Sunderland BSF Bulletin - Issue 8

School signs up to exciting £20 million future

Students and civic leaders have added their signatures to a steel girder being used in the multi-million pound transformation of their school to commemorate a historic occasion.

Students have played an integral part in creating their vision for Washington School which is now becoming reality through Sunderland City Council’s £120million Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, with the signed section of steel testament to their involvement now forming part of the new £20 million building.

Headteacher Michael O'Brien, pupils, staff and governors joined local MP Fraser Kemp, Sunderland City Council's Cabinet Member for Children and Young People's Services Councillor Pat Smith, Chief Executive Ged Fitzgerald and local councillors at the unusual signing ceremony.

With the builders now on site, everyone at the school can see how their state of the art facilities are taking shape, as they look forward to the opening of their new school in September 2009.

Washington School is being completely rebuilt as part of Sunderland City Council’s BSF programme. Sustainability and the environment are key factors in the city's BSF vision, and Washington School is an excellent example of the City Council’s plans. When complete, the school will feature a ‘green’ sedum planted roof, which will act as natural insulation and be visible from Washington Highway. To help them to get involved, Washington School pupils participated in the Defra-funded ClimateDome this spring.

Headteacher Michael O’Brien said: " We are delighted that the new building is underway. The sustainability and flexibility in the design and operation of the school will help us to transform the learning opportunities for our young people and our community."

Sunderland City Council Children’s Services Portfolio Holder, Councillor Pat Smith, added: " Sunderland is and has always been at the forefront of the national BSF programme. The way in which we are transforming our school visions into reality, at Washington and other schools, is something to cherish. This is a fantastic initiative in which to be involved."

City's BSF programme builds momentum

Momentum is building in Sunderland. The City Council has now secured contracts worth almost £100 million to transform learning through its innovative Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. So far this year, contracts have been signed with Balfour Beatty Construction Northern Limited, to design and build four new schools, and RM, to provide state of the art ICT infrastructure across the city.

The green light has now been given to build a brand new Washington School and three new academies which will be part of the innovative new “Sunderland Model”, which is attracting significant national interest.

In addition to Washington School, September 2009 will see the completion of Northumbrian Water sponsored Castle View Enterprise Academy and Leighton Group sponsored Red House Academy, replacing Castle View and Hylton Red House schools.

By the same date, Gentoo sponsored Academy 360, an exciting new environment for learners from four to 16 years of age, will move to its new home on the current Pennywell School site (see article below).

All three academies will be co-sponsored by Sunderland City Council.

With contract signature forecast later this year for major refurbishments at Biddick School Sports College and St Robert of Newminster RC School, the Council’s groundbreaking £120 million programme is expected to be complete by 2010. It will ensure new learning environments for around half of the city's secondary school pupils.

State of the art technology will be the norm for every school included in the scheme, plus Oxclose Community School, refurbished in 2007 as one of the first BSF schools in England, and Sandhill View School.

Each of these schools will benefit from innovative ICT provision including a new ‘managed service’.

Through BSF, it is envisaged that all secondary aged children and young people in England will have access to 21st Century facilities, with all secondary schools either renewed or replaced within the next 10-15 years. Whilst the current focus remains on transforming learning for young people in half of Sunderland’s secondary schools, work is already underway to plan for the city’s next phase of BSF.

Keeping communities informed

To keep BSF stakeholders fully up to date, a programme of events is being held in communities across the city.

For a fortnight in April, an exhibition of artists' impressions, school plans and key information visited the City Library in Fawcett Street. Similar exhibitions will be held in other key venues as the project progresses.

Meanwhile, information sharing events continue to be held in schools which are being renewed through Sunderland's BSF programme.

The latest events to be held were:

• Pennywell School, 23 April : An informal evening session where staff, governors, parents, local residents and councillors were welcomed to Pennywell School anytime between 4pm and 7pm. During the 'drop-in' session they were free to view plans and futuristic walk-throughs, talk to experts and pick up relevant information on the proposals for the new Academy 360.

