Southampton Schools' future: The Council report - part 4

54. The decision maker is advised that LA officers, the existing schools and the promoters share the view that the effective implementation of this decision is dependant on the decision making timetable being adhered to. Any delay which prevented the timely appointment of a headteacher and staff, or the efficient administration of the 2008 admissions round would require a deferral of the implementation date to be considered.

Implementation: project management 55. The successful promoter of each of the new schools will need to have a project manager in place without delay to take responsibility for ensuring that all the necessary steps are taken prior to the opening of the schools. It will be necessary for someone to be the public face of each of the new schools from the date of the decision through to the formal establishment of the schools on 1st September 2008.

Implementation: establishment of temporary governing body/governing board/governing council 56. The governing body, board or council (the terminology and role varies between categories of school) plays a key role in any school, setting policy, and top-level performance targets, leading on headteacher appointments, acting as critical friend to the headteacher, providing an important interface between the school, the community and other stakeholders. The governance arrangements are different for different categories of school, and even within a particular category there is considerable scope regarding the composition of the governing body.

Whatever the details, it is critically important that the successful promoter of each of the new schools establishes a temporary governing body as soon as possible.

Implementation: appointment of headteacher 57. Headteachers are critical to the success of any school, particularly so in the context of setting up a new school. The task of designing a curriculum and staffing structure, and having a range of policies in place in advance must begin before the school opens. It is therefore imperative that steps are taken to recruit a headteacher at the earliest possible opportunity.

58. It is required that any headteacher post is filled following national advertisement.

It would be expected that the successful promoter would advertise the vacancy as soon as possible following this decision. The appointment process itself would take place in Autumn, and be completed no later than 31st October. This is the latest date any teacher or deputy headteacher may resign in order to take up a new post on 1st January 2008. In the case of a serving headteacher they would normally need to resign by 30th September 2007 to take up a new post on 1st January 2008. If they miss that resignation deadline they may be required to 15 serve in their current post until the end of the Spring Term 2008.

59. Having a headteacher in post is critical for a number of other processes, notably the appointment of all the other staff in the school. It can be seen therefore, that any delay in taking the decision which is the subject of this report could have very significant implications for the headteacher recruitment process, and thus for the successful establishment of the new schools.

Implementation: the admissions process 60. Parents of pupils who are in Year 6 (top year of primary school) in the school year 2007-08 will have to start considering their options for secondary schooling in September 2007. This is when schools issue their prospectuses and when Southampton City Councils admissions booklets are distributed to all parents of the relevant cohorts of children. Parents normally have the opportunity of going to open evenings at local secondary schools before they complete their application which must be received by Southampton City Council by the third week of October. From this it can be seen that the successful promoter for each of the schools will need to start work on their prospectus almost immediately.

They will need to agree an arrangement with the headteachers of the closing schools about how open evenings could be held, and they will need to decide how the new school would be represented at such an open evening, given that it will not have a headteacher or any other staff designated at that point. This will mean the promoter organisation will have to take a leading role in representing the school. Any significant delay to the decision which is the subject of this report would potentially have very serious consequences for the effective management of the admissions process at the two new schools.

Details of the effect on the balance of provision for boys and girls in the area and details of the transitional period to be included in any Transitional Exemption Order under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 61. This applies to the proposal for The Sholing Technology College. Given that Grove Park Business and Enterprise College (a boys school) will be closed, to be replaced with a mixed school, provision on the east of the city will be wholly mixed if the reports recommendations are accepted. There will therefore be a balance of provision.

62. The Transitional Exemption Order will apply for admissions to year 7 at The Sholing Technology College until the admissions year commencing September 2012. This is to ensure that current all girl year groups already admitted to the school remain single sex. It is the judgement of the local authority, headteacher and governors that this approach is most likely to ensure an effective transition of the school from single sex to mixed status.

63. It should be noted that this process will not be the same for New School East, because it will be formed following the closure of a boys' school and a mixed school at which there is a significant majority of boys. This means that all year groups will be mixed, but with a preponderance of boys in the year groups inherited from the predecessor schools. It will nevertheless be theoretically possible for girls to be admitted to all year groups. In practice this is unlikely to happen to any great extent because all the available places are likely to be filled by current pupils, thus limiting the opportunity for further admissions.

