Building Schools for the Future

Over the next decade, education and learning opportunities for young people in Hampshire will be transformed.

Hampshire County Council has joined the Government’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, which will see significant investment in the county’s secondary schools.

BSF is the largest national investment programme in education for over 50 years. It aims to create 21st century learning environments to inspire and engage young people, their teachers and the wider community.

Our ambition for change

We have been working closely with schools, young people, parents and local communities to decide how to make the best use of this unique opportunity.  

In addition to investing in school buildings and information communication technology, we aim to make every school effective, excellent, inclusive and a centre of innovation, learning and wellbeing.

We will build on local partnerships to place schools at the heart of their communities to increase school diversity, enhance parental choice, and offer a broader range of local services.

Our plans include providing more opportunities for young people by developing the curriculum, improving flexibility to allow for personalised learning, creating innovative approaches to school organisation, and encouraging greater participation in leisure, recreation and culture.

Transforming Hampshire’s secondary schools

Schools in Havant and Horndean are the first to benefit. £80 million will rebuild, refurbish or remodel nine schools and one education centre.

This includes the creation of an academy — an all-ability, state-maintained, independent school, supported by public sector sponsors — at Staunton Community Sports College, set to open in September 2010.

A further nine phases are proposed, with schools in Gosport and the west of Havant next in line to receive funding subject to approval from the Government.  Investment in primary schools will be carried out through the County Council’s Primary Capital Programme.

To find out more about BSF, visit www.hants.gov.uk/bsf or call 01962 846387.

Katy Howard, Year 9, Horndean Technology College, said:

“It’s exciting to think what new facilities and equipment would be available to us through the BSF programme.”

“We could have brand new classrooms, sports and music equipment as well as different and unique facilities that would benefit the whole community, like a climbing wall or indoor arena.”

Annie Dorrington, Park Community School’s Learning Resource Centre Manager, said:

“BSF is about providing a building that reflects in bricks and mortar the ambition and vision we have for students and the wider community.”

“It will be a physical expression of the importance of learning and all that a great education can provide — freedom, wider horizons, creativity, independence and opportunity.

“If education is the magic bullet, then our buildings should be the powerhouse for change for this and future generations.”

Pupils with designs on their school

On Saturday 30 January, 50 pupils and 30 teachers from secondary schools in Havant and Horndean attended a workshop to design a school of the future.

Participants worked with the County Council’s architects on a series of four practical, creative and fun activities to tease out ideas and inspiration.  The work will form the basis of design blueprints to inspire design work.