Parents asked to support new Bexhill school

A meeting will be held on Monday evening from 7pm at Little Common Community Centre by the team putting together its proposal for South Cliff School.

Headed by parents and teachers with partners the Russell Education Trust, the team needs only 100 more parents to sign up to say this could be their first choice when it opens in September 2015.

One of them is Yee Lau, a teacher at Bexhill High Academy, who is in the steering group with Sharon Handley, Sam Lau, Paul Rutherford and Nick Wilkinson, Gary Markham and Barry Wright.

She said: “South Cliff will be a traditional school, but this does not mean old fashioned, rather an emphasis on the core subjects of English, maths and science taught by the best teachers to ensure that all our students achieve outstanding progress: our aim is that South Cliff will be regonsied as an outstanding school when it if first inspected by Ofsted.”

She added: “We need to make this happen.”

The steering group started working last summer and brought in RET as sponsor. Members have been visible campaigning outside primary schools and local clubs but held off with their application to the Department for Education in December because of not enough support.

Yee added: “We recently have had more hits on the website and more parents expressing their interest. Some parents have volunteered to help us spread the message. South Cliff School has a sister school - The Bristol Free School, they have had an Ofsted in February this year and achieved good with outstanding features. RET have an excellent track record and we need parents to continue to register their interest online to make this happen. We are outside school gates every week to collect signatures. We have received warm and encouraging support from the parents.”