This week 22 new schools — the lates products of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme — open their doors to thousands of students. The government hopes these young people will slowly but surely find their education and their aspirations transformed by these new environments, which are equipped to adapt to the changing patterns in teaching and learning.
BSF is hugely ambitious programme involving £45bn of investment over its 15-year span, and attempting to harness the joint energies and imaginations of architects, designers, IT specialists, builders, teachers, students, local authorities, politicians and local communities. Quite naturally, there have been teething troubles: questions have been asked about the length of the contractual process, the cost, the quality of design and the need to place educational "vision" at the heart of things.
But although BSF got off to an undeniably slow start, the progr is now making progress as it learns from its early experiences. Partnerships for Schools, the organisation responsible for delivering BSF, holds its fourth annual conference this month, with plenty to share and to celebrate. Following on from our earlier supplement in February, we take a look at how the programme has moved on. We visit some of the newest BSF schools, track progress in others, and assess how BSF is aff ecting students, teachers and local authorities. And we look at improvements in the BSF process to draw out lessons for those new to this challenging and exciting programme.
