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ITEM EX5

EXECUTIVE – 13 MAY 2003

SECONDARY EDUCATION IN THE BANBURY AREA

Report by the Director for Learning & Culture

Introduction

  1. Members will be aware of the public protests undertaken by secondary age pupils in Banbury during the week of 31 March. The impetus to the demonstrations was a feasibility study which the governing bodies of the three secondary schools had asked that the LEA should undertake into a prospective model for reorganisation. This short report explains the background, and seeks approval to take feasibility work further.

    2. Secondary Schools in Banbury: The Current Position

  2. Drayton School is scheduled to be re-inspected in the summer of this year, two years after its removal from special measures. Concerns continue regarding the school’s capacity for much needed improvement, and therefore long-term viability. Trends in attainment are static, or even possibly downward, in Key Stage 3, whilst in Key Stage 4 the school remains similar to comparable schools nationally (the national comparisons being based on free school meals and prior attainment of pupils). Value added measures show limited pupil progress. The financial position is worsening, with the school not managing within its delegated budget or within agreed limits. There are about 50% surplus places in this school. The quality of teaching and learning is variable. The school has been unable to attract and retain the critical number of teachers able to help progress. Attendance remains a concern: it is currently running at about 86% (Ofsted cite 92% or below as a threshold for concern).

  3. Blessed George Napier Catholic VA School (BGN) is over-subscribed, and, by DfES space recommendations, over-crowded. There are no suitable areas on site for further development, and yet over the coming two years rolls will rise as it is the upper year groups in the school (Years 10 and 11) which house the smaller number of children. Access to the school site is difficult. The school achieves well in Key Stage 3 and GCSE. The school is immediately adjacent to the grounds of Banbury School.

  4. Banbury School has recently been subject to inspection by Ofsted, and is cited as a much improved school. Teaching is now good overall in the main school, and very good in the Sixth Form. The school is reported to be well led, in a business-like and very effective, collegiate manner, one that empowers staff and enables them to flourish well and to pull together in the same direction. Pupils in the school achieve well compared to their standards on entry to the school. The school provides very good value for money.

    5. The Future

  5. A suggestion emerged locally that the LEA should consider a re-modelling of secondary education in Banbury, in conjunction with the Archdiocese of Birmingham, on the following lines:

    • Transfer BGN to the Drayton School site.

The argument here is that this would give BGN the space it needs to take the aspiring numbers, and would also be of great benefit to the school as it seeks Sports College Status (the facilities on the Drayton site are very good). The downside, for BGN, would be the distance some families would need to travel to the school from across the town, and the fact that the Drayton accommodation lacks a Sixth Form block, good hall, or chapel.

    • Transfer Drayton School from its present site to the present BGN site.

This transfer could take place, in terms of numbers and rooming, without significant investment. However, that is a mechanical point: the real issue is that the new site would be immediately adjacent to Banbury School, and so the merger of the two schools could then become operationally viable. A feasibility study would, of course, cover ways in which such a "merger" may actually take place – there are different legal routes by which this might be accomplished. The downside for some Drayton families is the mirror image of that for some BGN families, namely the additional distance to be travelled to school.

  1. The governing bodies of the three secondary schools each considered this idea, and each resolved, nem con, to ask that the LEA carry out a feasibility study into the project. The Archdiocese of Birmingham has expressed a willingness to take part in this study. Apart from the decision to seek external advice, the Governing Bodies have taken no further action on the plan.

  2. That said, it is clear that any feasibility work must derive from an analysis of need. This in itself may prompt other options worthy of analysis, as may ideas generated by local interested parties. In considering whether members wish this exploratory work to be undertaken, they may also wish to determine whether to instruct officers to undertake an options appraisal on other prospective organisational patterns not yet articulated. Such an options appraisal might then form the background to further debate in the town, after the completion of the theoretical exercise. Full consultation with local people would take place on any options which may appear worthy of pursuing further.

    3. Feasibility Scoping

  3. The issues to be covered in any feasibility study are predictable. In outline, such a study would answer questions such as:

    • Would the idea be possible in practice? (Sometimes there are, for example, property trusts which thwart the process.)

    • What would be the effect on travel to school patterns?

    • What would be the view of the planners?

    • If Banbury School, and Drayton School were effectively to merge, what would be the issues to warrant attention in running the combined school which could total over 2500 children?

    • If the present three schools are reduced to two, then by definition parental choice is compromised: is this a big factor locally?

    • What would be the financial implications of any such proposal?

    • What would be the human cost in transition? These would in part be determined by the mechanisms available to effect change, and the pros and cons of these.

RECOMMENDATION

9. The Executive is RECOMMENDED to:

(a) agree that the feasibility work suggested by the Governing Bodies should be undertaken, with an initial report back by the end of the summer;

(b) determine whether any other options which may emerge from a needs analysis should be researched in a similar timeframe.

KEITH BARTLEY
Director for Learning & Culture

Background papers: Nil

Contact Officer: Robert Capstick, Head of Resources Tel: 01865 815155

May 2003

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