A proposed strategy for the future of Cumbria's primary schools was approved at a meeting of the county council's Cabinet yesterday (Tuesday 10 June).
In order to meet the tight deadlines laid out nationally by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), the proposed strategy will now be submitted in draft form to the DCSF on June 16, pending approval at a Full Council meeting on June 26.
If the DCSF then approves the proposals, Cumbria will receive initial capital funding of £12.3 million to spend on rebuilding and refurbishing primary schools, between 2009 and 2011. Further funding could also follow, up to 2022, if the DCSF are satisfied that their criteria is being addressed.
The DCSF launched its new 'Primary Capital Initiative' in December 2007, with a six-month deadline for local authority submissions. This represented an extremely tight timescale, and meant that the time available to consult on a draft strategy was equally tight.
Yesterday, Cabinet approved a revised document to go forward to the DCSF, which has taken into account the views expressed during the consultation.
At this stage, the document gives only a number of suggested principles and strategies that could be used to shape Cumbria's primary schools for the future.
Whilst one of the issues that needs to be addressed is the question of falling pupil numbers in the county, the strategy is not at this stage about proposing closing schools. Instead, it is more about looking at different ways that schools could operate together - for example, in clusters.
Cabinet has also recommended to Full Council that three Barrow primary schools should be considered for the first tranche of money - up to £12.3 million. These are:
- Vickerstown - rebuild (where the school is completely rebuilt)
- Barrow Island - remodelling (where the school will be refurbished and restructured so that it can accommodate future needs)
- St George's - remodelling
Feasibility studies of these projects will be carried out in the coming months.
Any schools picked for the first round of money need to fit certain criteria:
- standards need to be raised
- there are relatively high levels of deprivation
- the existing buildings are poor and not conducive to 21st Century learning and teaching methods
- the schools concerned are of a reasonable size, serve a specific community, have a fairly static pupil roll and are unlikely to be affected significantly by any future school reorganisation in the local area.
The council expects to hear whether or not the plans for these schools, along with the revised primary strategy document, have been approved by the DCSF some time in the autumn. Money will then be allocated by Government for specific schemes.
Jim Buchanan is the county council's cabinet member for children's wellbeing. He said:
"The timescale for producing these strategies was extremely tight, but it was not of our making; despite this we did manage to get an extremely large number of responses.
"A lot of work has, over the past few weeks, gone into making sure the strategy document reflect the views expressed during the consultation.
"We are now able to take this forward, and hopefully release funds for rebuilding and refurbishing the three Barrow schools.
"This concentration of resources, along with the work that is being undertaken in the secondary sector, will help to lead to a wider transformation of education and learning in Barrow."
"I cannot stress strongly enough that this initial strategy document concentrates on principles and guidelines, rather than setting down proposals for changes to specific schools in specific areas.
"That will only be done through working closely with individual local communities, and with exhaustive public consultation."
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