Nottingham's Building Schools for the Future programme

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Transforming Nottingham’s Neighbourhoods


The Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme is a major government initiative aimed at rebuilding and renewing school facilities so that every secondary school in England has 21st century facilities.

This transformation programme is aimed at improving every aspect of teaching and learning, as well as providing integrated services to families and pupils so they can take full advantage of the educational opportunities on offer.

In Nottingham, BSF will mean an investment of approximately £180 million to create better secondary and special schools to teach and learn in. There will be an initial investment of over £90m to rebuild and renew buildings, and provide an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) service for eight secondary schools in Nottingham.

inspiredspaces was announced as the Selected Bidder for the Nottingham City BSF project in January 2008 following a lengthy procurement process which began in November 2006. inspiredspaces is the private sector partner in the Local Education Partnership (LEP) along with Nottingham City Council and Building Schools for the Future Investments.  The LEP was formed on 13 June 2008 and will carry out new developments through its supply chain.

inspiredspaces is committed to the delivery of educational transformation through innovative design and ICT solutions. The partnership has developed initiatives which are exciting and different, demonstrating a vision of creating and sustaining educational excellence for the communities of Nottingham City.

The vision for the future

Due to their age, current school buildings in Nottingham struggle to cope with the needs of 21st century learning and this impacts on the ability to improve education for everyone. All new/remodelled buildings will be flexible environments which can adapt easily to future models of curriculum and school organisation.

The new schools will be very different in order to transform education.  The new schools will be in excellent condition, light and airy with natural ventilation, and will be better accessible by pupils with disabilities.  They will be suitable for the delivery of a modern curriculum and the teaching spaces will not consist of standard classrooms but will have breakout areas for individual study and rooms which can open out to create larger spaces.  The school buildings will allow the beneficial use of ICT with proper computer networks and new kit.

Nottingham City Council is a leader in sustainability among local authorities and Carillion’s strength in developing sustainable solutions was an important factor in being selected as partner. Working in partnership with Nottingham City Council, inspiredspaces has created a vision for this project to meet the high standards of sustainable development set by the City Council. For example, on new-build schools bio-diesel combined heat and power technology will enable up to 70% of their energy requirements to be generated on site from renewable sources.

Please click the following link to see a short film on how Nottingham City Council’s ‘visioning process’ involved the whole school community.

http://www.educationnowtv.com/schools/c/featured_films/v/the_visioning_process_trust_ownership_and_challenge/

The Local Education Partnership (LEP)

The LEP will deliver the programme which includes eight secondary schools in the current wave of the BSF programme, primarily through new build with some refurbishment and remodelling.

The LEP will deliver all aspects of the BSF process from inception to completion, helping transform Nottingham City Council’s educational transformation through the procurement of appropriate school accommodation and related services. By creating radically improved school environments and educational climates, in partnership inspiredspaces will create the transformational step change for learners and the wider communities.

The LEP’s core services will include:

  • education visioning;
  • architectural and engineering design;
  • cost management;
  • new project development management;
  • stakeholder and community engagement;
  • community liaison;
  • construction;
  • decant and moves management;
  • facilities management.;
  • ICT design;
  • ICT infrastructure and learning environment;
  • ICT managed service; and
  • integrated helpdesk.

In addition the LEP will provide two new-build Academies with the potential for more, plus the Primary Capital Programme.

The LEP will also deliver further new schools for Nottingham City Council in subsequent waves of the national BSF programme and may deliver other community and regeneration projects, subject to receiving the necessary approvals.

Wave 2 schools

During wave 2 of the national BSF programme, Nottingham will rebuild and remodel eight secondary schools.

Phase 1

The following first three schools are in Phase 1:

  • Rebuild Big Wood School in Top Valley
  • Build a new Oak Field School and Specialist Sports College (Centre of Excellence) on the Harvey Hadden site to replace Aspley Wood and Shepherd Special Schools
  • Complete the refurbishment of Hadden Park High School

Work began on the first phase in the summer of 2008 and will be completed by the end of 2011.

Phase 2

The following schools will be developed in Phase 2:
 

  • Build and expand Farnborough School Technology College
  • Reorganisation of special education:
  • Rosehill Special School Centre of Excellence (Autism)
  • Woodlands and Nethergate School Centre of Excellence (Moderate/complex learning difficulties)
  • Phased part rebuild of Nottingham Bluecoat School (Wollaton site)
  • Phased completion of campus plan of Ellis Guilford School

The likely completion dates of the schools are between 2010 and 2012.

Wave 5 schools

Nottingham City Council has been successful in being included in Wave 5 of the national BSF programme. This will lead to further funding being made available to complete the transformation of secondary and special needs education in the city by renovating the remaining Community Schools and completing the renovation of Special Provision.

Wave 5 will cover:

  • Fernwood Comprehensive
  • Top Valley Comprehensive
  • Trinity Comprehensive
  • Nottingham Bluecoat and Technology College (Aspley site)
  • Manning Girls' School
  • Westbury Special School (EBD)

Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) provision will also be reviewed and new PRUs will be developed in each Learning Zone Area.

It is anticipated that the Wave 5 funding will be similar to that of Wave 2 funding and that all the schools will be completed by 2014.