Sunderland BSF Bulletin - Issue 4

Major milestone reached as funding commitments are finalised

Sunderland's Building Schools for the Future programme has taken an important step forward, with the signing of a landmark funding agreement between each of the key stakeholders.

The funding agreement concludes the feasibility stage of plans to establish three "Sunderland Model" Academies - part of the city's £120 million programme to rebuild or refurbish secondary schools across the city.

With resource commitments from Gentoo, Leighton Group, Northumbrian Water and Sunderland City Council now in place, implementation of the three "Sunderland Model" Academies is now under way - starting with the establishment of Academy Trusts, who will run the new centres for learning.

Full details will be available in the next BSF Bulletin.

Sunderland's first BSF School is open!

Sunderland's Building Schools for the Future programme celebrated another key milestone on Wednesday, 20 June, when our first BSF school was opened.

Jim Knight MP, Minister for Schools and 14-19 Learners, opened Oxclose Community School, in Washington. He was joined by Councillor Bob Symonds, Leader of Sunderland City Council, in a ceremony centred around discussions with pupils ... and tours of their brand new learning environment.

Oxclose is one of the first BSF schools in the country to open. The presence of Tim Byles, Chief Executive of Partnerships for Schools, who administer BSF for the government, underlined the significance of this event.

Around £11 million has been spent on this major refurbishment. A specialist visual and performing arts college, its provision for dance, drama and music has been significantly enhanced. Diverse personalised learning opportunities are now possible in its new Learning Resource Centre at the heart of the school. Together with state of the art ICT facilities, enhanced social and dining spaces, flexible learning areas and a fantastic new entrance, the pupils and staff were able to express their delight to the Minister as he toured the school and saw the transformation for himself.

On the same day, the Right Worshipful the Mayor Councillor Les Scott led an evening celebration at Oxclose. This was attended by 100 invited guests associated with the school, local community and partnerships across the City and the region. Following speeches, the school was "open" for guests to explore, talk to staff and pupils, admire their work … and join in some of the activities.

Oxclose will be the first of many new schools to open as part of the BSF and Academies programme.

Mike Foster, Headteacher of Oxclose Community School, added: “ We are delighted with the results of the BSF project at Oxclose Community School. It is important to remember that this is a transformational teaching and learning project and that everything we have done to the building has had the future of learning for our students at the heart of the process."

We are delighted to announce that Mike Foster joined the BSF / Academies team this week, on a one year secondment, as lead for Transformational Learning in Sunderland. Mike offers us his initial views on the task ahead:

"This is an exciting opportunity for the whole city to look at what transformation really means for the future of education. All our work will be designed to provide the best possible educational opportunities for all of our students. This will involve a very wide range of stakeholders. I am reminded of the African proverb 'It takes a whole village to raise a child'."

Engaging with all partners to deliver real transformation

Sunderland City Council is leading the process to select the best designers, builders and ICT providers for Sunderland's schools. We are working with Academy Lead Sponsors and other key partners to develop and underline our priorities for transformation of teaching and learning in Sunderland, and how we expect the successful bidders to work with us to deliver that transformation.

Engagement with schools is crucial to achieving this aim.

In Sunderland, schools are involved in a number of ways. They have a large say in key discussions with bidders, which started in March and are now entering a crucial phase.

Schools in Phase One of our BSF and Academies programme are currently engaging with project leaders, advisers, wider stakeholders and bidders to share their visions and aspirations for their schools. This includes participation in workshops to use Design Quality Indicators (DQIs) to help to identify priorities for their new schools.

More about DQIs

The first DQI Workshop was held at the Stadium of Light earlier this year. Workshop discussions led to a consensus "FAVE" model which represented specific design priorities for Sunderland. The FAVE Model identifies aspects of design which are Fundamental, those which Add Value and those which would deliver Excellence.

Two further DQI Workshops were held at the Stadium of Light on Monday, 18 June:

• The morning workshop involved Washington School and the new "Sunderland Model" Academies at Castle View and Pennywell / Quarry View
• The afternoon workshop involved the new "Sunderland Model" Academy at Hylton Red House plus major refurbishments at Biddick School Sports College and St Robert of Newminster RC School

The two remaining bidding consortia, Carillion and Balfour Beatty, attended the 18 June workshops as observers.

Schools and other stakeholders have welcomed the opportunity to discuss design quality in this way. Sunderland City Council and Academy Lead Sponsors are working closely with advisors to ensure that the decisions made following discussions in the DQI workshops play an important part in our evaluation of the bidders.

This evaluation process will lead to the selection of a preferred bidder who will design and build our new schools. The winning bidder will be announced in October.

The next DQI Workshop is planned for Washington School and the new "Sunderland Model" Academies at Castle View and Pennywell / Quarry View. It will be held in Sunderland on Friday, 14 September.

