Spine set at 5mm please adjust as necessary - Please ensure text is centered on the spine A history of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust Trust Academies and Schools Specialist the of history A By schools for schools for schools By A history of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust By schools for schools © Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, 2007 Abstracting is permitted with acknowledgement to the source. For copying or general enquiries contact: Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, 16th Floor, Millbank Tower, 21–24 Millbank, London SW1P 4QP Tel: 020 7802 2300 Fax: 020 7802 2345 Email: [email protected] Websites: www.ssatrust.org.uk www.schoolsnetwork.org.uk www.ssat-inet.net 1987– Charity no. 296729 Registered in England Company no.2124695 ISBN 1-905150-96-2 2007 1987– 2007 By schools for schools The origins, history and influence of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. Contents 02 Introduction 04 1 Origins 1987–1993 12 2 Building the foundations 1994–1996 18 Timeline of the SSAT 22 3 Becoming mainstream 1997–2001 30 4 A specialist system 2002–2004 36 5 New challenges 2005–2007 44 Acknowledgements & sources Introduction 01 The success of specialist schools and academies is testimony not only to the hard work of heads, teachers, staff and students, but also the commitment of external sponsors. In the early 1990s the organisation realised just how powerful a force it employed nine full time members would become. Many underestimated The history of the SSAT: of staff and supported 15 schools. the capacity of schools and headteachers to effect change. It now employs over 350 people and supports a network of schools The fourth factor is the involvement of a remarkable story that over 4700 strong. England now external sponsors in the programme. has a specialist system of Over 700 individuals, businesses and charitable foundations have contributed secondary education. £300 million to sponsor specialist continues today. schools, CTCs and academies. The Charting this journey reveals six factors importance of the sponsors’ role was that appear to have most to do with recognised by the Prime Minister, this success. Gordon Brown, in his foreword to the SSAT brochure (source 1) written shortly The first is timing. The specialist schools after taking office in July 2007. He wrote: programme developed at a time when ‘The success of specialist schools and schools were ready to move away from a academies is testimony not only to the ‘one size fits all’ model of comprehensive hard work of heads, teachers, staff and education. This coincided with the students, but also the commitment of emergence of new technologies, which external sponsors. In future every single transformed so much of the way education secondary school and primary school is delivered and enabled much greater should have a business partner.’ communication between schools. The fifth factor is the ability of the The second factor is the design of the organisation itself to change and adapt specialist schools programme itself. and, in recent years under the leadership The process of application for specialist of Elizabeth Reid, to build capacity. status went with the grain of what many schools were trying to achieve. It was The sixth crucial factor is the vision, helpful to school development. It was a lobbying skills and determination of its voluntary process led by practitioners, chairman, Sir Cyril Taylor, described by not something imposed from on-high. Peter Wilby in the Guardian (source 2) It raised the esteem of individual schools as a ‘man with a mission’, Sir Cyril has and by combining an effective process advised 11 successive secretaries of with financial reward became a powerful state and chaired the organisation force for school improvement. throughout its 20-year history. The third factor is the power of the It is a remarkable story, and it schools’ network. When the SSAT started its school affiliation network few people continues today. 02 The history of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust By schools for schools Introduction 03 1 Origins The origins of the specialist schools programme lie in a meeting to address high levels of youth unemployment held at the House of Lords in January 1986, the result was the establishment of 100 technology schools to meet the skills needs of new business. The origins of the specialist wide range of reforms including the schools programme lie in a national curriculum, grant maintained schools and the 1988 Education meeting at the House of Lords in Act which included the concept of January 1986, organised by Cyril accountability for schools. He also Taylor, for the Centre for Policy introduced training days for teachers Studies. The meeting was called known as ‘Baker Days’. Dame Mary Richardson, now chief executive of to consider the high levels of the HSBC