Transcript Towards a Sustainable School Estate

Education and Children’s Services Directorate
Executive Committee – 15th April 2014
Towards a Sustainable School Estate
Phase 2
Background Information
Masterton Primary School
Pitcorthie Primary School
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Rationale for proposals a safe and sustainable school estate
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Declining rolls within some areas of Dunfermline
Increasing rolls within some areas of Dunfermline
Deterioration in condition of a significant number of school buildings:
£2.6 m urgent works
£60.4 m essential works
£9.8 m desirable works
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Total £72.8m
Inefficient buildings with high energy and repair costs
Demands of the new curriculum
Requirement to be agile and responsive to economic development and housing plans
Catchment anomalies
Our ambition is to have schools that are fit for purpose and make suitable
and efficient learning environments for children, young people and other
learners now and in the future
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Ensure efficiency and sustainability long term
Remove surplus places, where possible
Improve the condition and suitability overall of the school estate
Use our resources wisely
Reduce our carbon footprint
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The key principles for consideration in the review:
a) every school should be rated as A or B for both
condition and suitability to include a number of
accessible schools in each geographical area.
b) schools should have an occupancy rate greater
than 60%, occupancy and efficiency range of 80100%, schools should have a minimum of 3
classes, where possible schools should have a
minimum roll of 50 pupils
(c) a strategy for a sustainable school estate should
support the progressive reduction in the overall
carbon footprint for the Council.
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EDUCATION, SOCIAL AND COMMUNITIES SCRUTINY COMMITTEE
– 18TH MARCH 2014
Decision – Masterton proposal
The Committee was content to express the following comments to the
Executive Committee:-
a)
that the parents of all schools involved in the consultation process be
commended for their appreciation for a need for a change to catchment
areas in South Dunfermline;
b)
the balance of parental view was close with no clear preference for Options
A and B;
c)
if Option B were chosen then the current joint catchment area would apply,
allowing a period for change for families but concern and anxieties would
continue;
d)
secondary catchments should be considered sooner rather than later to
alleviate concerns arising from changes to primary school catchment areas;
and
e)
the Scrutiny Committee held no determined view on preference between
Option A or Option B.
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Educational Benefits – Masterton PS
• The proposal reduces the number of children entitled to attend
Masterton Primary School, removing uncertainty for many parents and
reducing the constant pressure for the school and officer staff in
constantly managing the situation.
• Increasing rolls at Canmore and Pitreavie Primary Schools will result
in children learning and socialising with a large number of children of
a similar age.
• Canmore and Pitreavie Primary Schools will benefit from a substantial
planned investment, including remodelling of internal areas, upgrading
of toilets, improved visual appearance and upgraded ICT. These
investments will improve the condition and suitability of Canmore and
Pitreavie.
• This proposal provides a long term sustainability option for Canmore,
Pitreavie and Masterton schools securing a best value estate.
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Masterton Proposal –
Why the need for a rezoning of catchment areas?
• Ensure school estate is sustainable long term for future housing and
future pupils
• Masterton Primary can’t accommodate all of the children expected
from future housing developments
• Neighbouring Pitreavie and Canmore primary schools have spare
capacity and require investment in their buildings
• Be responsive to population changes: Masterton catchment area has
a higher pupil product than Pitreavie and Canmore
• Alleviate anxiety that currently exists for families in waiting to find out
if they have been allocated a place at Masterton
• Over time, aim to match the pupil populations within the catchments
to the physical capacities of the schools
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House building and planning school places
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Development Plans – describe where development will take place and
where it will not. Consists of local plans and strategic development plans
(SESplan).
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Fife Local Development Plan - candidate sites required to meet SESplan
housing targets. Planning obligations would be requested to contribute
towards education provision.
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Fife Council affordable housing programme.
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Housing Land Audit – monitors housing completions and predicts future
house building. Updated annually, this is the key document for expected
new housing. Regular liaison with planning teams.
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The Directorate is confident that information from all possible sources and
the range of planning processes have been used to enable us to plan
accurately for the impact of house building on school places.
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The process has been significantly adapted and improved in the last 3
years.
