David Keetley, Headteacher of Kirkby Stephen Grammar School, a small, rural school in Cumbria, explains that the next priorities are embedding co-operation in the curriculum, developing the local co-operative forum and membership scheme and working as part of the Schools Co-operative Society.

He said: “We are starting to feel that we are now on the radar, part of a family of schools of all sorts – locally, across country and nationally…an integral part of the co-operative movement.”

Read the full article online at www.johncatt.com/magazines/academy/issue/Academy_Issue1_2/3dissue.swf (pp44-47).

Two articles in the January/February edition of Governing Matters, the magazine produced by the National Governors’ Association, explore some of the options open to schools wishing to adopt a co-operative structure: the Trust model and the Academy model.

Sean Rogers, Lead on Trust Schools at the Co-operative College, explains what co-operative Trust schools are and how they work, as well as their advantages, saying: “Uniquely, co-operative schools have a very strong mutual dimension as they are schools owned by the community. Most have grown from existing well-established local partnerships are relationships which are now being formalised within the trust.”

He describes the growth in co-operative schools since they were first featured in Governing Matters in 2009 and looks at the future for Trust schools.

In a separate article, Mary Groom and Tom Ketteley of Bates Wells and Braithwaite London LLP discuss co-operative Academies.

Governing Matters January/February 2012

The demutualisation of some building societies from the late 1980s withdrew around 70 per cent of assets from mutual building society and insurance sectors. Since then, co-operative and mutual models have grown rapidly, focusing value for money, social responsibility and meeting needs not met by mainstream banks. Across Great Britain, there are now 465 credit unions that serve 870,000 members. £600 million is saved in credit unions and building societies have £220 billion of UK savings.

Since the credit crunch, The Co-operative Bank has been named by the Financial Times as the world’s most sustainable bank, while Nationwide Building Society has been listed by Global Finance Magazine as one of the world’s safest financial institutions.

In Europe, co-operative banks have 20 per cent of the market. In the Netherlands, half the population banks with co-operative bank Rabobank, and in Germany co-operative banks have 30 million members.

March will be designated Move Your Money month. Find out more about Move Your Money at http://moveyourmoney.org.uk.

Are you looking for youth work this summer that will really make a big difference to young people, communities, society and your future?

Change Agents UK is looking for Wave Co-ordinators, Team Facilitators and Team Supporters (45 people in total) to play a key role in delivering the National Citizen Service 360 (NCS 360) in Yorkshire, funded by the Cabinet Office (more information here). The NCS 360 project is a voluntary 5 week summer programme for 15-16 year olds which aims to promote a more cohesive, responsible and engaged society  by bringing together young people from different backgrounds to make a difference in their communities. Each young person will take part in four phases of a ‘Wave’, DARE: week 1; DISCOVER: week 2; DEVELOP: week 3; and DO: making it happen weeks 4 and 5.

The positions provide an ideal opportunity to earn money over the summer and gain professional; experience in the youth work sector. The NCS 360 project is being delivered by a consortium of the Co-operative College, Woodcraft Folk, Change Agents UK and Envision, and offers a uniquely co-operative take on the scheme.

Please see the flier below for more information and register your interest at www.changeagents.org.uk/ncs360register.

Contact Sarah on ncs360@changeagents.org.uk or 01572 725842 if you have any questions.

NCS 360 job opportunities flier

‘The South West leads the way with co-op education’, says an article in Co-operatives South West’s autumn/winter newsletter, describing the ‘huge surge of interest’ in co-operative schools in the region.

It says the proliferation of schools choosing to convert to co-operative structures “may well be a reaction to the Government’s race to set up more Academy schools”. It adds: “The Cooperative Trust model is filling a vacuum as it offers an ethical and mutually beneficial form of school governance that directly involves the local community.”

The short article goes on to say what local co-operatives can do to help schools wishing to convert to co-operative status.

Co-operatives South West news.

Robert Dale Owen, the second son of Robert, became a man worthy of his father. Following his father to America in the 1820s, he would make his home there and become a renowned speaker for the abolition of slavery, universal suffrage and free secular education. His endeavours would see him be firstly elected to the Indiana Legislature in 1836 and then to the House of Representatives in 1845.

