Now the hard work is under way

AS BULLDOZERS rumbled onto the site of Baildon's Salt Grammar School, Bradford Council toasted some of the first concrete evidence of its schools revolution taking shape.

The transition from a three-tier to two-tier education system has been anything but smooth so far.

The immense scheme has been dogged by controversy from the outset with Bradford Council coming under intense criticism from all sides.

Teachers have complained that the plans have left them with an uncertain future. Parents say the changes may drastically cut the choice of schools open to their children.

Opposition councillors have ridiculed the whole episode as a fiasco, sounding outrage when they discovered it was £47 million short of funding.

But Bradford Council has readily admitted change on such a massive scale would be bitter pill to swallow - but that the results in the end would more than make up for it. It highlighted the success at other areas such as Oxford which had passed through the turmoil and was now enjoying great success.

It would have required nothing short of a miracle to ensure the whole programme at Bradford went without a glitch. The sheer scale of the operation - closing 74 schools, disrupting the education of 84,000 children at a cost of £171 million - was never going to be easy.

The scheme to rid Bradford of its middle schools and bring its education system into the 21st Century was the biggest challenge the local authority has ever had to face.

Within six months of David Blunkett, the Education Secretary, giving it his blessing, the transition had already run into serious difficulties.

A mix-up between Bradford Council and contractors meant there were not enough classrooms delivered to first schools which were making the step to primary school status. The result was children forced to stay at home and furious backlash from the parents affected.

At a number of schools head teachers were told to block off fire exits of the mobile classrooms because the steps to the doorways, around five feet off the ground, had not been delivered.

Soon afterwards, the Council announced that children at many of the new primary and secondary schools would remain in temporary classrooms for longer than expected because the improvements and extensions to schools had been delayed. At first it was thought 70 mobile rooms would be needed but this number more than doubled to 155.

Funding has been another key issue where the Council has been fiercely attacked. The future of the whole programme was thrown into doubt in December when the Council admitted it would require £171 million to complete it, not the £124 million as originally estimated. At the time, Council leader Ian Greenwood said he could not explain the shortfall and called for a meeting with Government ministers to thrash out a solution. In February, the Council sounded a collective sigh of relief as the Government approved its application for a further £23 million loan to bridge the funding shortfall. The rest of the cash will be made up by the sale of Council land and property as well as procurement savings.

And it is not only the bricks and mortar which have been affected by the changes.

More than 30 headteachers and a further 20 deputies announced they were to quit their jobs as the system was slimmed down to two tiers. The teachers said they would rather take voluntary redundancy than compete for jobs in the new primary and secondary schools. And while Bradford Council gave a no compulsory redundancy guarantee to teachers, language support staff last month demanded to know why they were excluded from the deal.

So the Council had good reason to celebrate the start of building work at Salt Grammar School as the time for talking ended and action began.

The conversion of the Higher Coach Road site means it will be equipped take on an extra 500 pupils at the start of the new term in September.

Under the fast-track building programme, much of the building work on the 26-classroom extension will be carried out off-site. The developers will ready much of the work before transporting it from its 60-acre production base in York. It is planned this will speed up the completion date as well as minimise disruptions to the school and local community.

Workmen have already begun pulling down the now redundant temporary classrooms which were brought into the school more than 25 years ago.

Diana Cavanagh, director of education at Bradford Council, said: "The work on Salt Grammar is a major step towards our aim to deliver the new education system in its entirety as soon as we possibly can."

She added: "Education is at the heart of the district's 2020 Vision plan and if we are to deliver the standard of education our young people need to prepare them for the future then we need to provide the right surroundings."

"The education authority will be working very closely with heads, teachers, governors and contractors to ensure that, ultimately, we will have the type of schools we all want for pupils throughout Bradford."

The Council is now in the process of appointing contractors for 19 other schools, five secondary and 14 primaries, which are also being fast-tracked.

School aims to raise extra £45,000 for more classes

Staff, governors and parents at Ilkley's All Saints School have launched a campaign to raise £45,000 for much-needed facilities for their brand new school.

Under the Bradford education reorganisation from a three to a two-tier education system, the school, as a new primary, will move from its present site on Leeds Road to a new location on Skipton Road, which has been earmarked for 35 years.

But when £2 million plans for the new school were unveiled, they included only a basic design of 11 classrooms for 11 classes.

The new buildings - which will open in September 2001 - had no extra rooms for small group work or other activities outside the classroom, such as teaching special needs, literacy and numeracy groups. There is also no designated space for music and information technology.

Luci Smith, a fundraising campaign organiser and parent and governor at the school, said: "The new plans meet basic needs but restrict the school's ability to stretch pupils to their limits and prepare them for the demands of an increasingly competitive world. The building plans are two rooms short of a much better school."

The school has now turned for help to the community of Ilkley for the extension more than a century after the original school was built from a public subscription of £2,000.

Head teacher Peter Marsh said: "For a school for the new Millennium, we feel we need these extra facilities. So we thought we would try to provide them ourselves."

And Mrs Smith said: "The extra rooms could be rented, out of school hours, by community groups seeking education for all, and a place to meet or study. All Saints could be a focal point for education in the town."

Organisers of the campaign will be staging a series of fund-raising activities in the town, ranging from a sponsor a brick campaign to an auction of promises on May 25.

Parents have already donated £7,000 to the building fund and, as a last resort, the school has been offered loans to cover the rest of the cash if the money is not raised, but would like to avoid getting off to a fresh start burdened by debt.

Angela Drizi, head of the schools reorganisation, said the original template for primary schools in the district, which was submitted to the Government, had included dedicated space for information technology(ICT).

"We didn't allocate dedicated space for things such as music because at primary level this is usually taught within the normal classroom.

"Unfortunately, the ICT part of the template was turned down by the Department for Education so we were unable to include this when drawing up plans for new primary schools or extensions.

"However, it is encouraging to hear that parents and staff at All Saints want to contribute to the school's facilities and we would welcome the chance to work with them to incorporate their ideas if they succeed in raising the money."

Donations can be made in person or by post to: All Saints Building Fund, All Saints Primary School, Leeds Road, Ilkley, LS29 8EF.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.