2nd Annual Microsoft Building Schools of the Future Conference 2007

Damian AllenExecutive Director of Children’s

Services Knowsley Metropolitan Borough

Council

1997 to 2000 Remedial Intervention

Raising ExpectationsSchool ImprovementLiteracy and numeracy

2000 to 2004Structural Change

14-19, Specialisms, Academies, Leadership, National Strategies

2004 to present System Reform

Every Child MattersBSF, Personalisation, Trusts

Key Facts. Knowsley BSF• 11 Secondary schools replaced by

7 Learning Centres £150m PFI • Only local authority to replace all

existing schools in a single investment wave

• Closed all existing schools • Opportunity to review

Governance, Leadership, Curriculum, Teaching and Learning

AN OUTDATED SYSTEM‘Today’s high schools were conceived at the beginning of the 20th century to prepare students to work in an industrial economy that looked very different from the economy we have today’ Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. ‘High Schools for the new Millennium’

“..institutions out of sync with each other are caught in a clash of speeds between the old

system and the new. Standardised education is among the slowest institutions to adapt. If you

were monitoring the speed of cars going by you would clock the car of business, which changes rapidly under competitive pressure, at 100mph.

But the car of education which is supposedly preparing the young for the future, is only going at

10 mph. You cannot have a successful economy with that degree of desynchronisation’

Alvin Toffler. World famous author and advisor to successive US and other administrations . Speaking to the FT August 2006

Emerging Ideas Reshaping Education: ‘Want It All’

• Employability• Engagement• Personalisation• Connectivity• Authenticity• Technological

Enhancement• Lifelong Learning• Facilitation• Accountability• Equity• Accessibility• Investment

Added Ideas• Choice/market• Safety and security• Flexibility• Lower pupil/teacher ratio• Well-rounded education• Co-leadership• Partnerships• Co-location• Ecological sustainability• Efficiency

‘Temporarily Away’

Old New

Teacher commands content and style of learning

Choice limited

Achievements measured in standard numerical ways

Learning happens at the beginning of life

Learning happens in institutions

School buildings as ‘institutions’ delivering traditional learning

Education benefits some

Child adapts to the school system

Learning professionals seek the most appropriate combination of learning opportunitiesLearners choose how, where, what and when they learnRicher pictures of achievements

Everyone learns all the time

Learning happens anytime, anywhereResponsive, alert and flexible buildings able to accommodate change Learning benefits all

System supports the learner

The current approach assumes that the school model is fine

but needs ‘improving’. International social and

economic evidence suggests the current model has

fundamental flaws.

Challenge to the Local Authority

Ensure that the investment you make today is fit for purpose in 25 years

RiskLearning changes rapidly, buildings

cannot respond and further investment is required.

Education Transformation defined

‘A system of education that can readily adapt to wider societal and

economic change’

Pedagogy and Space

‘If the answer is rows of square rooms with rows of desks remind me again what the question is’

• Traditional Classroom

• The classroom is the most visible symbol of an educational philosophy.

• It is a philosophy that starts with the assumption that a predetermined number of students will all learn the same thing at the same time from the same person in the same way in the same place for several hours each day.

All Defensible Space programs have a common purpose: They restructure the physical layout of communities to allow residents to control the areas around their homes.

This includes the streets and grounds outside their buildings and the lobbies and corridors within them.

It depends on resident involvement to reduce crime and remove the presence of criminals. It has the ability to bring people of different incomes and race together in a mutually beneficial union. For low-income people, Defensible Space can provide an introduction to the benefits of main-stream life and an opportunity to see how their own actions can better the world around them and lead to upward mobility.

Views of Young People

Respect for all, treat us like VIPs ; Exciting, inclusive, welcoming, open, light, safe, well maintained and secure places to work, learn, socialise and play in. Multifunctional open spaces; Comfortable furniture; Mobile ICT; world class’ sports and arts facilities ; community and pupil art to be placed within buildings ;Comfortable, tranquil, uplifting, colourful and warm; Different external spaces , social to learning sport and arts; sustainable technologies such as solar power, recycling points, water conservation and land drainage solutions; Natural ventilation. Outdoor teaching spaces, individual lockable bike sheds, water features to create calm, Supervised, light, open, clean, modern shopping centre type toilets; Vandalism is a product of boredom ; Art galleries, balconies, cyber cafes and information points. A school ‘wardrobe’ not a uniform; facilities to be used for both curriculum and community use, open access for all, including different cultural and religious groups.

Challenges• Managing local change while

complying with national prescription

• Moving from the old to the new – hearts and minds

• National model/local context – clear tensions

• No funding for transformation

Challenges

• Change as a constant feature• Maintaining performance during

change• New forms of accountability• Integration of private sector as

strategic partners• Integration with wider neighbourhood

regeneration• Criticality of innovation

Transformation• 5 Year ‘transition’ period of Change

Management based on agile, enlightened partnership between public and private sectors

• Test modelling on new teaching and learning approaches in new environments

• Huge programme of CPD for teachers and school staff

• New forms of Governance

Transformation• Significant rise in international links• Develop new frameworks for

assessment• Trial new diplomas• Embed role of education in wider

regeneration • Significant increase in enterprise

based activity

“Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized.

Make big plans, aim high in hope and work…Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty”

(Daniel Burnham, explaining the Chicago Urban Plan, 1909)

The best way to predict the future is to invent

it