In this letter Dale Owen writes to his father from New York, and, following a brief preamble discussing previous missives (a common feature in letters from this period), Dale Owen quickly moves to the crux of the letter – the enormous financial crisis besetting America. Dale Owen states that the commercial world is in a “frightful state” and bankruptcies in New York City alone have totalled some $250 million in the last three months. Few have been spared the devastating effects, and Dale Owen understands that two thirds or perhaps even three quarters of the wholesale merchants in the city have lost their businesses.

Such are the dreadful effects the crisis is having on America, Dale Owen is forced to concede to his father that even the severe financial downturn which occurred in 1816-17 must be considered “nothing to this”. It is a crisis “without parallel in the history of commerce” and how it will end seems “impossible to predict”. Further evidence of the severity of the crisis is garnered when Dale Owen explains that, for only the second time in the country’s history, American banks have been forced to suspended “specie payments”, a facility which allowed Americans to redeem paper money for metallic (usually) gold coins. Dale Owen is of the opinion that investment in property at a low value is the “most stable” of investments under the current hardship – although he does note that “very best houses” which were thought beyond the reach of “ill fortune” have suffered just as much as their [poorer] neighbours.

Despite the pervading doom and gloom, Dale Owen is able to see a silver lining to the dark clouds, at least for himself and his father. He notes that a “fortunate circumstance” of such a desperate situation ensures there has never been a “more favourable time” for the transfer of funds from England to America. To make the most of this, Robert Dale advises his father to ship sovereigns or, better still, arrange for a letter of credit made out in favour of Dale Owen through a bank of “unquestioned stability”, with Barings Bank being suggested as a possible choice. If they carry out this plan, Dale Owen is convinced they would be able to sell the letter of credit for a profit of 12 to 15% – a healthy return indeed!

One cannot help but wonder if Owen, a man who spent his life helping others, would have been interested in a scheme conceived, on the face of it, to make a ‘fast buck’ whilst others faced losing their homes or seeing their business go to the wall. Sadly, there is no reply from Owen to his son within the collection, and therefore we are unable to ascertain if Owen did indeed chose to play his part in the scheme. However, within the letter evidence can be found suggesting an attempt of a transaction along similar lines being made, as Dale Owen warns his father to ensure he does not repeat his previous error and draw up the letter of credit in pounds sterling rather than dollars (which presumably would render the scheme ineffective). The date of this previous transaction is not noted, and indeed may have occurred during more prosperous times, when such movements of cash across international boundaries was nothing more than an everyday method of transferring money. This is certainly something Owen would have needed to do having established a colony at New Harmony and also with numerous members of his family living in America.

The effects of the financial crisis lasted for a number of years and further details of can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1837

Predominantly comprising letters sent to the great social reformer, and dating from around 1820 until his death in 1858, the letters are a rich resource, one which will provide researchers will valuable information across a wide range of subjects. Whether you wish to learn more about Owen’s views on reform, education or co-operation, or maybe ascertain who he was influenced by and among which ‘circles’ he moved; perhaps even who he had disagreements with. Whichever it is, it is pretty certain that this collection can provide you with at least some of the answers.

With the task now well underway, it seems an ideal time to provide a little more detail of a few of the interesting items that have come to light during the cataloguing of the collection and in a series of articles the aim is to point out some of the fascinating letters contained in the collection.

The article draws on Deputy General Secretary Dr Patrick Roach’s speech at the 2011 Schools Co-operative Society conference in Manchester, arguing that there is a more inclusive alternative to Michael Gove’s academies project.

Roach calls for greater partnership and engagement with the co-operative movement.

Read the full article online at www.thedigitalpublisher.co.uk/nasuwt-ttoday-dec2011-eng.

Stephen Brice, a Co-operative College Associate, has been working to develop the relationship with the OCCE. He sees great potential for finding ways of working with young French co-operators, supporting the development of cultural understanding and language skills through participation in OCCE activities and learning from their approach to co-operative pedagogy. This is, of course reciprocal, as many College activities are ideal for working together.

A significant step forward took place just before Christmas. Stephen Brice accompanied Hannah Law, Assistant Headteacher at St Clere’s Specialist Science College and Co-operative Academy in Thurrock, Essex, to Paris, a trip that moved opportunities significantly forward. When they arrived at the Gare du Nord, Yves Potel, President of the OCCE, and Christian Robillard, General Secretary, were waiting at the end of the platform. The party set off for a Paris elementary school.

