Double win for Interserve's Leeds BSF in Excellence in BSF Awards

The Leeds' Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, in which Interserve's consortium is advising on programme development as well as building and servicing the new and refurbished schools, has scooped two prestigious awards at the first national annual awards to celebrate the transformation of education.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited Allerton High School, one of those created in the scheme, last week to see for himself the quality of the new facilities.

Separately, an independent survey of parents in Leeds has found that they believe the buildings, grounds and facilities at the BSF schools will have a significant positive impact on their children’s education in comparison to other schools.

In the Excellence in BSF Awards Leeds was in competition with schemes from 19 other local authority areas. Judges from the design community, construction industry and BSF delivery partners presented Leeds with the Best Operational LEP and Innovation in ICT awards.

The city won the Best Operational LEP category thanks to its submission outlining Leeds City Council’s and Education Leeds’ involvement with Interserve’s consortium and the Local Education Partnership (LEP). The partnership has resulted in nearly £40 million being saved through an efficient procurement process which highlighted the strong and effective partnership working within the BSF programme.

The winning submission in the Innovation in ICT category included details about  Leeds’ flexible, creative model for teaching and learning which supports students, the family and their local community. This was highlighted by the state-of-the-art equipment and facilities - such as iPods, PSPs, interactive whiteboards, camcorders and media resources - as well as access to anytime, anywhere, worldwide learning resources via the school network.

The Excellence in BSF awards were organised by Partnerships for Schools (PfS), which is delivering BSF across the UK. Separately PfS commissioned Populus to conduct a survey in October of over 200 parents in Leeds, asking for their views on the range of facilities offered by their child’s school, the state of the buildings and grounds, and whether the school’s design made a positive difference to their child’s education. Among the key findings were:

• 95% of the parents of children who attend a BSF school were happy with the overall state of their school buildings and grounds, compared with 54% of parents whose children attend other schools;
• 92% of ‘BSF parents’ said they were happy with the sport, dance and drama facilities at their child’s school, compared to 74% of ‘non-BSF’ parents;
• 97% of BSF parents were happy (75% very happy) with the IT and computing facilities at their child’s school, compared with 77% (33% very happy) of non-BSF parents;
• 81% of BSF parents would recommend the school to other parents, compared with 72% of non-BSF parents;
• 86% of parents of BSF parents said that flexible learning spaces which can be moved around for different classes – from group teaching to individual learning – would make a big difference to their child’s education, compared to 68% of non-BSF parents; and
• 83% of BSF parents said that wider open spaces make a big difference, compared with 64% of non-BSF parents.

Commenting on the BSF awards, Bob Vince, Interserve’s Director of Education and Chairman of Leeds LEP, said: “Our success to date is due to the co-operation, understanding and hard work of all the individuals from the public and private sectors that have worked together in partnership, utilising their respective skills, for the common goal of improving the life chances of the children of Leeds.”

Chris Edwards, Chief Executive of Education Leeds, said: “It is a fantastic achievement to receive these two awards which are a reflection of the brilliant work being carried out to improve schools through the BSF programme.

“The Leeds BSF partnership has been a huge success because everyone involved shares our vision of creating brilliant learning places where every young person can be happy, healthy, safe and successful.”