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Proposed Housing in the existing Masterton PS catchment area
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Existing Nursery pupils affected in August 2015 and August 2016
– with older siblings currently attending Masterton PS
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Masterton, Canmore and Pitreavie
Existing School roll projections before catchment review
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Canmore, Masterton and Pitreavie
School roll projections after catchment review
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Planning of school placements
School Roll Projections – Annual Process
• Roll projection methodology
– Pre-school children - NHS Community Health Index (CHI)
– P1 intake including placing requests
– Existing school rolls and capacities
– Proposed housing and additional pupils
– Pupil migration between school stages (P1-S4)
– Pupil transfer rates (P7-S1) and staying-on rates (S5/S6)
– External constraints - population projections (from National Records
for Scotland)
• Internal reviews
– roll projection methodology has been developed over 5 years, is
flexible and robust
– roll projection methodology was validated by Finance & Asset
Management (July 2009) and by Corporate Improvement Team
(February 2013)
– Report presented to Education Scrutiny Committee (May 2013)
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Issues
• Siblings-families can be in a local area school together
• All schools have established traffic management and travel plans.
We will work with families to identify safe routes to school.
• We know and have planned for, all possible housing developments in
the new, reduced Masterton PS catchment area
• All classes in Fife are managed to provide best value pupil/teacher
ratios in accordance with Scottish Government class size guidance.
• Eventually the catchments will match the school population.
Reducing the Masterton PS catchment area does not provide an
instant solution but it does alleviate anxiety, creating a more
manageable situation.
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Pitcorthie PS - The key principles for consideration in the review:
a) every school should be rated as A or B for both condition
and suitability to include a number of accessible schools
in each geographical area.
b) schools should have an occupancy rate greater than
60%, occupancy and efficiency range of 80-100%,
schools should have a minimum of 3 classes, where
possible schools should have a minimum roll of 50 pupils.
(c) a strategy for a sustainable school estate should support
the progressive reduction in the overall carbon footprint
for the Council.
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Education and Children’s Services Directorate
EDUCATION, SOCIAL AND COMMUNITIES SCRUTINY COMMITTEE
– 18TH MARCH 2014
Decision – Pitcorthie PS
The Committee was content to express the following views to the Executive
Committee:a) the case for closure of Pitcorthie Primary School did not meet the guiding
principles for closure in the Sustainable School Estate Programme except in the
initial analysis of the condition of the building;
b) the structural issues at Pitcorthie Primary School were not imminently
significant;
c) the long term future of the building beyond 3/5 years required a decision to be
made regarding potential strengthening and refurbishment which could be costly
and disruptive for pupils and the whole school community;
d) a further investigation should be undertaken regarding the structure of the
building to address issues which were under dispute; and
e) that there were significant pressures on school places in Dunfermline South
overall as well as spare places and this required further examination prior to any
decision being made about closure.
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Educational Benefits
Pitcorthie Children
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Increased opportunities to develop friendships with others from a wider geographical area
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A well-managed change of school rather than a reactive change should the structure fail
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Children in a building which has a long term sustainable future A managed approach avoiding
emergency decant for children which would would lead to disruption to learning
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Reduction in the disruption to learning and teaching caused by extensive repair work in
Pitcorthie for at least 3 school sessions. This would also involve a reduction in the current
provision eg. playground space, full building accessibility.
Children of receiving schools
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Increased opportunities to develop friendships with others from a wider geographical area
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A planned spend at Commercial of £580K enhancing learning spaces, upgrading toilets and
improving the visual environment of the school
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A planned spend at Lynburn of £480K upgrading school facilities and improving the visual
environment of the school
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A planned spend at Touch of £230K upgrading school facilities
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At all receiving schools an additional investment of £100K on upgrading ICT
Children in the Dunfermline Area
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A long term sustainability option for Commercial, Lynburn, Touch and Camdean Primary
Schools
More efficient use of resources resulting in an increased ‘best value’ approach for Fife
The school estate providing savings rather than educational resources or staffing
A planned spend at Camdean PS of £900K upgrading school facilities and providing a specially
designed and resourced Pupil Support Centre.
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New Lynburn Early Years Facility
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First class, purpose built “Early Years Centre” supporting families from birth to 5
years and developing high quality engagement with parents, eg. parenting
programmes, adult learning, baby massage and literacy programmes.
