'More than 200 new schools a year by 2010'

Kent puts 'transformation' challenge to Education 08

It may have been subtitled Pathways to Personalisation, but the central thrust of the keynotes and seminar programme of this Education ’08 conference at Westminster, London, was the Building Schools for the Future programme and educational transformation.

Tim Byles, chief executive of Partnerships for Schools, gave the 400-plus audience an update on the BSF programme and suggested that the pipeline is now stuffed with projects which that should give rise to more than 200 new schools opening every year by the end of the decade.

The reason for the delay in the BSF programme was perfectly illustrated by Karl Limbert, BSF project manager for Kent County Council. Kent has the largest BSF programme in the country which Karl Limbert illustrated with a psychedelic chart of mind-boggling complexity, with timelines, partnerships, contracts and disruption over a 20-year timescale.

He added another challenge by asking delegates what was actually meant by educational transformation? “What is being transformed…and from what to what?” he asked.

Back to the Future
Kent had had to go “back to the future”, he explained, and he suggested that a 20th century school was a product of the assumptions of the time and was characterised by:

The teacher as an artisan
Pupils as a subject
Relationships that are controlling and unemotional
Pedagogy of the didactic
Curriculum of one size fits all
School as a production line
School as a large, homogenous organisation

Influenced by the thinking of Stanford University’s Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles Leadbeater, and Professors Stephen Heppell, David Hargreaves and Tim Brighouse, the Kent BSF vision was now predicated upon:

Relationships as key
Organisations that are data rich and emotionally intelligent
Pedagogy that is is constructivist
Curriculum that is deep and wide
Time as non-linear
Micro-design as vital
School is a fragmented organisation
School only one venue for learning among many.

The full seminar programme featured “How schools can reduce their carbon footprint” ,“ Personalised Learning with the Ultra mobile personal Computer” and two very different perspectives of transformation in BSF.

When is a school not a school?
The Isle of Wight One School pathfinder project is about to open with the Cowes High Learning Campus which uses the Every Child Matters strand of “Economic Wellbeing” as one of its key drivers. It has economic regeneration of the island at the heart of the transformation.

David Snashall, Headteacher of Cowes High School is clearly excited by the opportunity for educational transformation: “The way we use space will be critical… Although we will have 1,100 students, only 500 to 600 will be on site at any one time… We will not have classrooms - we are designing for learning not teaching… We will have inspiration, coaching and then assessment.”

Keith Simmonds, from Isle of Wight Council’s directorate of children’s services, said:“The workforce skill set needs to change and we need to draw on a wider group of skills than just teachers.”

It had not been an easy journey, he added. “We have had our battles. It has not been easy to get our partners to understand our vision and be creative in their responses.

The Brunel Academy and John Cabot High School have been influenced by the Scandinavian influences of LEP partner Skanska, but David Carter, headteacher of the first BSF school to be opened reminded attendees, “No matter how good the building, it is what happens inside that really matters.”

He expects the BSF programme to “place a greater importance on learning, not teaching, and it should be a vehicle to create independent learners.” “Compliance and control are out,” he added, “and integrated adult and student spaces are in. We have break-in spaces and 100-minute lessons - the challenge is to get teaching and learning to reflect the capacity for innovation in the building. The only limits are our imaginations.”