School Staff and Governors

About Southwark schools for the future
The benefits to school staff
Get involved
Achievements to date
The plan so far

About Southwark schools for the future

Building a brighter future where every child comes first

As part of a national project to build schools for the future, Southwark Council is developing exciting plans with head teachers, school governors, Diocesan Boards and members of the Young Southwark partnership to transform education provision in the coming years.

We are using national building schools for the future programme funding and council funding to

Upgrade our buildings and ICT
Renew our existing secondary schools
Increase secondary places
Reorganise our special schools and pupil referral units
Expand primary school places
Provide a children’s centre for every neighbourhood

This is Southwark schools for the future.

The vision

Southwark’s regeneration programme (Aylesbury Estate, Elephant and Castle, Canada Water, Bermondsey Spa and Bermondsey Square) is one of the largest of its kind in Europe and this, along with planned housing projects will create around 20,000 new housing units, stimulating demand for school places.

But building capacity is just one part.

The vision for Southwark is a child-centred community in the heart of London, where each and every child is inspired to learn and achieve to the best of their ability, so securing a positive future.

Despite rapid improvements in educational standards of late, this vision is about more far-reaching and long-term change: investing in real innovation.

Investment for innovation

"The school community is excited by the prospect of creating a remodelled building in which innovation can be fostered and the needs of our developing pupil population met."

We know from £90m already invested in children’s centres, schools and the academies programme in Southwark that good quality design inspires, innovates and transforms the way people feel and behave.

This programme is about embracing the community as a whole and maximising choices and opportunities for all our children and young people by offering integrated, responsive services.

It will ensure

A safe, secure and inspiring school environment
Resources for everyone, targeted at the greatest areas of need
High achieving teachers in Southwark
All students can learn in their school in a way that suits them
All ages achieving at a similar pace – to a high standard
More students over 16 staying in education
Improved behaviour and engagement
Healthy, happy children who enjoy and achieve
Facilities for everyone in the community… not just for learning
Young people making positive choices for their future

Some schools are being remodelled, others rebuilt and two new schools are planned for completion by 2014.

School plans relate to the specific needs of each community, as identified by management, teachers, parents and most importantly, pupils.

The benefits to school staff

No limits to a child's potential

New and revamped facilities will better reflect the vibrant and progressive borough Southwark has become, by raising teaching standards, results and reputation, but most importantly, the way you teach.

This is a superb opportunity for teaching staff to choose new approaches, ensuring that the design team facilitate this through changes to the building.

ICT will reduce paperwork dramatically and improve teaching support, both within schools and throughout the education network in Southwark and beyond.

Time will be freed up to meet more regularly to plan the curriculum, share ideas and best practice.

It will also enable time-efficient personalised learning and support, ensuring that teachers can quickly assess needs, address problems and easily spot groups of pupils with common needs.

This will enable every child (and teacher) to reach their true potential.

Improved accessibility and safety

"BSF will provide an attractive environment which is fit for 21st century purpose; thereby further enhancing opportunities for professional educators to develop their practice. This will be important in retaining and developing the highly skilled staff who are the key to raising achievement still further for school based learners and life long learners in the wider community."

A wide range of experience is being drawn upon, beyond Southwark to national and European organisations to ensure the best possible environment in schools.

Partnerships for Schools is the organisation co-ordinating the building schools for the future national programme and their vision, experience and expertise is being used to the full.

We have also drawn together a team of specialists to work with Southwark Council who understand the need for schools to

Be a safe and welcoming environment for pupils and staff
Provide suitable areas both inside and outside the school for pupils to learn and socialise
Make it as easy as possible for the school community to move around the school buildings

This will ensure that all the money being spent will be used wisely and to the maximum effect in not only transforming education, but also providing safe and secure school communities that are accessible and welcoming to everyone.

Good quality facilities will encourage a sense of pride and everyone, especially pupils will contribute to maintenance of its high standards.

Inclusion and equality

"The school has worked hard to develop a set of values which include a commitment to creating an environment in which pupils enjoy their learning and want to achieve. BSF will enable the school to develop that commitment through to reality. It has worked extensively with its pupils to gauge how they want to learn and it will incorporate that thinking into BSF designs."

Personalised learning will ensure that every child receives the support they need, including vulnerable young people and those with special needs.

Where practical, those with special needs will be co-located with mainstream schools, to foster better understanding and communication between the youth community as a whole.

We know from past experience that well designed schools with excellent facilities and teaching standards engages young people and provides an environment where positive behaviour is nurtured and poor behaviour is tackled.

