Kettering Buccleuch Academy welcomes staff and students at Foundation Ceremony
14 September 2009
Kettering Buccleuch Academy officially welcomed its staff and students today with a special Foundation Ceremony.
Four ceremonies were held at the academy sites on Weekley Glebe Road and Laburnum Crescent so that every academy student from Year 2 to Year 13 could take part in the special day.
The ceremonies began with a welcome from Sir Ewan Harper, Chair of the academy’s Local Governing Body and Chief Executive of academy sponsor, the United Learning Trust (ULT). Speeches were also given by Edward Gould, Deputy Chair of ULT and Iain Denning, Academy Principal. During the ceremony, Foundation Certificates were presented to students and staff to mark their unique position as the founding students and staff of Kettering Buccleuch Academy.
Also attending the event were academy President the Duke of Buccleuch, the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Lord Carey of Clifton, Chairman of the United Church Schools Trust (ULT’s parent body), Cllr Judy Shephard, Chairman of Northamptonshire County Council, Cllr Andrew Grant, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Mrs Deirdre Fenwick, High Sheriff of Northamptonshire, Lady Juliet Townsend LVO, Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire and Cllr Ruth Groome, Mayor of Kettering.
Academy Principal Iain Denning added: “Although we have only been open a week, all students and staff already feel a shared sense of identity in Kettering Buccleuch Academy and today’s ceremonies have reinforced this.”
Sir Ewan Harper said: “Today we are welcoming the staff and students of Kettering Buccleuch Academy into the ULT family. As a locally based charity, we are particularly pleased to have an academy on our doorstep.
“I would like to wish Iain Denning and all staff and students a very successful first year and to thank our colleagues at Northamptonshire County Council and the Department for Children, Schools and Families for their work in bringing this project to fruition.”
Commenting on the ceremony, Academy President, the Duke of Buccleuch, whose estate is linked with the academy, said: “The opening of Kettering Buccleuch Academy is an exciting and aspirational new venture and I am delighted to continue my family’s historic ties with education in this area.”
