A primary school in Beckton celebrated its academy status with a party on Tuesday.
Gallions Primary joined three other schools in forming the New Vision Trust in March.
Last Tuesday, Elmhurst Primary, Nelson Primary and Vicarage joined pupils from Gallions in celebrating their recent change in status.
“Becoming an academy means that we work much more closely together as a family, to support and learn from each other to provide an even better education for our children,” Shahed Ahmed said, the CEO of the trust.
“We’ll get even better teaching, even better schools, and overall better futures for the children.”
Talks to begin New Vision Trust began two years ago, with Gallions converting officially in March. Since then, pupils have already been on a trip to the New Forest for a poetry-writing retreat.
And Mr Ahmed said the opposition to academies which has plagued other schools in Newham has not been a problem here.
“The way we have come together has been different to other academies,” he said.
“None of our schools have been forced to academise, we’re four strong schools which have come together collectively.
“It’s been entirely consensual – there’s been no single, big school which has taken over another.”
He insisted the academy would be pupil-focused, with the children even being in charge of creating New Vision’s strapline – going further together – and logo, which shows three books flying like butterflies.
For the party, choirs from Gallions and Vicarage performed, followed by the unveiling of a cake and ribbon-cutting ceremony. There was a Shakespeare performance from Elmhurst pupils, a windpipe band from Nelson, and Gallions closed the show with their school orchestra.
Councillor Quintin Peppiatt, chair of the board of trustees for New Vision, said: “It’s taken two years of bringing together the schools and we built the trust around a model of collaboration and working together from the ground up.
“This is not one school excercising control or taking over a failing school, but it’s an equal relationship between four good or outstanding rated schools.
“The important thing for us is what we can do together to help each other, as each school has its own strengths.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here