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Early Years department focussing on supporting and nurturing early years
pupils, pre-school, and nurturing facility for pupils in one designated area of the
school (programmed completion August 2015):
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Accommodation for 160 nursery pupils (3 and 4 year olds) 80 places morning, 80
places afternoon
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Family activity space, with kitchen area
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Nurture room for 0-2 year olds (15 x 2.8 = 42m2) and family nurture
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Access to an secure external play area
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Parents meeting room with tea making facilities
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New secure entrance
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Existing nursery to be converted back to an infant teaching area, to
accommodate 3 infant classes
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Housing in centre of Dunfermline
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Commercial, Pitcorthie, Lynburn, Touch primary schools
- school places in existing accommodation
Roll 2013
Capacity
Occupancy
Surplus
Places
Commercial Primary
325
434
75%
109
Lynburn Primary
185
292
63%
107
Pitcorthie Primary
298
410
73%
112
Touch Primary
325
459
71%
134
1133
1595
71%
462
School
Total
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Commercial, Pitcorthie, Lynburn, Touch primary schools
- school places after Pitcorthie closure
Roll 2015
Capacity
Occupancy
Surplus
Places
Commercial Primary
450
509
88%
59
Lynburn Primary
401
559
72%
158
Pitcorthie Primary
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354
459
77%
105
1205
1527
79%
322
School
Touch Primary
Total
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PITCORTHIE PRIMARY SCHOOL STRUCTURAL CONDITION
UPDATE – APRIL 2014
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A programme of monitoring and inspections was initiated in 2010 at all
Stahlton schools including Pitcorthie with six monthly programmed visits by
ArupScotland.
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In 2010 it was recommended that some form of action should be taken
within 3 to 5 years (we are currently in year 4).
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Safety was our primary concern - a risk assessment was carried out and the
following measures were taken to mitigate the risk:
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plywood sheeting was fixed to the underside of the slabs to prevent the possibility of the
concrete blocks falling out, but this is not a structural solution
Weight limits on floors was restricted and heavy items such as pianos were relocated to
ground floors.
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Inspections and monitoring at Pitcorthie have shown no significant new
movement, although there are significant deflections in some areas, and
new cracks have been detected during monitoring.
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Pitcorthie’s structural condition results in an overall condition rating of C.
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PITCORTHIE PRIMARY SCHOOL STRUCTURAL CONDITION
UPDATE – APRIL 2014
• The floor and roof slabs at Pitcorthie PS
were constructed using the Stahlton
system.
• This system uses precast concrete hollow
blocks and pre-stressed concrete planks
combined with an in-situ concrete topping.
• The structural integrity depends upon
adequate temporary propping until the
concrete has cured.
• It has been found to be defective
elsewhere. Problems have included
progressive deflections and sections of
the concrete blocks falling out.
• This system can be found in sections of
13 schools throughout the school estate
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PITCORTHIE PRIMARY SCHOOL STRUCTURAL CONDITION
UPDATE – APRIL 2014
• In order for the building to have a lifespan of a further 30 to 50 years, it
is recommended by ArupScotland, supported by Property Services,
that structural strengthening of the first floor and roof is carried out. This
is a precautionary measure to ensure continued pupil and staff safety
and also protect any investment in the property.
• This work will, by its very nature, be extremely disruptive and it is
proposed that the most intrusive works are carried out over a number of
summer holiday periods. It is further recommended that the opportunity
should be taken at the same time to upgrade other elements of the
building, to include heating and lighting replacement, re-roofing, new
ceilings, floor coverings and full redecoration, which will require
upgrading within the next 10 years. In this way disturbance to the
school will be minimised.
• The projected cost for the combined work and decant is £3m.
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Fix the building – what are the issues?
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Does not address the over capacity issues – 462 surplus places remain in the
area (equates to 1 large or 2 small primary schools)
Difficulties with decant
Disruption to learning and teaching
Challenges for children with Additional Support Needs
Potential family disruption if children attending different schools
Reduced outdoor facilities; parking and access problems
Ongoing building works for longer period, planned around holidays but would also
take place during school term time
Fixing a Stalhton building with the kind of significant structural defects in
Pitcorthie PS has not been carried out before – costs and timescales are
indicative
Would create health and safety challenges
Would limit breadth of the curriculum and range of facilities available
Best Value; only the Pitcorthie present and future pupils (approximately 300
pupils per year) would see the benefit of improving their school
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Officer Recommendation
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To close Pitcorthie PS, resulting in –
1. Educational benefits:
- planned and well managed move for children
- avoidance of disruption of extensive building works
- creation of a first class purpose built “Early Years Centre”
2.
Best Value - present and future pupils of Commercial, Touch, Lynburn
and Pitcorthie pupils will see the benefit (approximately 1133 pupils per
year) of improving the schools. The children of Camdean PS and our
children who attend the Pupil Support Centre, will also benefit from
significant investment
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3.
£2.1m – building
£400k for 4 schools ICT
£1.4m new family nursery/nurture centre estate
More long term sustainable school estate for this area of Dunfermline
Improving educational attainment and achievement for all