Town Senior Schools Unware of Proposal
The Aycliffe Business Park Community meeting last week heard of a bid by the University of Sunderland to bring a UTC to Aycliffe Business Park based at South West Durham Training.
University Colleges are a new concept in education. Offering 14-18 year olds the opportunity to take a highly regarded, full time, technically-oriented course of study.
They are equipped to the highest standard, sponsored by a university and offer clear progression routes into higher education or further learning in work.
The meeting heard that a £9 million grant would be made to establish the UTC at Aycliffe and the bid was being prepared to meet a closing date next month.
A fundamental principle of UTCs is that they do not judge students on their past performance. Students are given new opportunities and new ways of learning which allow them to achieve to a higher level than they may have done before.
Newton News editor was present and asked the question how the UTC would fit in with existing Secondary School education particularly as the school leaving age was being extended.
These establishments would already be seeking to use that extended period to equip students to move into higher education or technical training.
The reply was that it seemed acceptable to have competition for places but it seemed loaded against the secondary schools who might feel a bit aggrieved if the bid was successful. In fact our two senior schools were not aware of the proposal bid until this week!  The UTC say they will take students from a wide geographical area and this would reduce the negative impact for local schools in terms of the student roll. However it is quite obvious there will be a greater demand from Aycliffe as they are nearer and won’t have the same transport problems as others.