The Emmanuel Schools Foundation (ESF) is a charitable trust which has been involved in education since 1989.
ESF currently run six schools. The four original members of the ESF are:
Emmanuel City Technology College in
Gateshead
Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...
(opened 1990),
The King's Academy in
Middlesbrough (2003),
Trinity Academy in
Thorne,
Doncaster (2005) and
Bede Academy in
Blyth, Northumberland which opened in September 2009. In 2004, the Foundation's former chairman, Sir
Peter Vardy, discussed an aim to sponsor seven schools in the North of England that would educate a total of 10,000 students.
[The lesson today]
'' The Observer'', 11 July 2004. Retrieved 22 April 2009 In April 2019, the ESF also formally adopted
Joseph Swan Academy in
Gateshead
Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...
into the foundation. Most recently, the foundation adopted
Christ's College Sunderland
Christ's College (formerly "Grindon Hall Christian School") is a Free school (England), free school located in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, Sunderland, in the North East England, North East of England. It is non-selective and includes a Primary ...
(formerly 'Grindon Hall Christian School') in
Sunderland
Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...
into ESF.
Many of its schools have been oversubscribed every year.
[Blyth academy proves popular a year in advance](_blank)
The Journal, Blyth, 12 November 2008. Retrieved 1 April 2010
Although the Government allows academies to select 10% of pupils by ability, ESF Academies do not do so, being fully comprehensive school
A comprehensive school typically describes a secondary school for pupils aged approximately 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is res ...
s for local children. They have a Christian ethos, but are not faith schools and welcome staff and students of all faiths and of none.[
]
History
Establishment of Emmanuel College
In 1988, Sir Peter Vardy
Sir Peter Vardy DL (born 4 March 1947) is an English businessman. In the Sunday Times Rich List 2009 ranking of the wealthiest people in the United Kingdom, he placed 388th with an estimated fortune of £140 million.
Vardy attended t ...
responded to the then Government’s appeal to local businessmen to become involved in the education of young people in the most socio-economically deprived parts of their home regions through sponsorship of the City Technology College initiative. The aim of the initiative was twofold:
# To engage business people who had been successful in turning around failing businesses in using their experience to help turn around failing schools, and
# To create beacons of academic excellence in inner-city areas which would be able to show other parents, teachers and students what was possible.
The first ESF school, Emmanuel City Technology College, was founded in 1990 as Tyneside’s City Technology College and opened with just 150 students in Year 7. John Burn (Headteacher of Long Benton) had been instrumental in persuading Peter Vardy to engage in the CTC programme. Originally specialising in Technology, the College was awarded a second specialism in Business and Enterprise (2005), allowing it to build upon its Beacon School and current Leading Edge Status through its extensive work in delivering specialist teaching programmes within Primary Schools.
Expansion
The foundation was formally established when The King's Academy was established in Coulby Newham, Middlesbrough in 2003, as one of the earliest schools built under New Labour's academies programme. Vardy pledged to eventually build seven academies.
The Foundation's approach was not universally welcomed, and in 2004 opponents blocked the Foundation's bid to take over Northcliffe School in Conisbrough, near Doncaster, which Ofsted had placed under special measures. Instead, it took over Thorne Grammar School and redeveloped the site to create Trinity Academy in 2005.
In September 2009 ESF also opened its fourth school, Bede Academy, which is its first covering the whole school age range of 3-18, with Nursery, Primary and Secondary provision across two sites in Blyth on the Northumberland coast. Specialising in Engineering and Enterprise, the school focuses on extending conventional perceptions of engineering by providing specialist insights into aspects of biotechnology, environmental science and recycling technologies, sound and computer network engineering, medical and animal science, and naval and automotive systems and design.
In September 2009 it was announced that David Wootton would join from the Grace Foundation to become ESF's first Chief Executive. In February 2010, the Foundation announced that Sir Peter Vardy was to step down as chairman, to be succeeded by his brother, David Vardy, who had previously been Project Director of the foundation, overseeing the building of the schools. The foundation celebrated its twentieth anniversary with a conference at The Sage Gateshead for the staff, including celebratory videos, musical entertainment from each of the schools, and keynote talks by author Gervaise Phinn and futurist Patrick Dixon, among others.
New oversight and developments
In October 2010 it was announced that Sir Peter Vardy was handing over management of the schools to the United Learning Trust. The ESF schools were never integrated into the ULT network, however, and were ultimately later established as a multi-academy trust (MAT).
In April 2019, ESF formally adopted Joseph Swan Academy in Gateshead
Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...
, after its being rated inadequate in a 2018 Ofsted inspection, with Emmanuel College vice-principal Mark Hall taking over leadership of the school. Later in 2019, Christ's College Sunderland
Christ's College (formerly "Grindon Hall Christian School") is a Free school (England), free school located in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, Sunderland, in the North East England, North East of England. It is non-selective and includes a Primary ...
in Sunderland was also brought into the multi-academy trust, with Bede Academy's vice-principal Julie Roberts becoming its head.
Academic successes
Emmanuel College claims that its students, taught as part of a mixed, non-selective comprehensive school, perform significantly above all value-add measures and their academic results have placed the College amongst the highest ranked schools in England for the past ten years.
A 2009 report on The King's Academy by Ofsted referred to many improvements, with the school officially ranked as "good, with many outstanding features". Inspectors said the academy was exceptional when it came to boosting students' personal development and well-being, and offering them care, guidance and support.
Controversy
In 2002, a group of leading scientists including Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford and was Professor for Public Understanding of Science in the University of Oxford from 1995 to 2008. An ath ...
alleged that creationism
Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' says that creationism is 't ...
was taught in biology classes at Emmanuel College. Steven Layfield, the College's Head of Science and a Young Earth creationism activist, had held a lecture urging teachers to promote creationism to pupils, parents, and colleagues, including in science classes. Layfield later resigned from the board of creationist body Truth in Science
Truth in Science is a United Kingdom-based creationist organisation which promotes the Discovery Institute's "Teach the Controversy" campaign, which it uses to try to get the pseudoscientific concept of intelligent design creationism taught al ...
to state a separation between his private views and the school's teaching of science.
After reviewing the material used to teach science at Emmanuel College, Mike Tomlinson, chief inspector of Ofsted, decided that the matter did not need to be pursued further. The next Ofsted
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...
inspection in 2006 described the school as 'Outstanding' and found no problem with its science provision.
In 2005, John Harris in '' The Guardian'' accused Emmanuel Schools Foundation of promoting fundamentalist Christianity.
In 2006, Rod Liddle interviewed ex-pupils for a Channel 4 '' Dispatches'' programme titled " The New Fundamentalists", alleging that their teachers had promoted creationism both in and out of class.
However, a later article by Martin Wainwright, writing in '' The Guardian'' in December 2006, said that associating ESF's schools with creationism "couldn't be more wrong."[They aren't faith schools and they don't select]
'' The Guardian'', 5 December 2006
Opponents of academies continued to refer to the original accusation. After '' Tribune'' magazine published such an article in 2009, Peter Vardy took legal action against the magazine and its editor, who apologised, withdrew the allegations, and made an undisclosed payment to a nominated charity.[ ]
References
External links
BCSE article on The Emmanuel Schools Foundation
The Emmanuel Schools Foundation's official site
Emmanuel College's official site
The King's Academy's official site
Trinity Academy's official site
Bede Academy's official site
The Vardy Group official site
* Ofsted
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...
reports
* Ofsted reports
* Ofsted reports
{{authority control
Educational charities based in the United Kingdom
Educational institutions established in 1989
1989 establishments in the United Kingdom