New teaching, learning and support strategies will also assist this.

More choice

"We have students for whom a curriculum with a practical, work-related bias is appropriate at KS4. We wish to diversify the curriculum and provide these students, and the adults who work with them, with appropriate facilities, workshops and learning resources. This may involve remodelling of our facilities to provide such experience or improvement to learner management using ICT as they develop learning in workplaces, the community or at FE Colleges."

Whilst building capacity to meet future demands, Southwark Council is also broadening the variety of educational offerings, such as vocational learning. Schools may also offer an extended day that allows more teaching time and extra curricular activities before and after school.

A more varied menu of activities will be offered to young people, supported by new and improved facilities for sport, recreation, play, arts and outdoor activities.

This programme will help to ensure that parents feel confident and happy with the school options available to them in Southwark.

Responsive services

"As part of the BSF process the school believes that it can best meet the needs of its community by taking this involvement outward as well as extending community facilities more broadly. This will involve developing the educational village concept in which a range of community facilities are based on the school site. The school anticipates that these will include, amongst others, facilities for health and policing."

As part of the Young Southwark strategy and reorganisation of services for young people in Southwark, a comprehensive and responsive service package will be provided to children from birth to 19, ensuring

High quality childcare
Parenting support
Social, spiritual, moral, emotional and cultural development of young people

Schools will be a hub for this engagement, along with other access points, to ensure that opportunities and problems are identified at an early stage and each child realises their full potential.

Get involved

Have your say

"From our College, we wish for the infrastructure to spread out across our family of primary schools to provide one integrated learning community. This will help to support the sharing of teaching best practices and benchmarking of results resulting in an improved learning experience. It will also help to reduce duplication of administrative processes and to improve the quality and speed of communication."

Head teachers have been very involved in the development of plans to date, but now we’ve reached an initial stage of planning and are able to share this with you, we need your input.

We want to hear what you think about our plans.

We also want you to be very much involved in the development of your school and the community it serves by

Sharing your views on improvements as they happen
Telling us what your needs are
Helping us to monitor quality

A community asset

"We are entering an era when the school will provide a wider and more flexible service to its students and our wider community. Our school entrance and reception area will make a powerful statement about our interface with the community."

Southwark Council wants every community to get the most out of its local schools, so it’s really important that you encourage everyone to get involved.

These new facilities will not only cater for young people, but also offer adult learning and other use of the facilities for community meetings and events.

Internet cafes at secondary schools for example will also be available to parents, carers and the wider community.

We need to know from parents, carers, volunteer organisations and community groups what they’d like this transformation programme to achieve and when it’s complete, how they’d like to use the facilities.

Achievements to date

Building schools for the future

Building schools for the future is a key part of our Southwark schools for the future programme. A significant proportion of our funding comes from this national programme.

BSF was launched by the Prime Minister in Southwark, at Sacred Heart School.

Another school in Southwark, Kingsdale Foundation School, was a pathfinder for the BSF programme and was described by the Department for Education and Skills as “Setting new standards for educational architecture”.

The funds invested in the school refurbished the entire building and created

A new sports complex
A catering suite for vocational training
A music block
An Internet café

It is one of the first examples of what we want to achieve in Southwark.

Building work has also been done to improve The Academy at Peckham, The Charter School and Harris Academy, with the City of London Academy built from scratch.

Southwark schools for the future is more than just an idea; it is a working, practical plan that is already producing results.

Improved education standards

Whilst looking to a more positive future we must not forget current needs and recent achievements.

Key stage 2 results for Southwark's eleven year old pupils have gone up across the board, more than national average increases, with

2% increases in maths and science
a 1% increase in English

Southwark's 14 year olds continue to get better results. Southwark is

Second of the most improved local authorities since 2002 in key stage 3 English, maths and science tests
In the top 25 most improved local authorities in the country

Key stage 3 results show

19 points improvement in the amount of pupils achieving level 5 or above in maths to 65%
15 points improvement in the amount of pupils achieving level 5 or above in English to 65%
12 points improvement in the amount of pupils achieving level 5 or above in science to 57%

Southwark's 16 year olds reached record levels of attainment in their GCSE exams, showing increases for the sixth year in a row

50% of students obtained five or more GCSEs between the grades of A* and C
This is up three percentage points from last year
The borough's results have increased by 18% over the last six years

