Only a limited number of secondary schools in the UK have comprehensively adopted human scale practices of the kind envisaged by the Human Scale Schools project.  Two of these, Bishops Park College in Clacton, Essex and Stantonbury Campus in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire are involved in the Human Scale Schools initiative as mentor schools.  Schools involved in the project have an opportunity to visit Stantonbury and Bishops Park and learn from successful practice.

Bishops Park College (www.bishopspark.essex.sch.uk)

Bishops Park College was established with a remit to be different.  Based in the coastal town of Clacton in Essex, this 900-place 11-16 school was founded in 2001. The College serves a relatively depressed coastal community and its catchment area includes three out of the five most deprived wards in Essex.

Bishops Park College is a model of the principles and practices associated with human scale education.  There is an emphasis on belonging, relationships, teamwork and respect and a radical approach to curriculum organisation, and to teaching and learning.  It is a truly inclusive school with strong community links. There is no streaming or setting and teachers know that they are expected to teach all children, not just those who are as good as gold.  There have been no permanent exclusions and the fixed-term exclusion rate is extremely low by national standards.

It is the first secondary school in England to be designed and built on the ‘schools within a school’ model as three small schools in one.  Each ‘mini-school’ has its own cross-disciplinary team of teachers responsible for the learning and well-being of a group of students.  Students work with no more than five or six teachers each week and each teacher works with no more than 80 or 90 students.  This radical approach means that an 11-year-old coming from the relatively sheltered environment of a small primary school is unlikely to be overwhelmed by the experience of transferring to secondary school.

In the words of the College’s founding Principal, Mike Davies, learning at Bishops Park has been planned ‘from the perspective of a student engaged in inquiry across a swathe of ideas and competences, rather than a stranger visiting a series of disconnected subjects’.  He describes the curriculum as a ‘tartan’ with subjects woven seamlessly together.  Subjects are not taught as discrete lessons.  Instead, teachers plan work around a particular theme for each half-term – 70 per cent of class time is spent on theme work.  As this is the approach taken by many primary schools, students tend to find the transition from primary to secondary straightforward and stress-free.

Bishops Park aims to make all learning meaningful, and to give students guided choice about what they want to learn.  The timetable is flexible and responsive allowing for different approaches to teaching, including master classes, whole class teaching, small group work and individualised learning.  SATs don’t dominate learning: assessment is based on dialogue, negotiation and critical reflection; it includes ‘authentic assessment’ in which students present portfolios and exhibitions of their work to fellow students and to the wider community. 

Tutorials are a vital part of the school’s commitment to honoring the work of the student through individual and peer support and review. Class tutors have weekly meetings with their form in groups of up to six to discuss and demonstrate progress, celebrate successes and plan next steps.  And last but not least, these small group meetings are the vital artery through which students and their staff have their voice;  their views are listened to and acted upon, confirming the idea that the school experience is genuinely provisional and open to challenge and change.

Research Report of Schools within Schools Approach at Bishops Park College 

PUBLICATIONS AND ARTICLES

LESS IS MORE: THE MOVE TO EDUCATE ON A HUMAN SCALE

Written by Bishop Park’s principal Mike Davies, the HSE publication Less is more: the move to educate on a human scale takes a detailed look at the background and influences on the College. These include the American small school movement, and the competences curriculum developed by the Royal Society of Arts. In this book, Mike Davies charts the building of Bishops Park College and takes a detailed look at a number of important dimensions that have guided the development of the College. The book contains detailed information about school organization, learning and the curriculum, and the weekly timetable.
To obtain a copy click HERE

A curriculum like tartan A detailed description of Bishop Park’s innovative approach to the curriculum has been published by QCA.

To read A Curriculum Like Tartan click HERE

CENTURY 21 SCHOOLS

A ten-page illustrated article describing the guiding principles that influenced the design of Bishops Park College, and the development and interpretation of the challenging design brief, is included in the April 2006 edition of Century 21 Schools.
Click HERE for a copy.

STANTONBURY CAMPUS

Opened in 1974, Stantonbury Campus is an internationally renowned comprehensive school in the new city of Milton Keynes.  It is one of the largest secondary schools in the United Kingdom with some 2,800 students, over 500 of whom are post-16. The school has specialist arts status with extra specialisms in maths and computing and vocational education.  Stantonbury Campus also incorporates an adult and continuing education centre, a leisure centre and a theatre. It shares its site with a church, local shops and a health centre.

The reputation of the Campus has always centered on an innovative approach to curriculum design and ambitious ways of working with young people to engage and challenge them. The centrality of the tutor, students and staff known by their first names, the flexible use of time, no uniform, teams of teachers working together to plan a coherent curriculum with vibrant experiences both on and off site, have been at the heart of their work.

In the early 1970s the Campus was originally designed as three schools, each of 1500 located around a resource and community centre and facilities. Changes in housing policy and lower birthrates meant the third school was never built.  By 1980 the Campus housed two fully comprehensive schools, each with its own head of school working with a campus director.

Experience of working as two institutions sharing the same site led to a major review in the mid- 1980s the result of which was the first example of a fully federated school in England. The identity of the two schools disappeared, the resources of the whole campus became available to all but, most strikingly, the schools were reorganized into a series of halls, four pre-16 halls and a post-16 hall each being ‘home’ to roughly 500 students. Each of the halls operates as a semi-autonomous ‘mini-school’ with its own head. Students remain with the hall for most of their lessons and are normally taught by teachers from within the hall. 

Although not designed on a ‘schools within a school’ model, the original buildings proved very adaptable in providing distinct spaces while retaining the unity of the Campus and its particular ethos. This has fostered a deep sense of belonging to the individual halls while retaining access to the richness of specialist resources.

Like the city of Milton Keynes, over the years the Campus has matured and gone from strength to strength.  What has not changed is the school’s underlying ethos: its deeply held belief in the equal value of all members of the school community regardless of whether they are students or staff, and a determined optimism about every student’s potential. The school has a proud history of educational innovation and has successfully defended the principles of comprehensive education in a climate which has sometimes been hostile to its inclusive and learner-centred ethos.

The Project

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Management and Support

Evaluation

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