The 950-pupil Oxclose school, a performing arts college in Sunderland, has been completely remodelled under Building Schools for the Future. The school's former headteacher, Mike Foster, is now sharing his expertise by project managing Sunderland's entire BSF programme to ensure that the benefits of ICT are shared across all the authority's schools.
Under the BSF contract, the local authority spent £1,400 per pupil on boosting ICT provision. Foster says: "The architects spent a lot of time consulting students and staff to develop our vision for ICT. We refurbished every department and consulted department heads on design. We have ended up with a ratio of one computer per pupil."
A high priority has been given to vocational choice and learning pathways14-19. Oxclose is federated with three neighbouring 11-16 secondaries — Biddick, Washington and St Robert of Newminster — all of which feed their pupils into a combined sixth-form centre. Pupils travel to lessons at any of the federation schools to follow vocational options in specialist subjects such as sports, performing arts, business and ICT.
Sharing data between schools is therefore a priority for Sunderland's BSF programme. Foster says: "Our VLE links all four school sites and we can track pupil attendance and grades."
Oxclose's single-storey, steel-framed building has been reconfigured at a cost of £11m to provide flexible space for 21st-century personalised learning. The internal feel of the building is wide corridors, breakout spaces and generous lines of sight. Pupils can be taught in large classes, or work alone or in small groups. Generous fixed PC provision and wireless- enabled laptops let students work on compiling their e-portfolios. Foster explains: "The biggest feature is our independent learning centre, a space the size of six classrooms. Three teachers can combine their classes to teach a single lesson and then break out to enable groups of pupils working independently or in small groups." The centre is equipped with 65 PCs, flexible formations of tables and chairs, with half of the room devoted to a library.
But the journey has not been smooth, say deputy head David Haw: "We had 18 months of living in the middle of a building site during which there was no drop in standards. And we had to configure all our own ICT because the BSF five-year contract does not kick in until next September."
RM takes over running the school's ICT system from next September and will give a high priority to staff training and boosting the exchange of pupil data and tracking using the Integris system.
