The great thing about principle-centred development is that your principles act as a kind of compass and point you in the right direction but you don’t actually know where you will end up or what you will find when you get there; you just know that it will be, well, right!
Take just two of our principles and associated values:
- Personalisation - and 'community-based learning'
- Accountability - and 'value-for-money'
We take seriously Charles Leadbeater’s view that schools are the last great ‘Fordist’ institutions in our society, where large numbers of people come together at the same time and place (often at the sound of a bell - but not at Biddenham for over a decade!) and go into standard box-shaped classrooms and engage in fragmented learning (art, or maths or geography or science) and an hour later, usually at the sound of another bell, they go into another box and start all over again on a completely unrelated piece of learning (see Sir Ken Robinson's penetrating critique on TED.com).
So when we ran out of space for our sixth form (the ‘fastest growing in the eastern region’; LSC) we decided to look outside of the school. At the time there were 200,000 square feet of empty office space in the borough so with the agreement of the LA we went looking for an office block and we found one a mile away – the three-storey ‘Stewart House’ (near where Bromham Road meets Shakespeare Road).
It had been empty for 18 months and was a bit dishevelled but nothing a lick of paint would not put right - so we joined forces with St Johns Special School (with whom we do everything!) and the LA, and we began to negotiate a six-year lease. As the ink dried on the contract, and we moved in on 1st January 2010 to start our refurbishments, someone broke in and stole a short length of copper pipe from the water tank on the second floor. It released 4,000 gallons of water into the building and the water ran for four days before someone noticed the incongruous site of a ground frost and a building with steamed up windows, and then they noticed the water running out of the walls.
Inside it was a sorry and depressing sight of devastation – ceilings down, carpets and furniture ruined, and both electrics and lift inoperable. (Everyone who said, 'It will never work' - and there were a few - gave a rueful 'I told you so!' smile.)
Luckily however, it was insured and £120,000 and nine months later we have one of the most exciting buildings imaginable for the meagre cost of the lease. It comprises:
- St Johns FE Annex.
- A ‘pin-drop’ silent study area with 23 PCs.
- Teaching areas for the Social Sciences (Psychology, Sociology, Health and Social Care etc), Travel and Tourism, some English and Work Skills lessons.
- A Conference Centre and suite of meeting/study rooms.
- An Individualised Study Centre (for potential excludees – in association with our local Pupil Referral Unit).
- A state-of-the-art joint Sixth Form Common Room with St Johns (with obligatory pool table!).
As with all serendipitous development like this, suddenly doors open and other things begin to 'just happen'. Perhaps the most exciting opportunity that has presented itself is the development of a post-16 'twilight' Languages Centre. On the basis of just one visit to the facilities from Cambridge University, we were designated - on the day - as an Eastern Region 'Language Link' Centre. As a result, from November we will be delivering post-16 courses in Mandarin and Italian as well as French, German, Spanish, Polish and Urdu which are already taking place. It will also be a centre for the training of Language Assistants. In short, it holds out the promise of meeting the need for 'Languages' development in the town and regenerating languages at the school and hopefully across Bedford.
So there you have it – principle-centred development ‘rocks’ - and we have a new Sixth Form Centre!
If you want to visit or find out more (perhaps even hire a part of it!) contact the Centre Manager – Lucy Towers on 01234 342521 and she will be happy to help
More soon!
Mike Berrill
Principal, Biddenham International School & Specialist Sports College
