Bold moves
In Garforth, West Yorkshire, schools take their commitment to 21st century schooling seriously. The Leeds School Partnership Trust, which consists of one secondary school (Garforth College) and six primary schools, has already introduced a computer network that will enable children in all the schools to access the same learning resources and maintain a record of their learning throughout their school career. Now the trust is to provide a wireless network to the local community that means children will be able to gain free access to those resources at any time.
It is a project that would not have been feasible for a school acting alone, but, says Paul Hirst, former vice-principal at Garforth and now the trust's commissioner, the trust has given the schools "an increased amount of control and flexibility."
Schools used to operate autonomously, with delegated budgets provided by the local authority, to spend on teaching and learning, site maintenance and services such as special needs provision. But to fulfill the requirements of the government white paper, Your Child, Your Schools, Our Future: Building a 21st-Century Schools System, which aims to provide a broader curriculum, promote students' health and well-being, and offer out-of-school services, schools will need to pool resources and commission services jointly.
The Leeds School Partnership Trust commissioned the wireless network from private IT company HP. But it also commissions services from its external partners. Leeds NHS provides a team of nurses who work with schools on projects such as teenage pregnancy and provide personal, social and health education (PSHE) to pupils - a subject previously handled by teachers. Another external partner, Leeds Trinity University College, now offers foundation degree courses, delivered in local schools, to Garforth people. "One of the problems of many local authorities is they tend to be quite big and adopt a one-size-fits-all solution," says Hirst. "We're of the opinion that our trust suits our local community."
The trust itself, is independent of the local authority, receives no funding either from the authority or the Department for Children, Schools and Families, and hasn't levied charges against its member schools or external partners. But the trust members agree that if it can make savings through operational efficiencies (by sharing administration staff, for example) or obtaining external funding (as a charity, the trust has been able to secure a lottery grant for its holiday scheme), it can use the money where needed. So far, the trust has managed to raise £2.3m.
In Louth, rural Lincolnshire, schools faced a different set of challenges - a lack of local provision for students wanting to undertake vocational training. Five years ago, an informal partnership of local schools, businesses and FE colleges successfully bid for a grant of £7m from the Learning and Skills Council, to fill that gap. The bulk of the money went to creating a vocational training facility, Wolds college, on the site of Cordeaux school.
The success of the informal partnership inspired Cordeaux to band together with two other local schools to form the Wolds and East Education Trust. Peter Kubicki, headteacher of Cordeaux, says there are advantages to the arrangement: "By working together, we can strengthen the curriculum offer." He says because the schools are legally tied to each other, they can consider sharing staff, expertise and costs.
But the formation of the trust also enables the three schools to offer services the local authority might want to commission, such as post-16 education, says Kubicki.
Embracing the partnership model even more fully, Kent county council has organised all its schools into local children's services partnerships. There are 23 partnerships altogether, and they include not just schools, but representatives from the police, the health service, the district council and transport providers. Using the commissioning cycle, each partnership assesses local need and allocates resources accordingly - both to schools and to the wider community - by, for example, putting a daycare nursery or a GP practice on the same site as a primary school.
Whereas in other areas, a school might seek specialist support from the local authority, schools in Kent can approach their children's service partnership. Colin Feltham, head of additional needs and resources at the authority, says: "If a particular school is struggling, it is able to say to fellow headteachers and professionals in the partnership, 'Could you please help us ensure we're doing the right things in the right way for these children?'."
Kubicki believes this flexibility to address local needs is the great strength of the model: "We want the different agencies and support groups not just to work together, but to [do so] on a local basis, where they can be much more effective and efficient."