Building Schools for the Future is the most ambitious programme of school construction since Victorian times. Over its 15-year span, £45bn will be invested
in rebuilding or upgrading England's entire secondary school building stock. But Building Schools for the Future (BSF) is not simply about fixing rickety infrastructure but also an attempt to revitalise England's education system and refit it for the 21st century. The goal, says schools minister Jim Knight, is that "by 2020, every child in secondary education will be in a fully refurbished or completely rebuilt learning environment, designed to the highest quality, with integrated ICT — the best possible learning environment."
The programme is getting to grips with substantial under-investment in school buildings over many decades, according to Tim Byles, chief executive of Partnerships for Schools (PfS), the non-departmental government organisation set up to deliver both BSF and the academies programme. Byles points out that 86% of secondary schools were built in the 1950s, 60s or 70s and are coming to the end of their useful lives. "In 2004, the government recognised the significance of dramatic improvement and set out to create school environments that stimulate young people to reach their best and engage the disengaged."
One of the cornerstones of BSF is the prioritising of state-of-the-art information and communications technology (ICT), which is to become an integral part of school environments rather than a bolt-on extra. Wildern school in Southampton has already recognised the importance of ICT; it is one of the national winners in the ICT Excellence Awards for schools run by the government's ICT in education agency, Becta. Wildern has achieved an effective ICT structure ahead of entering the BSF scheme, with support from ICT suppliers Apple and Toshiba, and it's reaping the benefits. One of the school's strengths is its dedicated ICT support, says deputy head Ceri Oakley. "We have a traditional technical support team but also a development team that has created the system our staff want."
Wildern's virtual learning environment (VLE) has, says Oakley, made a huge difference to teaching and learning in the school. "It was created as an empty bucket and now it is totally populated. We don't have homework but home study, with all the resources available on the VLE; it's not just a bolt-on but a full resource for project-based work." More than 90% of the pupils at Wildern have internet access at home; for those that don't (or are stuck in the dark ages of dial-up), the school's computer suites and library are open before and after school and, says Oakley, access has not been a problem.
Wildern is trialling a secure version of YouTube for schools, which features films, music, artwork and pictures, all created — and moderated — by pupils. "It's just like the real one, with star ratings and comments," says Oakley. "My own view is that, ultimately, you have to move with the youngsters to motivate them and get them excited, and the way to get pupils excited about learning is by using the technology they are used to." As BSF rolls out, this principle will extend to all secondary schools, shifting towards a personalised, any time anywhere style of learning.
Red tape
Earlier this year, the Guardian reported that BSF is running considerably behind schedule. BSF's original target, set in 2004, was to open 100 schools by the end of the 2007/08 tax year, but only 12 will have opened by March 2008 (there are 3,500 secondary schools in total set to benefit, eventually, from the scheme). Delays have been blamed on red tape and local authorities having difficulty in getting to grips with complicated administration.
Timing is an issue that Tim Byles readily acknowledges. "I joined BSF 15 months ago to speed things up, and early targets were overly optimistic. We have rescheduled these and BSF is now actually running ahead of targeting." Nine schools have opened, he says, and this will become 12 by March, with an additional 35 to follow next year; more than 1,000 schools have entered the planning stage. "The pace of
delivery is sharply increasing in line with
revised targets," says Byles.
"It is frustrating, when we pause a programme for a particular area to get it right, that this is followed by claims that the programme is in crisis," says Jim Knight. "This is a once-in-a-generation investment and it is important that we get it right, even if that means making the difficult decision to pause, rather than rushing headlong into knocking up new school buildings."
Knight says the procurement process has been "a fairly sharp learning curve. This has been exaggerated by wanting to get new schools built in areas of greatest need, often in very densely populated inner-city areas, where the site issues and procurement are very complicated. The PfS team has managed to reduce the procurement timescale and increase value for money."
Funding for the BSF programme is entirely from the public purse – around half from conventional DCSF funding and the rest via PFI credits. The involvement of private funding raises the issue of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), a funding scheme for schools that has had mixed success. Under PFI, private investors were rewarded with long maintenance contracts for the schools they built. Unfortunately, some schools found that the infrastructure they obtained via PFI was inadequate, or that they were locked into unsuitable contracts with the providers. Andy Schofield, head of Varndean school in Brighton, puts it bluntly. "In terms of contractual negotiations, the public sector is always in danger of being stuffed by big corporations, which are only thinking of the bottom line."
Schofield also has other concerns. "Our PFI contract, which was signed and agreed in 2003, runs for 25 years. No one knows how that will fit with BSF. It is also frustrating that our council was distracted by PFI and we didn't get our BSF bid in earlier. It is depressing when you hear of such good stuff going on around the country."
John Bangs, head of education at the NUT, also raises the question of PFI. "PFI was a quick fix and local authorities were not used to negotiating with private companies, so some ended up with rigid and inappropriate contracts. I think, quietly in the background, lessons have been learned."
Bangs says BSF is "most admirable". However, he adds that it needs to be clarified and simplified — and freed of ideology. "BSF's implementation is being screwed up by ideology. For example, some local authorities are coming under enormous pressure to plan for academies, even if they don't want them. The schools commissioner says that unless plans include academies and trust schools, BSF money won't be forthcoming. The schools adjudicator says that range and diversity can be achieved in other ways. Local authorities are getting very confusing messages."
Is it possible to build effectively for the future when no one knows what it will bring? After all, 10 or even five years ago, no one could have foreseen some of the technological advances now reaching the mainstream. According to Ty Goddard, director of the British Council for School Environments, an independent lobbying and campaigning membership body looking at the use of BSF investment, learning technologies are moving "faster than we ever imagined". He believes it is necessary to question the very nature of schools and do some radical thinking and planning.
"Classrooms, for example, have served us well, but now spaces need to be more flexible for different types of teaching and learning. In the early days, there was a real reluctance to look abroad enough." For schools with lowest priority in the programme (those assigned to band E - one of five bands A-E) the benefits of BSF seem a long way off, though they are eagerly awaited. "We know it is coming, but one concern is that the longer we wait, the more liability we have to maintain existing schools," says Mike Best, head of
Beaminster School in Dorset. "We have to make choices on deferring smaller projects that will be overtaken in the future." He also raises a note of caution on ICT licensing and renewal costs. "Licensing at our school already costs £11,000 or £12,000 a year even before you look at the cost of renewing equipment."
Further potential benefits of BSF include the opportunity for effective schools to share best practice nationally; and the possibility of attracting more teachers into the profession, as the advantages of such a vast investment programme become clear.
"More personalised learning, learning laterally, learning with friends, learning at home: all these advantage learners," says Jim Knight. "But the most important factor in school success is the quality of teaching and leadership. A great environment, with great technology, allows that human resource to fulfil its potential."
