The Proposal
The need for a new school for children with special educational needs (SEND) within Leicestershire was identified by The Department for Education and Leicester County Council back in July 2020. The Community Inclusive Trust (CIT) were approved as sponsor by the Secretary of State for Education and are proposing to open Bowman Academy at the start of the academic year 2024-2025.
Bowman Academy is being built in Shepshed off Forest Street and Butthole Lane creating up to 64 school places for children with SEMH (Social, Emotional and Mental Health) needs from across Leicestershire. The school is being delivered by Bowmer + Kirkland (B+K).
Admissions to the school will be via the Local Authority.
The Consultation
The consultation window opened on Thursday 14th December 2023 and closed on Thursday 25th January 2024.
For this consultation CIT Academies direct emailed 344 stakeholders on 14th December 2023, then again on 3rd January 2024. This included all schools in the area, the LA, local councillors, and local MP.
We also published the consultation to our CIT website and shared the consultation via Bowman Academy and Foxfield Academy social media pages, as well as CIT social media pages. The social media posts were viewed over 382 times.
CIT asked the following question and welcomed comments:
Should CIT enter into a funding agreement to run the new free school?
Information used for consultation:
- Presentation about the new school, the site, the curriculum, and information about the Trust.
- Admissions Policy
- SEND Policy
- Feedback Form
All the above can be accessed HERE.
Stakeholders were given the following opportunities to provide feedback:
- We held a face-to-face ‘drop-in’ event on Thursday 18th January 2024 at 3pm – 5pm at Shepshed Town Council, 47a Charnwood Rd, Shepshed, Loughborough LE12 9QE. 4 people attended.
- People were invited to leave feedback via a quick online form.
Please click the button below to view the feedback (names have been removed for data protection purposes):
