AN upper and middle school are celebrating after they secured academy status.
Samuel Whitbread Community College in Clifton and Henlow Middle School are joining the growing list of Chronicle Country schools to apply to become academies.
The former officially became an academy on March 1 while Henlow Middle School hopes to become Henlow Church of England Academy on April 1.
Samuel Whitbread principal Robert Robson has welcomed the move, especially after the conversion process took longer than originally expected.
He said: “Quite a few schools in the area are becoming academies but converting took a little longer for us than it has for some of the others.
“We submitted our original application back in December 2010 and were were given approval to convert in February 2011.”
Some of the buildings at the academy were built through the private finance initiative, which has meant that the legal side of the process has taken longer than it would otherwise.
Mr Robson is pleased to welcome a new era, not just for Samuel Whitbread but for other academies in the area too.
He said: “The former Robert Bloomfield Middle and Etonbury Middle Schools are now academies and together we are now known as the Bedfordshire East Multi-Academy Trust.
“Now that we have established this link it means that we can improve the continuity of education that we offer to students, especially as quite a few come to us from Robert Bloomfield and Etonbury.
“We will also be looking forward to working more closely with Henlow Middle in the future too.”
The autonomy of being an academy will also be a major benefit, Mr Robson said.
He added: “The three academies can pool our resources and staff from one can teach at the others.
“We can also change and adapt our curriculums and we are hoping that this will give us scope to improve our teaching of engineering and technology and sport as well.”
After converting the former school is now required to change its name and parents and students are currently voting on a new title for the academy.
Ray Payne, headteacher at Henlow Middle School is also looking forward to completing the conversion.
He said: “We are hoping to become an academy on April 1 but that is actually a Sunday and falls just before the start of the school holidays.
“We hold our annual fun run for students during the summer term and this year we are thinking about combining this with a launch and celebration event.
“A lot of parents come down normally so it would be a good time.”