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ITEM EX6

EXECUTIVE – 20 APRIL 2004

14-19 EDUCATION PROVISION IN THE BANBURY AREA

Report by Director for Learning & Culture

1. In October 2003 the Executive considered a report on the possible reconfiguration of secondary schools in Banbury town. Four options affecting Blessed George Napier RC(A), Banbury and Drayton schools were presented but all were felt to either lack sufficient merit or would not command sufficient local community support to warrant being taken forward for formal consultation.
2. The Executive decided, however, that the status quo was not an option as it neither addressed the specific, pressing issues surrounding Drayton school nor the broader issues of educational attainment in the Banbury area. The Executive therefore asked officers to, inter alia:
   
   

1. investigate ways of drawing down external funding;
2. consider options for addressing the 14 – 19 agenda across the Banbury area; and
3. consider the community needs of the pupil population served by the three Banbury town schools and The Warriner School, Bloxham;
   
   

Local Learning and Skills Council mini Strategic Area Review (mini-StAR)

3. In January 2004 the Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire (MKOB) Local Learning and Skills Council (LLSC) initiated a strategic options review of the Banbury area 14-19 age group. (It is the LLSC rather than local education authorities which has strategic responsibility for 14-19 education).This review overlapped significantly with the remit given to officers by the Executive and it was agreed with the LLSC that the Council would co-operate over the review (including the sharing of demographic and pupil attainment data).
4. The interim summary report (Annex A) (download as .doc file) was presented on 17 March 17 2004 at the LLSC office in Kidlington. The participants consisted of the headteachers of Banbury, Drayton and The Warriner schools, a deputy headteacher from Blessed George Napier RC(A) School, Learning & Culture, MKOB LLSC, Oxford and Cherwell College and a representative of workplace learning providers. The discussion of the interim summary report was chaired by Sir Clive Booth, former Vice-Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University and chairman of the LSC.
5. Six medium term local strategic options were presented with evaluations:
   
   

1. status quo;
2. closure of Drayton School with redistribution of provision to other local schools;
3. "merger" of Drayton School with local school(s) (closure of Drayton school with the creation of an expanded split site school based on one of the other three local schools);
4. merger of Drayton School with Oxford and Cherwell College;
5. collaborative framework of LEA schools and Oxford and Cherwell College; and
6. City Academy on the Drayton School Campus.
   
   
6. Options (a), (b) and (c) were rejected because they:
   
   

1. did not address the immediate issues about Drayton School; or
2. did not address wider issues of attainment in Banbury, nor meet the demand for secondary school places in the town; or
3. would meet with significant local opposition;
   
   

or a combination of these.

7. Option (d). was acknowledged to be both radical and innovative and had the potential both to address Drayton School’s issues and to make a contribution to raising overall attainment in the Banbury area by increasing the range of vocational curriculum provision and encouraging young people to see education and work-based learning through to 19 as a positive choice. It does, however, raise issues of governance, for which there is currently no legal framework and also of conditions of service for staff which differ significantly between Further Education and schools. There are currently no functioning examples of an 11 – 19 hybrid school-FE institution and the creation of such might well require primary legislation which is problematic both in terms of not being guaranteed and timescale.
8. A variant of (d) would be to develop the concept of Madley Brook Primary School and Springfield Special School in Witney which are part of the same building, sharing a common central corridor, support staff and administrative facilities, whilst retaining separate legal identities, leadership and governance. If such a model were adopted for school and FE co-location, issues of the long term robustness of any cooperative arrangements might be an issue unless these are underpinned by binding legal agreements.
9. Further work will be undertaken to investigate the legal and logistical issues associated with option (d) (and variant) and will be incorporated in the final LLSC report to be tabled by 31 July 2004.
10. Option (f) was considered by all participants as being of merit in the same ways as option (d) but with a number of added advantages. It would allow for the drawing down of significant capital investment (a combination of funding provided by the sponsor of the Academy plus a significant contribution from the DfES) and the creation of a brand new, state of the art secondary school. It is a model of educational provision for which there is already a legislative framework and of which there are already functioning examples. The sponsor could be one or more private individuals or companies or, for instance, a FE college, or a combination thereof.
11. A further variant to both options (d) and (f) would be to separate the Frank Wise Special School primary and secondary provision and relocate the secondary element to the (current) Drayton School site. Primary provision could continue to occupy the current location or consideration could be given to co-location with an existing primary school or any new school(s) built to meet the expected expansion of Banbury. Relocating the secondary provision would be particularly advantageous if it were coupled with a new build school as this would be fully accessible and obviate the need to duplicate all facilities (e.g. sports hall) whilst allowing sharing of specialist facilities such as speech therapy and hydrotherapy.
12. Option (e) was not felt to be a ‘stand alone’ option but rather an overarching principle which would need to be applied whether option (d), option (f) or a variant thereof were taken forward. The creation of an Academy or of a hybrid school-FE provision would allow the creation of a network of unique, discrete institutions, which would be able to develop their own specialisms (BGN currently has specialist Sports College status and The Warriner Technology College status coupled with its capacity to develop rural studies linked to its farm). This pattern would retain 11 – 16 education on all the current sites whilst creating a more diverse provision better able to meet individual pupils’ needs. It would also promote the continued, distinctive, character and governance of each of the current educational establishments.

Next steps

13. Both options (d) and (f) require further work on detailed costings, identification/confirmation of funding sources and in the case of option (d), clarification of the legal framework. Specifically in relation to option (f) there is the need to confirm potential sponsor(s) and, if there is more than one individual or ‘consortium’, to decide which would be preferred.
14. If any options or their variants are confirmed as viable (both logistically and in terms of meeting the core principles of addressing the specific issues of Drayton School and educational attainment in the Banbury area) then there will need to be consultation on these before decisions are made on whether to proceed to the formal processes leading to the implementation of any agreed changes.

RECOMMENDATIONS

15. The Executive is RECOMMENDED to:

1. identify which (if either) of options (d) and (f) identified in the report it would wish to support, subject to the further work described in paragraph 13;
2. confirm that the reorganisation of special school provision in Banbury should be considered as a variant of the preferred option(s);
3. authorise the Director for Learning & Culture, in consultation with the Executive Members for Schools and Learning & Culture, to explore potential Academy sponsors and establish a preference;
4. request officers to cooperate with the Local Learning & Skills Council in carrying out such further work as is required in order to produce the final mini-Strategic Area Review report with detailed, costed option(s);
5. request officers to convene a meeting of local stakeholders to consider the agreed framework for change;
6. authorise officers, in conjunction with the Local Learning & Skills Council, to carry out formative consultations on any of the options confirmed as viable, reporting back on the outcome to the Executive to decide on how to proceed.
   
   

KEITH BARTLEY
Director for Learning & Culture

Background Papers: Nil

Contact officer Roy Leach, Senior Adviser Schools and Service Monitoring, Tel. (01865) 458507

April 2004

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