Council confirms Blidworth school’s new academy status with 125-year building lease

Blidworth Oaks Primary School will join the East Midlands Education Trust later this year following a series of consultations with parents and residents last autumn.

The school said the decision was taken to ‘cement’ its ‘close relationship’ with the nearby The Joseph Whitaker School, in Rainworth, which is already part of the trust, and to support pupils’ access to the secondary school.

It adds joining the trust will provide access to ‘substantial funding streams’, helping provide money for school buildings, which the school says will leave more cash in its budgets to support pupils.

And the school believes the move will offer more opportunities and training for staff and provide ‘expertise and resources’ to drive it forward.

Now Nottinghamshire Council is due to make the process official by handing over the school site to the trust.

It will provide the trust with a 125-year lease to operate the school and control all buildings at its Haywood Avenue base, while also offering a ‘peppercorn rent’ to reduce long-term maintenance costs.

Neil Gamble, council property asset management group manager, confirmed the lease also includes control of a former Sure Start children’s centre.

He said, in a report ahead of the decision: “As part of the conversion process, the trust is entitled to a 125-year full repairing and insuring lease at a peppercorn rent.

“This will include any council-owned land and buildings which form part of the principal operational school site.

“The conversion includes a former Sure Start children’s centre which forms part of the building and is now used by the school for the provision of childcare, together with a detached playing field.”

A statement from the trust welcomed news the school will become part of its long list of academies, with the Blidworth school joining alongside Heathlands Primary School, Rainworth.

The trust said: “Following a formal consultation, the governing bodies of both Blidworth Oaks and Heathlands primaries have unanimously decided to join our trust in 2022.

“We look forward to working closely with everyone at the schools in the run-up to their conversions.”

The trust, based in West Bridgford, currently controls about 20 academies across the East Midlands.