Cake cutting ceremony celebrates school and College partnership

08/10/2010

Leicester College and Babington Community Technology College celebrated a new partnership as part of the National Challenge Co-operative Trust programme during a cake-cutting ceremony.

Babington Community Technology College, in Beaumont Leys, is one of three Leicester City Schools which has established a Co-operative Trust.

The purpose of the Trust is to support the school in continuing to raise aspirations and achievement among students by promoting progression routes into further learning and training. Its immediate focus will be to help maintain and sustain the recent rapid improvements and to support the Principal in driving forward further improvements. The Co-operative nature of the Trust means that it will also establish mechanisms, specifically a Stakeholder Forum, to work with parents, carers and the local community and engage them in the life of the school.

Leicester College is the lead education partner for Babington, with the Local Authority and the Co-operative College also partnering the school.

Denise Newsome, Babington’s Principal, said: “We are looking forward to working in partnership with Leicester College, the Co-operative College and the Local Authority. We see the Trust as a great way of strengthening the involvement of parents, carers, students and the wider community in the school. We think that it will open up many more opportunities for our students, wherever they want to study after Babington.”

Maggie Galliers, Principal of Leicester College said: “We are delighted to be partnering Babington which we know will continue to go from strength to strength. This and the other Trusts are all about raising the aspirations of young people and building relationships across schools and colleges in Leicester. For us, it is an opportunity to work closely with Babington, in addition to other schools in the City, and to draw on the strengths of partner institutions in providing the very best learning experiences for young people.”

Councillor Vi Dempster, Leicester city’s cabinet lead for children and schools, said: “At the Local Authority we are delighted the Trust has been established. We see the partnership as essential in enabling us to continue to raise education standards in the city. This is a strong partnership which will help Babington build on its fantastic results this year.”