Building Schools for the Future (BSF), launched in 2004 as a long-term strategic investment programme, has evolved into a 15- year, £45bn project to replace or upgrade all of England’s 3,500 secondary schools. BSF cannot come too soon for England, with six out of seven schools being more than 25 years old, approaching the end of their physical life, and increasingly unsuitable for delivering modern education.
BSF has consequently become the major driver behind “ transformational learning”, aimed at increasing pupil engagement and improving the quality of education.The building programme has bought great opportunities and challenges to education clients as they seek to deliver space that responds to a 21st-century vision of pupil- centred, flexible education.
The local education authorities (LEAs) involved in the first waves of BSF schools have faced some of the greatest challenges in terms of pupil attainment and their own management resources, so it is not surprising that BSF has been slow to get started. However, 15 programmes covering 150 schools have now reached financial close – an investment of £2.5bn.
About 72 LEAs are engaged in BSF and an annual spend of £2bn should be achieved by 2009, delivering 200 new schools a year thereafter. Potential changes to the initiat ive, which are under consultation, could result in early investment being offered to the 76 LEAs that have not yet been invited onto the programme.
The changes being proposed will enable LEAs with strong plans in place for four or five schools to bid for support – potentially securing funding in advance of their original position. This reform will help to stop LEAs in earlier waves with plans that are not sufficiently developed blocking others. Critics have suggested that although the proposals will accelerate the programme for many LEAs, the smaller scale of development required to trigger investment could result in some schools missing out altogether.
Irrespective of proposed reforms, BSF will mean a huge investment in high-quality buildings and will be an agent of change and educational excellence. However, feedback cycles on the scheme are very long, with reliable impact data measured by exam grades taking 10 years or more to obtain.
A series of research projects aimed at identifying the links between design quality and educational achievement have provided some evidence of a positive relationship. Areas of greatest contribution by buildings tend to be related to new accommodation to support the curriculum, such as science laboratories, or a wider range of facilities for community usage rather than the harder- tomeasure aspects of quality of environment.
Evidence of improved educational achievement at city academies has also provided assurance that the investment will generate positive educational outcomes.
A key finding of most research into the results of recent school investment is the need for extensive consultation to get the educational model and design right. Early academies and BSF schools enjoyed generous design programmes and there is concern that the time available to develop appropriate solutions as part of the competitive- dialogue procurement route may not be sufficient. Stakeholder engagement is particularly challenging as its role is not simply to buy-in to the proposed design solution, but also secure wider community engagement, raising expectations and aspirations regarding the quality of education that can be delivered in the locality.
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