Schoolsfor-Future.Pdf

1 CONTENTS PAGE Strategy for Change Part 2 text 3 Appendix 1a – table of schools (from SfC Part1) 41 Appendix 1b – KPIs for LA and individual schools 47 Appendix 2 – change management plan 69 Appendix 3 – sustainability areas for consideration 72 Appendix 4 – soft market testing list of organisations 75 Appendix 5 – stock profile analysis 76 Appendix 6 – control options: school block plans and On disc drawings Appendix 7 – estate analysis process 80 Appendix 8 – FAM summary 83 Appendix 9 – LLSC letter of agreement 85 Appendix 10 – communications plan 86 Appendix 11 – project governance organogram 96 Appendix 12 – project team organogram 97 Appendix 13 – project plan 98 Appendix 14 – summary of risk register 99 2 1. Where is the authority now in terms of educational outcomes, diversity of provision, fair access and choice? Introduction 1.1 Suffolk is a “4 star” Council with ambitious plans to transform the County. Building Schools for the Future will play a very important role in this journey, with far wider benefits from the improvements in educational attainment that it will secure, vital though these are. 1.2 Transforming Suffolk has four key objectives • A prosperous and vibrant community: to become the most innovative and diverse economy in the East of England. • Learning and skills for the future: to have learning and skills in the top quartile in the country. • The Greenest County: to be the County with the greatest reduction in carbon emissions. • Safe, healthy and inclusive communities: to create a place where everyone is safe, healthy and involved. 1.3 All schools in Suffolk will be central to achieving this vision. The bedrock on which our revolution in skills will be built starts with the children in our schools. We cannot change the profile of our local economy without also changing the skills and learning of our workforce. The creation of sustainable communities with increasing social capital will have schools at their centre, both as social institutions, and also as a community resource. Keeping children safe and healthy begins in school, but schools can make an impact on the lives of everyone in their community. Children are one of the greatest advocates of action on climate change, and schools can be community leaders in this enterprise. 1.4 BSF will provide a vital ingredient in this project, and the huge investment that it represents will have a direct impact on our economy, and workforce. Its building methods and design principles will be consistent with our ambitions for carbon reduction. The schools we build will be designed to be community resources as well as providing the very best education for our children. 1.5 We believe that expenditure in the public sector will inevitably be reduced over the next 3 Public Spending Reviews, and that the resilience and capacity within our communities will be vital in enabling the whole public sector work effectively in this new world. This makes our ambitions in Transforming Suffolk even more pressing and relevant. We believe that there will be great opportunities as the economy recovers to build new, more sustainable jobs, but ones which will require a workforce with a far higher skills and knowledge base that at present. We believe that we need to address community capacity and issues of social capital now, and this inevitably leads us towards areas of deprivation, which are targeted in our BSF programme. Educational Vision 1.6 The County Council’s Vision for Learning and the Children’s Trust Vision for Children and Young People underpin the BSF programme. They address the three key components of a 21 st century school system as set out in the Government’s 21 st Century Schools: A World-Class Education for Every Child as follows: • excellent personalised education and development • identifying and helping to address additional needs • a range of activities and opportunities to enrich the lives of children, families and the wider community. 1.7 The County Council has a Cabinet-approved strategy for specialist provision which includes a commitment to local specialist provision for those with special educational needs which cannot be met within mainstream schools, and to the co-location wherever practicable of special with 3 mainstream provision. This is reflected in the prioritisation of BSF investment set out in sections 8 and 12. 1.8 Suffolk’s ambition is to raise the bar by improving standards for all of our students, to close gaps for groups of students who are vulnerable to underachievement, particularly by compensating for social and economic deprivation, and schools in Wave 6 have been identified for this reason. This will be done by encouraging schools to personalise learning so that curriculum provision is appropriate for each learner and a wide range of learning styles are supported. This will require a transformation of teaching approaches which will be supported and driven by the school improvement service in partnership with school leadership teams. BSF Wave 6 1.9 The current pattern of secondary provision in the BSF Wave 6 geographical area of south and west Ipswich and Felixstowe comprises seven community secondary schools, four community special schools and three pupil referral units (PRUs). The special schools and PRUs serve the whole of south Suffolk. One of the special schools is currently for the primary age range, and one of the PRUs is for Key Stages 2 and 3. Schools are in pyramid based secondary clusters with feeder primary schools. All secondary schools are also members of 14 – 19 partnerships. 1.10 The County Council has recently consulted on, and agreed to, the amalgamation of the primary and secondary SLD special schools into a single all-through school with an implementation date of September 2010. It has also consulted on, and agreed to, the creation of a single secondary school in Felixstowe by closing both the current schools and holding a competition for a new school, the process for which is scheduled for completion in September 2009, before the date for submission of the Outline Business case (OBC). The County Council has also agreed to the establishment of an academy in Ipswich to replace a community school. Current Performance, and our Priorities for Improvement 1.11 The overall 2008 Annual Performance Assessment (APA) was good and Suffolk is a 4 Star authority which is improving well. Suffolk has a good track record of self evaluation and identifying areas for action. Improving attainment at both Key Stages 2 and 4 is a high priority and local authority plans and approaches to do this have received good feedback from the National Strategies. The most significant action to address low attainment is the Council’s decision to move from 3 tier to 2 tier organisation and close middle schools in more than half of the county. This change of structure linked to BSF will make a significant impact on attainment. 1.12 Although there have been steady improvements in the percentage of students gaining 5 or more A* to C grades GCSE results since the mid 1990’s this has not kept pace with national trends and 2008 results (63%) slipped below average (65%). The percentage of students gaining 5 or more GCSEs including English and maths has been around the national average since 2005 and was 46% in 2008. This places Suffolk towards the bottom of the “statistical neighbours” group of authorities. Key Stage 2 results in Suffolk are low, partly related to the 3 tier system, and in 2008 progress in the secondary phase was better than the national average with a contextual value added (CVA) score of 1003.2. This places Suffolk in the second quartile compared to all local authorities nationally. Science attainment is outstanding and in the top quartile nationally. Performance at A to G grades is well above the national average and indicates that approaches to inclusion are effective. 1.13 There are no confirmed Key Stage 3 results for 2008 but in recent years Suffolk schools have shown better value added progress at Key Stage 3 than across Key Stage 4. The percentage of students making 2 levels progress at Key Stage 3 compares well with similar authorities and secondary headteachers and School Improvement Partners (SIPs) are aware that improving progress at Key Stage 4 is a priority for Suffolk. It is clear that schools need to provide a more relevant and engaging curriculum to meet the needs of all students and improve progress in English and maths. BSF will support this through new curriculum models and pedagogical approaches that will ensure personalisation of learning (section 5). 4 1.14 In 2008 Suffolk has 3 schools below the floor target of 30% gaining 5 or more GCSEs including English and maths and 7 National Challenge schools have been identified (4 are in Wave 6). These schools have comprehensive raising attainment plans in place and the authority has made support to them a high priority. In addition six schools have self nominated for the Gaining Ground programme (two in Wave 6) and will receive additional support. Structural changes including academy status for Holywells and a new school in Felixstowe will lead to improved outcomes for students (section 3). 1.15 Post 16 outcomes have improved faster than the national rate and are now in line with England averages. Average points per candidate for 2008 stood at 739 (top quartile) and points per entry 208 (second quartile). The Suffolk 14 to 19 Strategy will continue to focus on improving performance and, with support from BSF develop a much wider curriculum provision across local partnerships (see section 6). Wave 6 schools are in two partnership groups South West Ipswich and South Suffolk (SWISS) and North Ipswich Central Coast and Estuaries (NICE).

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