pupils aged 11 to 16 in Clare in the English county of Suffolk. It opened in September 2011 as one of the first 24 free schools in England.[1][2][3] It opened with around 170 pupils and a total staff of 29, including non-teaching support staff.[3] The headteacher is Rachel Kelly.[4]
The school opened on the site of the former Clare Middle School which had around 300 pupils in four year groups.[5] A building programme estimated to cost around £4.8 million and take around a year to complete and carried out by Balfour Beatty.[3][6][7] The middle school closed in August 2011 as part of Suffolk County Council's reorganisation of schools into a two-tier system.[7]
At the beginning of the autumn term (starting in September) of 2016, the school had 573 pupils.
Local families formed a group called Campaign for Local And Rural Education (C.L.A.R.E) asking for the council to open a secondary school at the site, but the council refused.[1][8] The group then set up the Stour Valley Educational Trust, and applied directly to the national government to open a school, concerned that children would have to travel up to 10 miles (16 km) to one of two existing secondary schools with around 1,200 pupils.[9] The application was accepted, and the trust, operating as Stour Valley Educational Trust Ltd., opened the school on the old middle school site in September 2011.[2]
