| Case Studies |
|
Project Schools Update, November 2007
The Human Scale Schools project started in January 2006. Year two of this three-year project was launched in January 2007 with an invitation to all state secondary schools in the UK to apply to the Gulbenkian Foundation for a grant to help fund a human scale project in their school. Nearly 1,000 queries were received and, in March of this year, 15 schools were selected from 110 applications. A further two schools were selected in November, bringing the total number of schools involved in the project to 34, and one consortium involving three local authorities.
As was the case in 2006, individual projects are varied but all have at their core a desire to create small learning communities as a means of creating a more ‘human scale’ experience for their students.
The expanding number of schools in the project is providing the basis for a network of schools which can model human scale approaches and inspire other schools to develop them.
Schools funded in November 2007
Farnley Park High School, Leeds
Farnley Park is an 11-18 comprehensive school in Leeds with 840 students on roll. It serves a catchment area of Inner West Leeds that includes pockets of social and economic disadvantage. The imminent closure of a local high school means that, from 2009, the number of students on roll will begin to rise to a ceiling of 1,200. The school is also part of the Government’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. The growth in student numbers and the re-design of the school has presented Farnley Park with an opportunity to adopt human scale structures and practices. The school wishes to research and develop the creation of small learning communities. The grant will therefore be used to support the school to develop BSF proposals beyond those required to build a traditional high school.
Stanley Park High School, Surrey
Stanley Park is an 11-19 comprehensive school in Carshalton with 900 students on roll. Other schools in the local authority are said to be ‘selective’ by various ability criteria. This means that Stanley Park has many of the characteristics of a secondary modern school. Forty-six per cent of the students have special educational needs and some 38 languages are spoken. The school was recently described by Ofsted as ‘rapidly improving’. In 2010 the school will move to a new building. It wishes in the meantime to develop new structures and curricula that assist students’ learning and that can be transferred to its new home. The grant will be used to support staff in developing schemes of work for a new integrated curriculum, initially for Year 7 students, and to teach subjects beyond their own specialisms.
Schools funded in July 2007
Hove Park Language College and Sixth Form Centre, Hove, East Sussex
E-mail address: hknoxmacaulay@hovepart.org.uk
Hove Park is a specialist Language School with 1,750 students on roll. Students’ levels of attainment on entering the school are said to be the second lowest of all secondary schools in the local authority while the number of free school meals is above the national average. Seventy per cent of the student population live in Neighbourhood Renewal Areas. The school is especially concerned with Year 7 students and wishes to reconfigure the way in which Year 7 is currently organised. The grant will go towards the costs of researching and developing human scale approaches to the teaching and organisation of Year 7 students.
The Netherall School, Cambridge
The Netherall School is an 11-18 Specialist Sports College and Sixth Form Centre with 1,380 students on roll. The school’s headteacher, Caroline McKenney, was appointed in January 2007. She has an interest in human scale education in America and has visited schools there. The population of Cambridge is experiencing changes that have significant implications for the school. These changes have had a direct bearing on the school’s decision to introduce a variety of human scale strategies in order that this large school can ‘feel smaller’. The grant will go towards the costs of developing and implementing a wide range of human scale practices, particularly with a view to enabling the school to respond to the rapid growth and increasing diversity of the local population.
Varndean School, Brighton, East Sussex
This is an 11-16 comprehensive school with 1,220 students on roll. It is one of the top performing secondary schools in the Brighton and Hove local authority. The school has a reputation for innovation and the school’s Headteacher, Andy Schofield, is Chair of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust ‘s Future Vision group. For a number of years the school has been interested in the work of the Coalition for Essential Schools in American, the driving force behind the development of human scale education in that country. The grant will be used to plan and prepare for establishing a mini-school for Year 7 students and for introducing varied tutoring structures across the school.
Walker Technology College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
This is a mixed 11-18 comprehensive school with over 1200 students on roll. The college serves two of the most disadvantaged wards in the east end of Newcastle. It has invested heavily in innovation and in September 2007 the college will be partly re-built and renovated under the Government’s Building Schools for the Future programme. The desire to create a family environment, and to enable students to work in small, defined learning communities lies at the heart of the college’s vision for the future. The grant will be used to develop high quality learning resources that address the needs of the small learning communities the school wishes to establish.
