A SECONDARY school is set to bid for academy status, its headteacher has revealed.

The board of governors at Greendown Community School, in Grange Park, took the decision on January 19 to begin a process of consultation with parents and staff about becoming an academy.

This would see the school obtain greater budgetary freedom from Swindon Council, which takes a 10 per cent slice of the school’s budget for education services, and also would mean a change of name and uniform.

Headteacher Clive Zimmerman said he was proud the school had received the invite by the Department for Education and it marked a great turnaround for the school over the last decade.

“It’s a real feather in Greendown’s cap,” he said.

“The pleasing thing is that maybe 10 years ago we would not have been eligible let alone be invited. But our last Ofsted was good with outstanding features and we want to push that into outstanding.

“Now it is for us to decide if it’s something we want to do. It would mean a name change and also quite a bit more.

“We would want to use this to take the best bits of Greendown and also look at the bits that we want to change – it would be a reboot of the system, almost a launch of a new school.

“Being an academy would give us more freedom of the budget but there are services provided by the local authority that you might want and some you might not.

“It would also mean taking a weaker school under our wing and supporting them. We would need to sort out who that would be.”

Mr Zimmerman, who took over as headteacher in 2007 – the same year the school became an IT and computing specialist centre – said the bid was still in the early stages but staff were receptive to the idea.

He said: “I’ve told staff and the reaction was positive. there are things they have questions about because obviously they have got to be happy with pay and conditions.

“I hope parents will react well too. The one thing I have to get across is an academy no longer means a failing school closing and reopening. This is the other end of the spectrum.”

Dates for a consultation and public meeting are yet to be determined but the process could take around three months.

Ridgeway School in Wroughton is also consulting with parents about becoming an academy after governors voted in November to apply for the status.