16 Details of proposals for the transfer of pupils at closing schools and an assessment of the quality of the education provision to which they are transferring 64. All pupils at Millbrook Community School and Oaklands Community School will transfer to New School West. The quality of education at that school will be a key consideration in the decision of Cabinet on which promoter be asked to set up the new school.

65. All pupils at Grove Park Business and Enterprise College and Woolston School Language College will transfer to New School East. The quality of education at that school will similarly be a key consideration in the decision of Cabinet on which promoter be asked to set up the new school.

66. In each case this is without prejudice to the right of parents to express a preference for an alternative school, and to be allocated a place if one is available.

Summary of the evaluation process 67. An assessment team was convened to examine the proposals from the various promoters of the new school. This team comprised: hnSue Allan (Head of Childrens and Families Services) in relation to Every Child Matters Outcomes hnTony Bates (Manager Training and Employment Initiatives) in relation to community learning and research into the background and track record of the promoter organisations hnMadeleine Cato (Deputy Manager Community Cohesion) in relation to community cohesion, inclusion and equal opportunities issues hnJim Grainger (School Organisation Consultant) in relation to admissions and school organisation issues hnRichard Hickman (Asset Manager, Property Services) in relation to property issues hnAndy Lowe (Head of Accountancy) in relation to Finance issues hnSarita Riley (Senior Solicitor (Corporate)) in relation to legal issues hnDominique Shore (HR Adviser) in relation to employment and HR issues hnRosemary Tong (Head of Learning Services) in relation to Standards and School Improvement, Special Educational Needs and 14-19 learning The assessment team was coordinated by Andrew Hind (Head of Strategic Development), and chaired by Clive Webster (Director of Childrens Services and Learning.

68. The assessment was made with reference to the statutory guidance and locally determined criteria, including the specification for the new schools set out in the statutory notices of 6th December 2006. A number of meetings were held between 29th May 2007 and 4th June 2007. In addition to the written information provided by the promoters, the assessment team conducted a two hour interview with each promoter to investigate their proposals in detail and clarify any areas of 17 uncertainty. The report of the assessment team can be found at Appendix 1.

69. Recommendation (xiii) commissions further feasibility studies into the potential relocation of three secondary schools in Southampton, in each case to take the opportunity of better access to playing fields to provide the optimum long term site for the school.

70. The aspiration to relocate of New School West to the Five Acre Field site was indicated in the notice for the New School competition. Initial discussions with planners indicate that such a move would be possible. Further detailed work is required, involving the successful promoter of New School West to establish the feasibility of the proposal, and to investigate potential linkages with the Cedar School and primary school provision. This would give the new school immediate access to very extensive playing fields.

71. The aspiration to relocate Regents Park Community College to the St Marks CE Junior Schools site to form a campus with St Marks and to make use of the former Civil Service sports Ground as playing fields has been broadly supported and initial work has been done to establish a dialogue between interested stakeholders including the current owner of the former sports ground. Further feasibility work is required, including investigation of the potential for developing a Learning Campus with St Marks. This would give access to extensive playing fields, and help to secure the sports ground for long term community use.

72. The potential of relocating The Sholing Technology College into the Itchen College building (if Itchen College is successful in its own relocation) is under investigation. All the relevant stakeholders are already involved in discussions.

Further feasibility work is required, including investigation of the potential for developing a Learning Campus with Sholing Infant and Junior Schools. This would give access to more extensive playing fields than those on the current TSTC site, and would be a good location for a multi purpose Campus situated centrally in Sholing.

73. Building Schools for the Future (BSF) is a government programme intended to renew secondary school buildings throughout the country. Southampton is scheduled to be part of Waves 7 to 9, which begin in 2009. This does not mean that capital resources would be released in 2009, but that the complex process of defining and agreeing the scope of the proposed investment would begin. This process takes a substantial period. The first task to be undertaken is to develop the authoritys Strategy for Change, which would show how BSF would contribute to the transformation of standards. Because of the comprehensive nature of the Learning Futures Secondary Review Southampton City Council will be in a particularly good position to produce its Strategy for Change. It is therefore recommended that the Secretary of State for Education and Skills is asked to agree the inclusion of the city in the BSF programme at the earliest possible date.