The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Carol Clare, chairman of the Invicta Group, with (right) group member Lesley Ruskin. Photo supplied.
A proposed Spalding free school hoping to open next year would teach its young pupils Spanish to a conversational level.
Invicta Group is a new proposer aiming to reignite the previous application for a bilingual school in Spalding, which was withdrawn last year by The Phoenix Family of Schools Trust (PFOS).
Invicta says it has already had an expression of interest from 150 people and is submitting its application for the primary school to the Department of Education this week.
The curriculum would be taught both in English and Spanish and cultural aspects from the Spanish-speaking world will be integrated into everyday life at the school, including story-telling, festivals and cookery.
The group is being led by the former chief executive of PFOS, Carol Clare.
She said: “We have got potential premises. As part of the application we have a few different sites identified.
“Despite parents’ obvious disappointment that the previous application was withdrawn by PFOS, I hope that they will put their trust and faith in me and my new team to make sure that this school opens its doors in September 2015.”
As the third most spoken language in the world, Mrs Clare said Spanish plays a key role and is a lot easier to learn than English.
She added: “We have chosen it because it is the most beneficial. You can access what you might call the more romantic languages, such as Italian and French, more easily with Spanish.”
Invicta is hoping to hear news on its application within a couple of months, but will not know a definite outcome until about February next year.
Mrs Clare said: “We are on a fairly tight timescale but the reason I wanted to go for 2015 is that the trust that I worked for did pull the plug last time and a lot of parents and myself were left disappointed.
“I believe the earlier we can get the school established, the better.”
Mrs Clare has 14 years’ experience of running schools in Lincolnshire and has brought together a team of people with wide-ranging skills and expertise.
Parents wishing to express support can visit the group’s Facebook page (search Invicta Bilingual Academy), email invictabilingual@gmail.com or at https://www.research.net/s/VHXS8Z6