Focus on ....

Northumbrian Water - and the Academy to replace Castle View School

In the second feature on our "Sunderland Model" Academies, we focus on Northumbrian Water, Lead Sponsor in the Academy which will replace Castle View School in the north of the city.

John Cuthbert, Managing Director of Northumbrian Water, explains how the exciting new partnership will being about real transformation for the local community.

"As Lead Sponsor of the Academy at Castle View, we will work closely with co-sponsor, Sunderland City Council, to provide the best possible opportunities for children and young people from the local community... whilst also supporting the wider community.

Northumbrian Water provides vital services which impact on the health and environment of the region. It has a strong track record of involvement in the community it serves and works in partnership with others to support those communities. The "‘Sunderland Model" of Academies is about partnership between the lead sponsors, the City Council, other sponsors/donors and the community-in other words, an ideal combination for the company.

Education has always been a key part of Northumbrian Water’s corporate responsibility programme. We have always supported the curriculum with materials and the opportunity to visit works and this has been extended to include the creation of cartoon characters to help younger children understand the water cycle and a CD Rom which gives virtual tours of our works.

Our ‘Chill Out’ scheme provided water coolers for schools in our area to ensure that students have access to drinking water during the day to help with concentration and attainment. Last year we replaced our long running Square Mile competition with the Regional Schools Awards. These recognise best practice in schools across the region. Northumbrian Water has established a number of partnerships with schools over the years and the development of the Academy is an extension of these arrangements.

The Academy will focus on opportunities for young people in business and enterprise. Our own business utilises a very wide range of skills. We hope that these roles together with our networks with other business partners will highlight what young people can aspire to in the world of work. Our apprenticeship scheme is already providing real jobs for young people in the electrical and mechanical area.

The investment in the Academy will ensure that the replacement for Castle View is an exciting, innovative, state of the art building, from which the whole community will benefit. It will challenge everyone to achieve and will help them to do it. The opportunity to make such a significant change to the way we support our young people does not come along very often and we intend to make the most of it. The development of the Academy is not just about a new building, but also a different way of doing things. Our investment, together with that of the City Council, will generate funds to combat educational disadvantage and promote community learning. This is a real attraction of the "Sunderland Model".

Consultation about the Academy is well under way. Everyone has a chance to feed into that process to ensure we get the exciting building we all want. Led by Sunderland City Council, the consultation to close the old school is also well under way, and although it will be a sad day for many when it does close, there are exciting days ahead."

Our thanks go to John Cuthbert and to Northumbrian Water. In our next "Focus on...", we will explore Leighton Group's plans to work in partnership with Sunderland City Council to provide a new "Sunderland Model" Academy at Hylton Red House.

Developments in ICT :

Update from Lawrence Thompson, Assistant Corporate Head (ICT), Sunderland City Council

The ICT procurement process continues with great momentum. Recently, another major milestone was passed, and the final three bidders have been selected.

The selection process involved an in-depth paper in which the bidders explained what they thought the managed service and associated systems would look like in Sunderland's schools. Once submissions had been read and presentations received, a final Q&A session was held with each of the bidders. This provided the evaluation team with an opportunity to clarify any points of interest and raise any questions from the written papers.

The process worked very well and the overall feeling was that of delight at the strength of the bids demonstrated. Following a review of the bids, and once all the scores were compared, three clear winners proceeded to the next stage.

Many people have worked extremely hard through the process. Lawrence Thompson adds : "I would like to publicly thank all of those who have contributed to the work so far. Guidance is now being produced for the next phase, the Competitive Dialogue process, of which more details will be available very soon."

14-19 learning update

Sunderland's vision for BSF includes the development of exciting new learning experiences for children, young people and families. Our plans for 14-19 learning are linked closely to this vision.

Work on Sunderland's two new skills centres is well underway. Phase one in both centres is due to be completed soon, supported by the BSF programme.

From September the centres, on the former Harraton and Pallion primary school sites, will offer a range of courses in engineering, construction, logistics, hair and beauty, catering and motor vehicle to students from all of Sunderland’s Secondary schools.

The success of our recent "Gateway" application means that Sunderland students will be amongst the first in the country to be given access to the new Diplomas in Construction, Engineering and Creative and Media. The capital application attached to the Gateway bid was also successful and Sunderland will receive over £1.4 million - the highest allocation in the country.

Part of the success of the Gateway application is based on the view of the DCSF (the new Department for Children, Schools and Families) that the Sunderland model of skills centres is innovative, and the level of partnership working exceptional.

To find out more about BSF and "Sunderland Model" Academies ...

Please contact John Wiseman (BSF Communications Manager) or any member of our project team.

Alternatively, visit our website page .

Thank you for your interest in the BSF and Academies programme in Sunderland.