Schools funded in March 2007
Astley Sports College, Tameside
E-mail address: i_gilbert@astley.tameside.sch.uk
Astley Sports College is a comprehensive school with 850 students on roll. It is co-located with a school for students with severe physical and learning difficulties. The college has developed its Key Stage 4 curriculum and now intends to develop its Key Stage 3 curriculum in time to influence the design of the learning spaces as part of wave three of the Building Schools for the Future programme.
Chorlton High School, South Manchester
E-mail address: admin@chorltonhigh.manchester.sch.uk
This comprehensive school has 1,400 students on roll. Within the last two years the school has moved from two separate sites to a new building on a single site. The grant will help set up human scale strategies in the areas of school design, ‘Student Voice’ and curriculum development.
Christ’s College, Guildford
E-mail address: info@christcollege.surrey.sch.uk
Christ’s College has 517 students on roll and is situated in one of the most deprived wards in Surrey. The grant will support a scheme which enables teachers to teach across the curriculum and thus have contact with fewer students.
Coombeshead College, South Devon
E-mail address: rhaigh@coombeshead.devon.sch.uk
Coombeshead College in Newton Abbot has 1,600 students on roll. The college is currently working to become a Trust school and has partnerships with the BBC and Exeter University among others. The grant will develop the college’s current ‘Student Voice’ activities including staff development programmes.
Cramlington Community High School, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
E-mail address: mlovatt@cchsonline.co.uk
Cramlington Community High School serves the new town of Cramlington. It currently has 1,600 students aged 13-18. In September 2008 the school will cater for students in the 11-18 age range and will simultaneously take on 750 Year 7 and Year 8 student as the result of Northumberland local authority abolishing middle schools. The school intends to respond to the challenge of enlarged numbers by dividing itself into three ‘Learning Villages’. The grant is to enable staff to develop and write learning materials for a new Key Stage 3 curriculum prior to the reorganisation of the school into the ‘Learning Villages’.
Haybridge High School & Sixth Form, Hagley, Worcestershire
E-mail address: Ibyford@haybridge.worcs.sch.uk
In September 2004 Haybridge High School admitted students into Years 7 and 8 for the first time following the abolition of middle schools in the county. The school now has 1,100 students on roll. To accommodate this increase in student numbers, an extensive building programme is underway. Currently Year 7 and 8 students are being taught in a former middle school building approximately 15 minutes walk from the main school site. The grant is for the costs of implementing a variety of human scale strategies in school organisation and curriculum for Year 7 and 8 students prior to their entry to the new building in September 2007.
Holyhead School, Handsworth, Birmingham
E-mail address: mbayliss@holyheadschool.com
Holyhead School is an 11-16 mixed comprehensive with over 1,000 students. It is in an area of ‘exceptional deprivation’ and attainment on entry is low with a high percentage of students on the special needs register. The school has an excellent reputation in the community and is considerably over-subscribed. Holyhead is one of thirteen local secondary schools in the second phase of the Government’s Building Schools for the Future programme. The school will have a complete rebuild by 2011 and will be divided into four ‘halls’. The grant will support these human scale developments.
Lister Community School, London
E-mail address: lcs@lister.newham.sch.uk
Lister Community School is a large mixed comprehensive in the East End of London. It is in an area suffering from high levels of social and economic deprivation. Some 80 per cent of students have English as an additional language and the level of attainment of students entering the school is low. Under the Government’s Building Schools for the Future initiative, the school will occupy a new building in September 2009. The grant will support a pilot project of ‘base rooms’, or discrete areas, where Year 7 and 8 students will be taught in a way that combines both academic learning and pastoral support, prior to the move to the new building.
Northampton School for Girls, Northampton
E-mail address: head@nsg.northants-ecl.gov.uk
This 11-18 comprehensive school has experienced a rapid growth in numbers as a result of reorganisation. The numbers of students from ethnic minorities speaking English as an additional language as well as students with special educational needs are high. The school is currently operating on a split site, with Years 7 and 8 in one building and the remainder of the school in another. It is being completely re-built under the Public Finance Initiative and, in September 2008, when the building work is finished, all 1,700 of the school’s students will be on the main school site. The grant will help develop a range of human scale strategies including the creation of two satellite schools within the larger school.
