French head will lead free school (From Bicester Advertiser)

Primary chief is excited about new role

1:00pm Monday 28th May 2012 in News By Fran Bardsley, covering Education, East Oxford and Cowley. Call me on 01865 425439

Pascal Maréchau

A FRENCHMAN has been appointed as primary headteacher of Oxfordshire’s first free school.

The Europa School UK, which is due to open in Culham this September, announced that primary headteacher Pascal Maréchau will take on the role.

The appointment of principal Peter Ashbourne was announced earlier this year.

The announcement came as parents were informed whether they had been allocated one of the 168 places available in the reception, year one and year two classes at the multilingual school.

There were 253 applications for the slots.

Mr Maréchau is currently education co-ordinator at the Wix School, in Wandsworth, London, where there is a bilingual stream taking pupils from two schools, an English primary and a French secondary school.

He said: “I am really excited because it is a really great project. It is a free school, and free of charge for the children, and I am very pleased about it.”

Mr Maréchau, who has previously held headships in France, is married with three grown-up children.

Earlier this month interviews were held for teaching posts. Eight teachers have been offered positions.

Now organisers are seeking applications from teaching assistants and other support staff.

Europa School communications director Karin Loudon said: “We are very excited about all the progress.

“It feels like there are lots of people who are going to be on board very soon.”

The Europa School UK will eventually take over from the multilingual European School, in Culham, which is set to close in 2017.

From this year the European School, which was originally established to educate the children of European diplomats, will be wound down, and will not take new pupils for younger age groups.

A site-sharing agreement has been signed by the board of governors for the European School, meaning the school has the go-ahead to set up at the site.

Refurbishment work for the buildings, which will initially be required for the school’s first intake, can also now take place, with work underway to finalise costings.