STAFF, governors and students were celebrating this week after securing foundation status for their school. After 12 months of negotiations, bosses at Gordano School announced this week they have achieved foundation status. The school had hoped to make th

STAFF, governors and students were celebrating this week after securing foundation status for their school.After 12 months of negotiations, bosses at Gordano School announced this week they have achieved foundation status.The school had hoped to make the changes in the summer but were hit by delays after a stand off with North Somerset Council regarding pensions provision.The changes will mean although the school will still have to attain the educational and curricular criteria laid down by local education authority, it retains overall responsibility for standards at the school.It will also mean the school could apply for charitable status and manage its own admissions policy and look at ways of improving the curriculum and enhancing its facilities for the community.Headteacher Graham Silverthorne said: "We are delighted to finally complete a journey which began nearly 12 months ago."The unacceptable difficulties that we had in reaching agreement with the local authority have been well documented but that is a matter now firmly in the past and we look forward to re-establishing collaborative and mutually supportive relationships."Our work in partnership with many local schools continues to be strong and productive and we will now be discussing with the local authority the best way to sustain and enhance community provision of our school site."The school, which has 180 employees and 1,711 pupils, has an operating budget in excess of £7million annually.Mr Silverthorne added: "We believe that by becoming a foundation school we are better able to influence and control the future direction of the school to improve standards and the educational and other experiences of pupils.