St John’s School and Community College, Marlborough
E-mail address: phazlewood@stjohns.wilts.sch.uk
This 11-18 comprehensive school has 1,500 students on roll. Since 2001 it has been at the forefront of the development of an alternative competences curriculum piloted by the Royal Society of Arts. This curriculum has been adopted by a number of the project schools within the Human Scale Schools programme. The grant has been awarded towards the costs of developing the ethos, identity and purpose of the college’s new ‘curriculum schools’ each of which will focus on a particular aspect of learning.
Somervale School, Midsomer Norton, Bath
E-mail address: Michael_Gorman@bathnes.gov.uk
Somervale School is an 11-18 community comprehensive school outside Bath. The school has 720 students which makes it the smallest secondary school in the area. Somervale is seeking to become a ‘small school by design’ and the grant will support human scale developments in curriculum, student participation and parental involvement.
Springwell Community School, North East Derbyshire
E-mail address: agoode@springwell.derbyshire.sch.uk
Springwell is a mixed 11-16 comprehensive school with 950 students on roll. The school is in the third wave of the Government’s Building Schools for the Future programme. It will occupy a new building which will be structured into five ‘learning communities’. The grant will help with the organisational and structural changes needed to create a human scale school based on these communities.
Tideway School, Newhaven, East Sussex
E-mail address: moneya@tidewayschool.org
In April 2005 this school of 650 students experienced a major arson attack – said to be the UK’s worst ever school fire – and is currently housed in a mixture of temporary and formerly redundant buildings awaiting a major building programme scheduled to begin in the summer of 2007. The grant will go towards the development of a holistic curriculum for Year 8 students.
Trinity School, Carlisle
E-mail address: amo@trinity.cumbria.sch.uk
This school opened in 1968 as a result of the amalgamation of three schools whose sites happened to be next door to each other. Although some structural adjustments were made, ‘the joins still show’ some 40 years later and recent buildings have added to the incoherence of the site. The school has 1,850 students. In 1997 the school moved to a house system, introducing five houses with two forms in each year in each house. The school is likely to move to a new building in 2010. The grant will fund the development of different human scale strategies in relation to the school’s current house system.
Woodlands School, Basildon
E-mail address: bfi@btconnect.com
The number of students in this 11-16 school has increased dramatically over the past 15 years from 729 students in 1990 to 1,500 in 2007. Students come from widely contrasting socio-economic backgrounds with the majority of parents in low-paid jobs and from an extensive catchment area comprising over 20 partner primary schools. The grant will go towards the costs of introducing a human scale learning community for Year 7 students who are currently experiencing severe difficulties in accessing the secondary school curriculum. This will in due course be extended to Years 8 and 9.
Schools funded in November 2006
Burlington Danes Academy, London
E-mail address: school@burlingtondanes.org
This West London school with 1,200 pupils on roll opened as an academy, though not in a new building, in September 2006 and has been reorganised into four mini-schools. Students in Years 7-9 will occupy two middle schools; while students in years 10-13 will occupy two upper schools. Each school will be substantially self-contained: it will have its own head and its own teaching and support staff who, as far as possible, will work within their own mini-school. Teaching groups will be organised so that teachers spend longer with fewer students. Although staff at the academy have been involved in extensive planning and consultation for these changes there is concern that student involvement has been minimal. The academy wishes to address this problem by organising arts workshops, for which grant aid was requested, designed to elicit, structure and articulate the students’ views on reorganisation.
Freebrough Specialist Engineering College, East Cleveland
E-mail address: matheri@freebrough.com
This 11-16 community college is spread across two sites. The college has 900 students on roll and serves a particularly disadvantaged community; 52 per cent of students attending the college are on the special educational needs register. In 2007 the college will move into a new building. It sees this as an opportunity to introduce mini-schools. These will be ‘needs related’: students will progress through them as their levels of attainment improve. The college wishes to pilot this approach with some 20 students in Year 7 whose literacy skills are especially weak. Teachers will be assisted by student support mentors and parents will be encouraged to become involved in extended learning activities with their children. Year 10 students will be trained by the local Youth Service to serve as ‘buddies’. A grant will help the college employ a person to evaluate the pilot and to support its further expansion.
