The ESUK Directors have published the following statement on their website. www.europaschooluk.org:
"This interview gave us the opportunity to share the vision of multilingual European education and to reassure the DfE that the school community has the skills and capacity to successfully set up ESUK.
Four directors represented ESUK [Andrew Parker (Chair); Paul Adams (Finance); Jutta Weber (Accreditation); Jackie Holderness (Education)]. Simon Sharron accepted our invitation and joined the team, as Director of the ESC, as we hope to share the Culham site, from 2012.
To prepare, the 5 interviewees held a rehearsal on the 9th August. Educational consultants Jan Woodhead and Tom Lindsay, who had helped to draft the proposal; ESC parent Nigel Bassett-Jones; and ESC teacher Bill Laar, acted as mock interviewers and 3 members of PSG (Antonella Shorrock, Manu Pallot and Maurizio Fantato) observed and gave valuable feedback. The mock interview was very helpful and prepared us well.
There was a panel of 5 interviewers, from the DfE and related government organisations. The real interview was challenging, extending over an hour and a half. Questions focused on curriculum access and support, recruitment, admissions, finance and governance.
The ESUK team answered the questions as honestly and as comprehensively as we could. The DfE panel appeared to understand the vision and responded sympathetically to the proposal. However, they made it clear that Mr Gove, the Secretary of State for Education, and his senior Ministers will finally decide whether ESUK becomes a reality. We will be informed around the end of September whether the ESUK will move to the pre-opening stage.
Like other Free Schools who are approved this Autumn, the Pre-opening stage leads to the formal signing of a Funding Agreement. As part of pre-opening, we would be obliged to carry out a full public consultation. The Funding Agreement is the legally binding contract through which ESUK would become a state-funded school. It is likely that such an Agreement would be signed in December 2011 or January 2012.
As soon as there any further developments, the ESUK team will put them on the website."
Future of the European School Culham
The UK delegation formally withdrew the General Interest File and Dossier of Conformity for the Culham European Academy project at the April 2011 session of the Board of Governors of the European Schools. The transformation of the European School, Culham into an Academy will not now take place and that the phased closure of the school by 31st August 2017 would proceed in accordance with the previous decisions of the Board of Governors. The prospect of Europa School UK gives hope for continuity of European schooling on the Culham site after 2017.
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