LARGE-SCALE project - Kingsley

Kingsley Primary School is a large oversubscribed Primary School with 700 pupils and is set to grow with a further form of entry through the addition of a further reception class in September 2009

The school's intake is a mix of established white working class and first generation diverse immigrant groups with large English as a Foreign Language need. Pupils enter the school with well below average attainment and leave with average attainment.

The school is in an area of high deprivation. Despite this, it has a very positive atmosphere, and good relations with its community.

The school building is a solid constructed 1930's build, and originally accommodated primary to 14 year olds. It is within BB99 guidelines but the space is inefficient with space in classes tight; whilst a number of the corridors are very wide. Where possible, teachers 'buddy' up with two classes joined by a shared middle space, used for storage and activity.

The school has a large number of external agencies working on site, as well as offering various community services, such as ICT training to parents through Learn Direct.

Personalised learning /School ethos
The school ethos is to 'educate the whole child'. linking Every Child Matters to their thinking around the importance of not looking at a child in isolation of his or her experiences. They believe that before you can start to make good 'academic' progress, you need to meet the emotional needs of any child, working within the social structures within which he or she exists.

Inclusion is a running theme in the school, extending to engagement with the community and parents. Various programmes are run in school and as far as possible everything is delivered on the school site, notably with in house emotional counselling service.

The school is concerned around the new expansion in student numbers and is interested in how to maintain what they do well in spite of current and future external changes.

The school believes that the softer/pastoral aspects are key to supporting any approach to personalised learning and therefore this side of the school experience must be solid before any real and lasting impact can be made elsewhere.

The Project
The school is receiving an undefined amount of capital funding for a refurbishment through the Primary Capital Programme, and the Space for Personalised Learning project is supporting decision making around this. This will connect in with more minor works currently taking place looking at Key Stage 1, which are in design phase at the moment to deal with the immediate form of entry expansion. The project is likely to involve remodelling with a view to solving the inefficiencies of BB99 compliant school before any further building work takes place, whilst also meeting, as best as possible the school's vision for personalised learning and dovetailing into the Local Authorities build procedures and demand for pupils places.

The S4PL project is focussing on creating a Masterplan within the BB99 guidelines to support personalised learning. In keeping with the school's values and ethos the output from the Personalised Learning workshops supported the notion of pupils group identity as a priority to support pastoral as well as academic/skills development. This was felt as crucial given the schools intake and understanding of the needs of their pupils. The school also felt that, for the most part, teachers were trying to deliver Teaching and Learning in a more personalised method than the space was supporting and therefore some of the aspirations for classroom delivery will be improvements/ continued development of existing good practice, such as teachers sharing space already, whilst also developing new approaches that new space may enable.

The Design team is focussing on the concept of year hubs as the foundation for development of the brief and the school is currently engaged in determining the nature of these hubs with particular focus onY2 which has the most pressing need for development. It is hoped that the hub model will meet a number of aspects that will support the schools delivery of Personalised learning including;

- Enhance team teaching
- Create a greater variety of spaces available to each year group
- Reduce circulation around the school
- Improve connection and inclusion between staff and students at the year group level, reducing the sense of belonging to a 'class' and creating a further year group identity
- Support a human scale experience for pupils as the school continues to grow
- Create more freedom for teachers within their year around timings, activities and group sizes
- Improve on site security of access allowing for ease of access to and encouragement in the use of community and extended schools facilities