Education Trust, which has youth unemployment prevalent sponsored over 100 UK schools, and formerly head of the Convent of Jesus From left: Kenneth Baker and Margaret at the time. It was attended by and Mary school in Brent, recalls her Thatcher, Lord Harris, teacher and student around 60 business leaders and at Mascalls School in Kent, Sir Cyril Taylor students being stopped by the police in politicians, including the Prime Oxford Street on the first school ‘Baker Minister, Margaret Thatcher, Day’. The police asked why they were and the Secretary of State for not in school. Their response was that Employment, Lord Young. all the teachers were cooking that day. Kenneth Baker was attracted to the idea A subsequent policy paper (source 3) of schools with a strong curriculum focus recommended, among other things, the on information technology. Back in 1981, establishment on a direct grant basis of when he was a minister at the Department 100 technology schools to meet the of Trade and Industry, he had launched skills needs of business. an initiative called ‘computers in schools’. He believed that information technology The secretary of state for education could have a strong motivating effect on at the time was Kenneth Baker, now young people. The Charter Schools in Lord Baker of Dorking. During his time the USA, which paid strong attention to as secretary of state he introduced a new technologies, also impressed him. 04 The history of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust By schools for schools Origins 05 On more than one occasion Susan Fey 1 Origins was ‘warned off’ visiting an area. Even those LAs that were willing to be involved The first Specialist Schools: demanded more money for the land than had been envisaged, greatly increasing City Technology Colleges (CTCs) the cost of each school. Even in LAs where there was political support for the programme, such as Croydon where two CTCs were established, there was widespread public hostility. Both Susan Fey and Ian Turner, then an LA officer in Croydon and now a director of the Trust, recall meetings at Sylvan High School 87– (now Harris CTC) where the audience behaved like a lynch mob. Sponsorship was also a challenge. Very few of the major established companies saw it as part of their remit to fund state education. Even direct approaches from the prime minister to company chairmen failed to get a positive response. More often it was entrepreneurs like Philip Harris, Stanley Kalms, Michael Ashcroft and Harry Djanogly who saw the point. 93 Most were motivated by skills issues and Establishing 15 CTCs In 1987 the CTC Trust was by a desire to put something back into The CTC Trust, along with Kenneth was thrown out in 11 minutes and a So, in the autumn of 1986, at the established and Cyril Taylor the community. Philip Harris (now Lord Baker and his successor John subsequent appeal in seven minutes. Harris), who was the sponsor of Harris MacGregor, devoted a great deal Thomas Telford School and its sponsors Conservative Party Conference, Kenneth was appointed its chairman. Baker announced the City Technology CTC in Croydon and part-sponsor of of effort to raising sponsorship and still work together and are now also Colleges (CTC) programme. The CTCs Membership of the Trust’s Bacons College in Southwark, explains negotiating with the sponsors and others sponsoring three new academies. were to be comprehensive schools, Council was structured to that as someone who grew up in south involved. The sponsors were generally independent of local authority control and reflect the stakeholders in the London he wanted to give something forceful people, used to getting their own Another case in point is the BRIT School back to the children of Croydon and way and quite capable of phoning Mrs in Croydon, the only CTC to focus on serving inner city areas, which were usually new programme – sponsors, areas of social deprivation. They were to Southwark. He thought the idea of CTCs Thatcher personally if they felt bureaucracy the performing arts. This was a complex be rich in information technology and, with heads of schools and colleges, ‘brilliant’, giving him an opportunity to was standing in the way of progress. project. John Deacon, then director one exception, to focus on maths, science and representatives of other make a difference to the life chances of Eventually a total of £40 million was raised. general of the British Phonographic and technology. They were to have good educational bodies. This still young people. He also has a particular Industry (BPI) and still chairman of interest in dyslexia, as he is dyslexic governors at the school, describes the vocational provision, be innovative in their holds true today. Despite the opposition, 15 CTCs practice and have the crucial support of himself, as are his three sons. Harris were established between 1988 negotiations involved in raising funding for business sponsors.