Entering the classroom it was obvious that the students were co-operating. Valerie, the teacher, had structured their science lesson so the learning took place because of the co-operation in their learning groups. This was immediately followed by the students’ regular council meeting. The class discussed and agreed various actions relating to the running of the school, with all aspects of the meeting being run by the young co-operators. Both Hannah and Stephen were struck that, although it was pouring with rain (they did order good weather but obviously the request was held up in the Christmas post!), the young students worked through without a break. Their concentration was remarkable.

Upon her return to St Clere’s, Hannah immediately enlisted the help of the languages department in arranging a pen pal link – Valerie had already corresponded with email details. The partnership is starting with a class of year 7 students corresponding in French with students from the school in Paris.

Discussions are already underway to pilot how they could work together on the OCCE’s Ecoles Fleuries (Flowering Schools) project, which is very similar to our Eco-Schools initiative. A possible theme is improving the school environment with the potential for a sustainability study to be carried out in both schools.

Hannah said: “Group work and co-operation is a vital skill for pupils to learn and being a co-operative academy it is at the heart of all we try to do. I am hoping that the OCCE will be able to support our languages department at St Clere’s after seeing the skills shown by Valerie on our visit.  It is our hope that, if this happens, the language department will then work with staff in other departments.”

The OCCE has, over the past few years, developed a uniquely ‘French’ approach to co-operative education. 4.5 million active members is success by most measures and the opportunities of working together appear to be growing rapidly.

For more information, or if you would like to become involved, please contact Stephen Brice at stephenb@co-op.ac.uk.

Andy Goodwin, Facilities Operations Manager for the Co-operative Group, looks after the co-operative building of all different architectural styles and periods that are clustered near Victoria Station in Manchester. Most of the buildings will soon be vacated as the Co-operative Group gets ready to move into its shiny new headquarters across the road later this year.

As well as taking us around the underground tunnels that connect the various co-operative buildings, Andy is full of interesting facts. Who would have known, for instance, that there’s a huge glacial boulder beneath the 1960s-built CIS tower that was too big to be moved, or that the space where the Sports & Social Club is now was once a nuclear shelter?

In an impressive vanishing trick, we started underneath the CIS building, among the fiery boilers and thick pipes (coated in what we now know is hazardous asbestos) that transport water around the building and, after a short walk, ended up in a more familiar place; next to the escalators in New Century House across the road. Like a Turkish bath, as you move from room to room the temperature changes rapidly, from balmy, almost tropical heat to rooms with a distinct chill in the air and rooms where you’re suddenly swept by gusts of wind. In another disorientating adventure, we started in the gloomy depths of the ornate old bank building and emerged into daylight from the art deco Dantzic Building.

It would be easy to get lost in this warren of rooms and tunnels and, if you did, you could be there a long time. Once, a team of carpenters, electricians and even an in-house French polisher (think of all shiny that mahogany in the plush offices above!) worked in the windowless bowels of the CIS tower, but now these services are contracted out, employing far fewer people, and there aren’t many people around.

Two people who do spend a lot of time in the basements of the co-operative complex are archivists Adam Shaw and Heather Roberts from the National Co-operative Archive at the College, as they are in the middle of a mammoth project to catalogue the (often long-forgotten about) records of the Co-operative Group. These records, which date back decades, languish in the underground spaces alongside a strange assortment of co-operative  that ranges from masonry taken down from the facade of a building when it became unsafe to a collection of old-fashioned office calculators.

As you walk from room into room piled high with records, you realise the extent of the task they have before them. Many of these spaces resemble graveyards for office furniture. In one case, Andy tells us, a whole building was abandoned in the 1970s and is boarded up but, since he started work at the Co-operative Group less than a year ago, he has come across vintage tins of cat food and even (empty) cans of beer!

Some tunnels are wide enough for carts to pass through, and others are decorated with the beautiful glazed bricks fashionable in the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Others tunnels were bulldozed in as the buildings they once connected to were demolished, and lead nowhere save for a pile of rubble or a bricked-up dead end. One tunnel leads, via a ladder, into the old bank building. Fittingly, under this building we see the heavy metal doors guarding old bank vaults.

The tour wasn’t just about the past. Andy was keen to point out that these co-operative buildings, while they are being emptied by the Group, have a future as part of the NOMA development that will establish a new ‘co-operative quarter’ around the area, and could be reinvented as retail, dining and residential space. Though the sixties buildings are now hugely inefficient, they were well built and have aged well, and the CIS building will be reinstalled with double glazing (this will also mean it is, once again, see-through as the architect originally intended).