• Washington School, 28 April : An afternoon series of presentations for staff and governors where the City Council, Headteacher, architects and builders from Balfour Beatty and technology experts from RM all helped to explain how the vision will be transformed into reality, as work starts on the school site. The series of presentations was repeated in the evening for parents, local residents, councillors and partners of the school.

Click here for some of the artistic impressions of Washington School

Sunderland's first academy announces name

The first of three Sunderland Model academies to open has announced its name.

Academy 360 will officially open this September, merging Pennywell School and Quarry View Primary School to create an academy catering for children aged four to 16. It will operate from the existing school sites for one year whilst the new learning environment is built.

Students from Pennywell and Quarry View schools have been at the centre of the naming process, which involved a number of workshops where students came up with possible names, and explored branding options.

Paul Prest, chief executive of Academy 360 (pictured), said: “It was really important to us that the academy’s future students played a part in the naming process. Empowerment of young people will be at the heart of the academy’s ethos and letting them have some input into the name of their future place of education was a fantastic way to start this process. They came up with some excellent ideas, but Academy 360 seemed to encapsulate exactly what this academy will be about."

Sunderland plays host to leading defence experts

Sunderland's BSF plans received a high-ranking seal of approval when a delegation from the Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS) visited one of the first schools in the country to be completed under the programme.

RCDS is a London-based college, part of the military academy, which runs courses for high ranking military and civil emergency service personnel from around the world. Each year senior delegates visit English regions on a tour to find out more about an area in terms of issues including economy, tourism, education and health care.

To support its 2008 tour, a group of around ten senior delegates visited Oxclose on Wednesday 7 May to learn about Sunderland's innovative approach to transforming learning through BSF. Delegates from the Royal College also visited Sunderland University, Hendon Young People's project and the Bunny Hill Centre, just part of their busy week of varied engagements across the north east.

An RCDS spokesman said:

"Our visit to Oxclose School provided a valuable and informative introduction to Sunderland’s Building Schools for the Future programme. One of our objectives in visiting the North East was to gain an understanding of how central government policy is implemented at a local level, and Oxclose provided an excellent “worked example” of the modern, welcoming and very well equipped school that can emerge following investment and a lot of hard work by all involved.

"But it was not just the amazing facilities that impressed us. The caring, positive, progressive and engaging atmosphere in the school was clear to us all, and we were particularly taken by the school’s intent and ability to tailor teaching to the individual’s particular wishes and needs, and reach into the community. The result is a school that, in the opinion of our multinational group, is truly world class. The challenge, going forward, will be to make sure that both parents and pupils know how to make the most of the extraordinary educational opportunities on offer."

BSF: the next wave

Starting in 2005, BSF is now well into its plan to provide fifteen waves of investment to rebuild or renew secondary schools across England.

Sunderland’s current £120 million project was secured in the very first year, 'Wave 1', of the national programme. Sunderland's ‘Wave 2’ is part of national Wave 7 to 9.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has launched a public consultation on managing BSF's Waves 7 to 15, in order to decide the best order for local authorities to join the BSF programme. In particular, the DCSF plan to offer the opportunity to all authorities with projects in these waves to revise their expressions of interest.

The consultation questions focus on the criteria that will be used to prioritise BSF Waves 7 to 15, and on how future programmes will be managed.

Sunderland is co-ordinating a response to this consultation which will include the views of the city's BSF / Academies Project Board and headteacher groups. School governing bodies will also be consulted. Any interested party can of course respond.

The consultation document can be completed online at http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/consultations or by downloading a response form which should be completed and sent to Schools Capital Strategy Unit, DCSF, Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BT by 4 July 2008. The DCSF will issue guidance on revised Expressions of Interest in August 2008.

Transformational new role for city headteacher

Mike Foster, who is currently Headteacher at Oxclose Community School, has recently been appointed to Sunderland City Council in a new two fold post.

In September he will take up the post of Director of Transformation in the BSF team, a role he has undertaken as a secondment this year. He will also take on the role of Virtual Headteacher for the looked after children in the city.