Improved learning opportunities

The Lambeth and Southwark Forums have developed innovative ways to increase learning opportunities, especially vocational learning, for 14-16 year olds and 16-19 year olds. Following inspection of this service, Southwark is now leading on two new 14-19 projects that the rest of the nation will follow.
Out of school learning is provided for young people from different ethnic heritages, with 39 groups funded by Southwark Council. These include supplementary schools, mother tongue schools, homework clubs and a specialist science club.
A dedicated arts team is working with schools to promote creative and artistic talent, enabling many schools to achieve the Arts Mark accreditation. Schools have strong links with local galleries and theatres, resulting in successful initiatives like the Borough and Bankside Community Dance Project, Southwark Theatres in Education and the Peckham Splash Performing Arts Events.
Three schools have achieved the Sports Mark award and more schools are taking part in the Southwark Community Games year on year.
The amount of young people not in education or training has fallen by 7% over two years, from 21% in 2002 to 14% in 2004.
Permanent exclusions have reduced almost by half, from 66 in 2003/04 to 36 in 2004/05 and more work will ensure this improvement continues.

The plan so far

Introduction

"Our pupils will be encouraged to enjoy and achieve by a building that is bright, attractive and inspirational and which is a source of pride for our local community"

This ambitious project will take time to complete.

We believe in the importance of good design led by functionality.

Our schools settings should be buildings that are full of light and colour, inspirational and stimulating to students, staff, visitors and the community as a whole.

Each one should be unique and responsive to its surroundings.

High quality materials will ensure they are

Robust, sustainable, renewable
Functional and efficient (both for energy conservation and purpose)
Welcoming
Clearly laid out
Easy to supervise
Able to keep pupils safe and happy

Dry bike parks will encourage children and staff to cycle to school.

The school designs will

Be easy to clean and maintain
Support a reduction in litter and vandalism
Promote pride in and care of the learning environment

Space will be flexible, adaptable and used for a variety of things, such as

Areas for teaching different sized groups
Individual learning spaces
Specialist vocational courses
Leisure, play, nature and gardens
Individual or small group support
Meetings and hot desking for youth services

Initial plans

"In our new school the physical environment will be supportive of enjoyment and achievement in learning. It will be a place of which we can all feel proud and which demonstrates the value we place on our children and their education."

Initial plans are as follows.

An extensive project such as this requires a great deal of internal and external consultation to ensure that money is being used in a creative and innovative way to transform education and achieve best value.

These plans will undoubtedly evolve in the light of this consultation and as the programme develops.

Changes to Walworth

1,150 current secondary school pupils at Walworth School will be offered places at the academy
The academy will still be a non-selective school for students of all abilities
New entrants will be offered places depending on how close they live to the school
Siblings of existing pupils will still have priority
60 less pupils will start each year from 2007
Once new buildings are ready the academy can open a sixth form for students up to 18 years
There will be 1,140 places in total: 900 secondary 11 to 16 students and 240 16 to 18 students
The new academy will be built on the existing upper school site

Changes to Archbishop Michael Ramsey

Archbishop Michael Ramsey Church of England School has 900 places for pupils aged 11 to 18
The academy would provide an additional 20 new places each year
The Academy would more than double its number of sixth form places, from 125 to 300
Approximately 1,200 pupils would attend the new academy

Changes to Highshore

Highshore special school currently has 120 pupils aged 11 to 16
Highshore will be upgraded and co-located with Archbishop Michael Ramsey
Places will reduce from 120 to 90
Current students will not be affected and will keep a place at Highshore
These changes are due to take place in 2010, or once the new accommodation has been built
The school would be in new accommodation on the Archbishop Michael Ramsey school site

Changes to Bredinghurst

Fifty boys between 11 and 16 currently attend Bredinghurst special school
Places will increase to 70 for both boys and girls with no boarding places
Bredinghurst will also benefit from a new build and a split location
Key stage 4 pupils will be educated on the existing Bredinghurst site
Key stage 3 pupils will be educated on the site currently occupied by Highshore
These changes will take place fully in 2011, or once the second site has been completed

Changes to Tuke

Tuke special school offers 60 places to 11 to 16 year olds
We plan to provide an extra 30 places on a new site in 2010, or after building is completed

More information about the changes to individual schools is held on the schools page.

Footnote: All the quotes contained in this information are from head teachers at Southwark schools who were consulted as part of the planning process.

Contact us

The Southwark schools for the future team
Tel: 020 7525 5224
ssf@southwark.gov.uk
15 Spa Road
London
SE16 3QW

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