Our audit of local need indicates the following ‘drivers’ for change:

• Further improve STANDARDS in schools;
• Improve and modernise SCHOOL buildings;
• Reduce SURPLUS places;
• Improve SERVICES to schools, families and young people;
• Secure greater SOCIAL inclusion and cohesion.

To deliver on this agenda, radical and innovative measures need to be taken with respect to secondary school provision and design.

Standards
Secondary school performance in North East Lincolnshire, when compared with national results, shows lower rankings than in primary schools where performance remains close to the national median.

For Key Stage 3, results in 2003, though higher in absolute terms than in 2002, did not improve at the same rate as those nationally. Consequently our position in the ‘national league’ fell from 115th to 124th.

For Key Stage 3, North East Lincolnshire results are well in the lowest quartile with a position on the 83rd percentile. Performance in the three core subjects is, on average, 8.3% below the national median.

For Key Stage 4, results fell between 2002 and 2003 on all three key measures.

The proportion of students attaining five good GCSE’s fell two percentage points and at 35%, places North East Lincolnshire 146th (fourth from the bottom) on the ‘national league’. This is the lowest ranking ever for North East Lincolnshire, placing the LEA on the 97th percentile.

The proportion of students achieving five GCSE’s of any grade (87%) and the proportion with no passes (6.5%) rank North East Lincolnshire in the third quartile nationally.

Seven schools are performing below the 2006 floor target (see attached sheet).

School Buildings
The overall condition of school buildings is poor. Devolved capital to schools has been necessarily spent on patching and mending rather than on enhancing provision. The total value of backlog repairs at first and second priority levels in the Asset Management Plan stands at £22M

Systems buildings from the 1960’s and 1970’s are now coming to the end of their projected life. Other buildings suffer from rotting frames and leaking roofs. The current condition of school buildings is not conducive to the highest quality of teaching and learning.

The design of school buildings is not best suited to effective teaching and learning and the requirements of a modern curriculum. Schools are ‘making do’ by re-designating the use of spaces with minor remodelling projects but these are second best solutions and continue to present barriers to learning.

Over half of teaching spaces remain inaccessible to the physically disabled. Again schools are putting in place second best solutions to ensure access to the full curriculum.

Surplus Places
Figures presented in the School Organisation Plan project over 1000 surplus places in secondary schools by 2008.

This brings risks to both the educational and economic viability of those schools subject to the steepest decline. This proposal factors in the need to reduce places by replacing four of our twelve existing schools with three new learning centres. The consequences of reducing the number of schools will be seen in increased funding to those remaining.

Services to schools, families and young people
Though the education and childcare functions are already combined in a single directorate, there is an urgent need to improve efficiency and effectiveness at the service delivery end. The Council’s recovery plan makes direct reference to this point. This proposal operationalises plans for multi-agency working by providing out-reach locations on the ten new learning centre campuses. The proposal is a significant part of the Council’s response to the Green Paper, ‘Every Child Matters’.

Social Inclusion and cohesion
High levels of poverty coupled with low aspirations characterise a high proportion of wards in North East Lincolnshire.

Average free school meal eligibility = 21.3%
Highest single school free school meal eligibility = 43.7%

20% of North East Lincolnshire population live in the wards described as the 10% most deprived in England.

Education plays a significant part in providing pathways out of poverty. This proposal that creates community learning centres addresses head on the issues of access and engagement with learning.

The outcomes of this project will be to:

• Improve standards overall, especially in the lower performing schools;
  Remove 1000 surplus places;
• Increase levels of per-pupil funding;
• Address the poor state of buildings and other problems identified in our Asset Management Plan;
• Improve sports and recreational provision for schools and their communities;
• Improve cultural facilities for school and their communities;
• Improve working conditions for teachers and learners;
• Reduce long term maintenance and running costs;
• Provide on-site integrated support services to young people, their families and schools;
• Make all school buildings accessible to those with mobility difficulties;
  Benefit teacher retention and recruitment;
• Deliver high quality learning opportunities within and beyond the school in a more cost efficient manner.
• Exploit all the benefits of e-learning