Who got the ball rolling?

Who knows how these things start! One minute, I was seriously considering taking up a job in another school, and the next this opportunity (within my own school) arose, and it seemed like a plausible enough reason to stay. Someone from the 14-19 partnership group was under the impression that our centre (an outstanding school) as well as a Maths & Computing specialist status school, would be a good candidate for the lead institution. I went along to a meeting, knowing next to nothing about Diploma's and came away knowing a little more, but pessimistic about whether we'd get the lead. If we didn't get the lead, I am told, we would have not bothered with being part of the consortium. Interestingly enough we did get the lead, along with another college in the consortium. Apparently that's the ideal model. Joint-lead between two centres, one of them a college, and another a school. The next part of the process is getting through the Gateway. The consortium has to put their heads together under the guidance of 14-19 Diploma Development Officers in Croydon and come up with something sensible to put under PART B of the Gateway application. There's a meeting on Tuesday.