Sandwell Futures: Building Schools for the Future

The Local Education Partnership (LEP), Sandwell Futures Ltd, was formed to deliver Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) Programme. This £250m investment programme of new buildings, refurbishment and ICT investment, was kick-started with the design and build of two learning campuses: Smethwick and Rowley.

Cambridge Education forms part of the BSF programme’s private partner, Environments for Learning Consortium (E4L), providing education advice to Sandwell Council.  Marie Boyd-Clarke, Cambridge Education’s Strategic Director of Schools for the Future, is a board director of the E4L partnership. From early 2008, Cambridge Education used its education-led design process to support E4L’s bid to develop two design solutions for the Smethwick and Rowley learning campuses. Cambridge Education was instrumental during the design, partnering and ICT development process in ensuring E4L was selected as the preferred bidder in early 2009.

The Rowley Learning Campus is a leading example of co-located learning provision, providing within a single building:

• St Michael’s CofE Secondary School
• Westminster Special School (for students with moderate learning difficulties)
• Whiteheath Pupil Referral Unit (for children with school phobia)

The Smethwick Campus includes the Holly Lodge Science College and the Ruskin House Pupil Referral Unit, which provides for pupils who have been permanently excluded or are at the risk of permanent exclusion due to behavioural difficulties. Both the Smethwick and Rowley buildings are well advanced on-site and due to open in 2011.

Significant commitment to education and training strategies across the whole Sandwell BSF programme – including provision of a CE Transformation Advisor as part of the LEP - makes this unique in its clear focus on education.  CE is delivering a significant pedagogical change programme alongside support for education design and educational ICT advice.

CE has been working with the design team to develop educationally led design solutions for the next wave of Sandwell BSF schools.  This includes the development of each school’s vision to identify the key design requirements, and curriculum analysis to identify the way that teaching and learning is to be undertaken in the new, transformed school, and thus the impact on the learning environment and learning spaces. 

The numbers and sizes of learning spaces required across the school is agreed using a number of innovative tools developed by CE. Also, a ‘Transformational Gateway Review’ – a review of the actual design against educational requirements - checks that the design still meets the objectives of SMBC and the school. 

Cambridge Education are also working in partnership with Sandwell Council to develop and deliver an ambitious change programme to all BSF schools that allows for:

• Local innovation without restricting ideas
• Shared learning between staff in different institutions
• Provision of sufficiently detailed data to allow monitoring and evaluation within the authority’s resource limits. 
• Use of ICT as the vehicle for recording, sharing and scaling the change management approach for use by all members of staff, students and community

The aim of the change management programme is to encourage the creation and implementation of innovative change projects that improve outcomes for learners.  These projects are focused on pedagogical change which supports the new learning environments being created by the BSF programme, both in the use of new learning spaces, and new technologies.

“Since being involved in Sandwell BSF, CE has built strong relationships with the Sandwell BSF team and the individual schools involved at the various stages of the programme. CE has developed a trusted role in helping to ensure the integrity of the LA and school visions through the design and build processes. CE is also playing a key part in preparing schools for the future delivery of education and the realisation of the vision supporting change management.”

Pete Cole, Change Manager, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council (October 2010)