The Thomas Lord Audley School and Language College, Essex
E-mail address: enquiries@tla.essex.sch.uk
Situated in Colchester, the Thomas Lord Audley School is an 11-16 community school with 1,000 students on roll. In September 2004 the school was reorganised into four small learning communities. In pastoral terms, the ethos of these learning communities has been developed through special assemblies, PSHE classes and class conferences where the individual needs of students are articulated and addressed. These strategies are regarded as ways of transforming the value structure of the school and establishing the personal relationships the school intends should be at the heart of its aspirations. Grant aid will enable the school to develop, through staff consultations and visits to other schools in the UK, a programme of activities including small team teaching and mixed-age learning and thus attend to the academic dimension of this process and achieve a more holistic approach to its mission.
Schools funded in July 2006
Abbeydale Grange School, Sheffield
E-mail address: cbull@abbeydalegrange.sheffield.sch.uk
Though a relatively small comprehensive school with 620 students on roll, Abbeydale Grange has been designated by the DfES as a school in challenging circumstances because of the very high rate of pupil mobility (almost 30 per cent in one year) and the high number of students on free school meals. Over 40 languages are spoken in the school and for some students, English is their third or fourth language. The project will focus on enhancing the learning of Year 7 pupils by engendering a stronger sense of belonging. This will involve more small-group work and significant changes to curriculum organisation including cross-disciplinary projects, visits to the local community, the production of a newsletter for the local community, and a locally broadcast radio station.
Didcot Girls’ School, Oxford
E-mail address: headteacher@didcotgirls.oxon.sch.uk
Currently occupying three buildings and twenty four temporary huts, this Oxfordshire school has 1,400 students on roll, including a mixed 6th form. The school plans to make significant changes to its tutor group system by breaking down the size of each group (currently 30). It is planned that students will be assigned to vertical or mixed-age tutor groups of between 15-20 students with 6th formers attached as mentors, in both a pastoral and academic sense, to the younger pupils. Staffing this new structure will involve the wider school workforce, including caretakers, technicians, office and library staff. Project funding will support a consultative conference involving students, parents, governors and staff and visits to other schools.
Hartsdown Technology College, Kent
E-mail address: principal@hartsdown.kent.sch.uk
Currently occupying old and inadequate buildings, this college in Margate has 1,200 pupils on roll. Although due for a rebuild in 2009, the college is already seeking to adopt a more personalised learning structure through the ‘pathways’ approach whereby groups of pupils work closely with relatively small teams of designated staff. The college sees this approach as an important step towards developing a SWAS (schools-within-a-school), human scale approach. This will be supplemented by cross-curricular and extracurricular days. The college also wishes to establish small learning to learn groups for Year 7 students as a way of supporting them in adopting strategies for effective learning and plans to appoint a member of staff to facilitate these groups.
The Westlands School, Kent
E-mail address: ngo@westlands.kent.sch.uk
Situated in Sittingbourne in North Kent, this school has 1,600 pupils on roll. The school recognises that current working practices will need to be adapted if the school is to sustain a trend of continued improvement. To this end, the school plans to divide into three learning communities, each of which will have its own principal and vice-principal. Each learning community will be supported by learning leaders, pupil support managers, curriculum leaders and community subject leaders. Vertical or cross-age tutor groups are planned for each community. The project will support a programme of staff development and visits to other schools.
Wilsthorpe Business and Enterprise College, Derbyshire
E-mail address: flowerm@wilsthorpe.derbyshire.sch.uk
This college, which has just over 1,000 pupils on roll, has already taken a number of initiatives to embrace a more personalised approach to learning. It now proposes to make a fundamental change by creating a mini-school for Year 7 students for the September 2007 intake. The mini-school will adopt a competence-led curriculum, ensuring that students are taught by a team of no more than six teachers, with a recognised area of the school where Year 7 teaching is centred. Project funding will be used to support the college in a variety of ways including: visiting and learning from other schools that have undertaken such developments; establishing a team to develop the underpinning philosophy of the mini-school; creating schemes of work for Year 7 students; mapping the new competency-led curriculum; and buying in trainers and workshop leaders.
