The Heights Primary Trust formed in October 2012 and submitted its bid to the Department for Education (DfE) in December 2012. Approval for the bid was granted in May 2013 and the school opened in September 2014.
The Trust carried out a number of community engagement events ranging from hosting an open day in October 2013 and attending and taking stalls at many of the church and community Christmas fairs in 2013.
In addition The Trust created a FaceBook group for the school and provided regular monthly electronic newsletters.
A requirement of the pre-opening process was to carry out a formal consultation with the wider community to understand if there was support for the school. This was a legal requirement under Section 10 of the Academies Act 2010. The Heights consultation ran from 2nd December 2013 to 26th January 2014 and specifically asked the question ‘Do you agree that The Heights Primary School should open in September 2014, which would involve The Heights Primary School Trust entering into a Funding Agreement with the Secretary of State for Education?’
The survey also took the opportunity to gauge feedback on a number of areas including the vision for the school, curriculum plans, admissions policy, catchment area and the need for children to be able to walk to school. However it expressly excluded any questions relating to the specific location of the school. Responsibility for securing the site for the school rests with the Education Funding Agency which requires Free School Trusts to maintain confidentiality over any details the EFA shares with it relating to securing both temporary and permanent facilities.
BDO, a global management consultancy firm approved by the DfE, were appointed to carry out the consultation for The Heights Trust. This included developing the marketing strategy for the consultation, survey design and writing the final report. 351 residents completed the consultation survey and an estimated 150 individuals attended a formal consultation event on 7th January 2014.
The full report was approved by the Secretary of State for Education and a summary of the report can be downloaded here.