A voluntary aided school ( VA school ) is a state-funded school in England and Wales in which a foundation or trust (usually a religious organisation) contributes to building costs and has a substantial influence in the running of the school. In most cases the foundation or trust owns the buildings.
19-619: Islamia Primary School is a voluntary aided primary, Islamic faith school in Queen's Park , London, England. It is located in the London Borough of Brent . Islamia Primary School was founded in October 1983 by Yusuf Islam, the singer/songwriter who was known as Cat Stevens until his conversion to Islam in 1978. In 1998, the school was the first Muslim school in Britain to be granted public funding by
38-598: A new two-storey building. It would be funded jointly by Brent Council, the school and the government. The scheme, designed by Marks Barfield , was granted planning permission in December 2010 but has proved controversial with residents groups threatening to take legal action to stop it. Brent Council announced, in November 2013, that the development had been included in Phase 3 of their Permanent Primary School Expansion project. The school
57-451: A proposal to the Minister to cease to maintain a school. This was done in cases where the local authority and school could not agree. Some of these schools became private schools : Direct grant status was abolished at the same time and over 40 such schools, almost all Roman Catholic, converted to voluntary aided status. Many voluntary aided schools converted to grant-maintained status in
76-495: Is two form entry with approximately 420 pupils aged between the ages of 4 and 11. The school was intended to have 10% non-Muslim pupils. It has just 210 official places and 3,500 pupils on the waiting list. Islamia follows the national curriculum supplemented with classes on religion and studies of the Arabic language. The Ofsted inspection on 2013 rated the school as "Good", point 2 on a four-point scale. Ofsted reported positively on
95-558: The British and Foreign School Society and the National Society for Promoting Religious Education sought to provide elementary schooling for poor children, setting up non-denominational British Schools and Church of England National schools respectively. From 1833, the State began to provide grants to support these elementary schools and the less wealthy endowed schools. They were joined by
114-482: The Catholic Poor School Committee , which established Roman Catholic elementary schools and received its first state grant in 1847. Secondary education also expanded at the same time, including a series of Roman Catholic secondary schools established by religious orders. The state began to provide elementary education in 1870 and secondary education in 1902, but also continued to increase funding to
133-539: The Government. This funding was secured after a campaign of thirteen years and several rejections of their applications for voluntary state aid. Prince Charles visited to officially inaugurate the school's voluntary aided status on 10 May 2000. He praised their approach of providing both secular and religious education. The school applied, in September 2010, for permission to construct an £8 million extension including
152-652: The Roman Catholic schools and the schools of non-Christian faiths. Almost all voluntary aided primary schools and 93% of voluntary aided secondary schools were linked to a religious body, usually either the Church of England or the Catholic Church, with a minority of other faiths. In November 2012, the interpretation of the Education Act 2011 , which appeared to prioritise the creation of academies over maintained schools,
171-431: The direct grant schools became direct grant grammar schools . The Act also imposed higher standards on school facilities, and offered the remaining voluntary schools a choice in funding the costs this would incur: The Catholic Church chose to retain control of all of its schools, while more than half of Church of England schools became voluntary controlled. The state contribution to capital works for voluntary aided schools
190-470: The late 1980s, generally reverting to voluntary aided status when grant-maintained status was abolished in 1998. A few formerly independent faith schools that had become grant-maintained in the early 1990s also converted to voluntary aided status at that time. By 2008, within the maintained sector in England, approximately 22% of primary schools and 17% of secondary schools were voluntary aided, including all of
209-649: The school community, and the way that the children were engaged in their learning. However, in 2022, the Ofsdted inspection marked the school as "Inadequate." In 2013, the school won the Global Peace and Unity Education Award for Excellence, for UK primary schools. The Islamia Branch consists of three schools; the primary school, Islamia Girls High School , and the boys' school, Brondesbury College . Voluntary aided school Such schools have more autonomy than voluntary controlled schools , which are entirely funded by
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#1732872193108228-520: The school's land and buildings, although there are instances where VA schools use local authority land and buildings. The foundation appoints a majority of the school governors , who run the school, employ the staff and decide the school's admission arrangements, subject to the national Schools Admissions Code. Specific exemptions from Section 85 of the Equality Act 2010 enables VA faith schools to use faith criteria in prioritising pupils for admission to
247-427: The schools run by other organisations (usually the churches), now known as voluntary schools . In return these schools were increasingly influenced by the state, and were subject to jointly administered inspections. In 1926, secondary voluntary schools were required to choose between being "grant-aided" by the local authority, or receiving a "direct grant" from central government. Under the Education Act 1944 , most of
266-508: The schools. Pupils at voluntary aided schools follow the National Curriculum . Like all faith schools, VA faith schools may teach religious education according to their own faith. Prior to the 19th century, there were a variety of schools in England and Wales, from charity schools providing basic education for the poor to endowed schools (often grammar schools ) providing secondary or all-age education. Early in that century,
285-412: The state, with the school's foundation contributing the remaining 10%. Many VA faith schools belong to diocesan maintenance schemes or other types of funding programme to help them to manage those costs. VA schools are not allowed to charge fees to students, although parents are usually encouraged to pay a voluntary contribution towards the schools' maintenance funds. The foundation usually owns
304-482: The state. In some circumstances local authorities can help the governing body in buying a site, or can provide a site or building free of charge. Hong Kong 's education system also has aided ( Chinese : 資助 ) schools. The running costs of voluntary aided schools, like those of other state-maintained schools , are fully paid by central government via the local authority . They differ from other maintained schools in that only 90% of their capital costs are met by
323-428: The voluntary contributions of the inhabitants to teach poor children to read and write, and for other necessary parts of education. They were usually maintained by religious organisations, which provided clothing and education to students freely or at little charge. In most charity schools, children were put out to trades, services, etc., by the same charitable foundation. Some schools were more ambitious than this and sent
342-510: Was originally 50%. It was increased to 75% by the Education Act 1959 , and is now 90%. By the mid-1970s, under Harold Wilson's second Labour government, most local authorities were in the final stages of reorganising secondary education along comprehensive lines. The Roman Catholic hierarchy supported this change. Some non-Catholic voluntary aided grammar schools opposed it. Local authorities could not compel voluntary aided schools to change any aspect of their admissions, but they could submit
361-517: Was tested by a judicial review , which upheld the decision of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames to establish voluntary aided schools, St Richard Reynolds Catholic College , without first seeking proposals for an academy. Charity school Charity schools , sometimes called blue coat schools , or simply the Blue School, were significant in the history of education in England . They were built and maintained in various parishes by
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