Schools funded in March 2006
Allerton Grange School, Leeds
E-mail address: ramt01@leedslearning.net
Allerton Grange is one of the largest comprehensive schools in Leeds with 1,800 students on roll. The school is to have a new school built which will open in 2009. Allerton Grange has been granted funding to hold a series of consultation events for students, staff and the local community to explore how the design of their new school can best achieve human scale practices.
Brislington Enterprise College, Bristol
Brislington Enterprise College is one of the largest comprehensive schools in Bristol with nearly 1,500 students on roll. The school is already well down the road in the design of their new building, which is to be built as three schools in one. Consultations have taken place amongst staff, students and parents/guardians to gain their views on the design and facilities of the ‘new build’ human scale school. The grant has been given to the school to enable staff to research and prepare the teaching materials needed to teach thematically across the curriculum in Year 7 from September 2006 and to review the curriculum for Year 8 students in preparation for transfer to the new school.
Glossopdale Community College, Derbyshire
E-mail address: john34@glossopdale.derbyshire.sch.uk
Glossopdale Community College is a comprehensive school in North West Derbyshire with 1,800 students on roll. The college is on two sites, two miles apart, following the amalgamation of two separate village schools. The Glossop site caters for approximately 800 Year 7, 8 and 9 students. Many of the students are taught by up to 17 teachers. To remedy this the school plans to reorganise Years 7 and 8 into a school within a school (SWAS) by changing sites and devising a themed curriculum to be taught by cross-curricular teams.
Hugh Christie College, Tonbridge
E-mail address: jbarker@hughchristie.kent.sch.uk
Hugh Christie Technology College is in Tonbridge, Kent and has 1,100 students on roll. It is the only school in England that is a member of the Coalition of Essential Schools. As such, it has been committed to human scale practices for some time. In September 2006 Years 8, 9, 10 and 11 moved into the new building with Year 7 joining them in September 2007. The school is being built as a SWAS school which Hugh Christie has been committed to for a good number of years. The project funding will give the school the opportunity for staff to prepare for the structural and curriculum changes which will come about with the move to small learning communities, to be known as ‘barns’.
Montgomery High School, Blackpool
E-mail address: admin@montgomery.blackpool.sch.uk
Montgomery High School in Blackpool, which has 1,390 students on roll, is already committed to the principles of human scale education and has been a partner school for HSE in previous projects. Its programme of ‘learning pathways’ is well underway and currently students from Years 8 and 9 follow one of four ‘learning pathways’ in four small cohorts of students. These pathways are gradually being extended to include students from Years 10 and 11. The project will give staff the opportunity to engage in detailed planning and development to enable students to benefit from a more personalised curriculum. The focus of this work will concentrate mainly on students who are underachieving in the current system.
Artists in Schools: Bolton, Bury and Rochdale
E-mail address: rosie@capeuk.org
A number of schools in these three local authorities are due to be rebuilt. The project will support the local authorities to engage students in exploring the relationship between the architecture of school buildings and how learning takes place, helping to ensure that students’ views contribute to the design of the new schools. The Artists in Schools Project, established in 1998 by a consortium of the three local authorities, will have a particular focus on how learning might change over the next decade and how this could impact upon school design. Working with artists and architects in six schools (two in each of the local authorities) and involving 180 students, the project aims to: increase participants’ understanding of building and spaces; heighten awareness of learning; develop a set of ideas that can inform future school building programmes; increase the capacity of Artists in Schools to deliver future architecture projects; and provide an exemplar of collaborative working.
This is a new departure for the Human Scale Schools initiative, but one which supports the project’s aim to offer support for student participation in enterprising and innovative ways.
The Human Scale Schools project is coordinated by Human Scale Education for the Gulbenkian Foundation. The project is also supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
Human Scale Education Unit 8 Fairseat Farm Chew Stoke Bristol BS40 8XF
01275 332516
August 2007