An outstanding secondary school with its federated primary school, Westlands Academy Trust is enjoying the new freedoms and flexibility of becoming an academy. This video diary details the changes the school is going through, and reveals how staff are getting to grips with their new status with headteacher Jon Whitcombe talks about their work with the new primary school. The primary school is developing and to cement the relationships between the two schools, assistant headteacher, and now federation development manager, Claire Wood, has been working 50 per cent of her time at the primary. The Year 6 students talk about what they think about having numeracy and literacy classes at the high school and how they can see it is giving them the confidence to prepare for their transfer to secondary school. Jon explains that the process of becoming an academy has been an evolution, not a revolution, and the additional budget he is now receiving directly from the government has been

Video Series: Becoming an Academy
Release Date 2010