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With a combination of a baby boom putting pressure on primary school places and the cuts in the Building Schools for the Future programme hitting secondary school building, the question of how to accommodate pupils is becoming urgent. Simon Demetriou looks at some current solutions Several issues are threatening the provision of primary school education, and this is of major concern to local authorities. A baby boom is creating a critical shortage of primary school places, with suggestions of more than 500,000 primary schoolchildren expected to be taught in classes of more than 30 pupils. Schools are prevented, by law, from allowing classes in the first two years from exceeding 30. A leaked government report suggests new classrooms are needed for as many as 60,000 pupils, and figures show the number of children at English primary schools will rise for the first time in a decade – to 3.96m. The recent Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR), outlining 60% savings in education capital funding – 40% of which is construction – has left local authorities with a huge task. Where and how are we going to accommodate all these children on a reduced budget for capital spending? One solution is temporary space, something chief executives will be familiar with from the 1970s and 1980s. However, many of these ‘temporary' structures are still there, reminding us of a legacy of gut-reactions rather than innovative thinking. John McReady, head of the Government Property Unit, recently pleaded with the private sector to help the public sector to provide the innovation and imaginative thinking needed to deal with the challenges created by the CSR and create valued and efficient decisions. The private sector is responding. Keith Clarke, chief executive of Atkins, says: ‘Of course, the best type of school is zero carbon, providing 21st century flexible learning to children, and there is a perception with the budget cuts that we can't have everything and get value for money. ‘These are challenging times, and it is absolutely necessary that public and private sectors adopt new and cleverer ways of doing things.' John Frankiewicz, chief executive of Wilmott Dixon, says: ‘We have to meet this challenge through standardised designs of buildings, to a fixed cost and time which is more advantageous than traditional design and building methods. This is arguably the holy grail of public procurement.' Scape, a local authority-controlled company which owns national operating frameworks for design and construction services, is offering a faster route to market for the public sector. In association with Willmott Dixon (construction) and Atkins (design), Scape is spearheading the way forward for education construction with its innovation, Sunesis. Mark Robinson, CEO of Scape, says: ‘Sunesis has been created to offer a whole new way of delivering successful buildings. It is no longer acceptable for private and public sectors to work independently of one another – we need to share ideas and challenge concepts where we feel they won't work.' Of course, primary school demand exceeding supply of spaces is only part of the problem. What about secondary education construction? The halting of the previous government's £55bn Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme has left local authorities with unfulfilled dreams of 21st century education. Education secretary, Michael Gove, and columnist-turned-education-reformer, Toby Young, have denounced the BSF's vision as wasteful. They claim teachers matter more than buildings, and that BSF consumed too much money on ‘extravagant fantasies'. But, does it matter if children are educated in leaky sheds? One building that is fighting against this assumption is the Zaha Hadid-designed Evelyn Grace Academy in Brixton. This is not part of the BSF programme, but is the result of different Labour Party policy – the creation of state-maintained but independently-run schools called academies, whose construction costs would be partly sponsored by businesses and benefactors. The present government likes the idea of academies, if not for their architecture, and wants to make more schools like them. The academy is one of eight supported by ARK (Absolute Return for Kids), whose purpose is ‘to transform children's lives'. This charity was set up by Arpad Busson, hedge-fund millionaire and partner of the actress, Uma Thurman. Is that the solution – cash from wealthy Americans? The principal of the academy claims that, what the building does best is to communicate to pupils that ‘someone is valuing them'. This school contributes to both sides of the great schools debate, as it is neither an ‘extravagant fantasy' nor (at £36m) especially cheap to build. However, clear questions need to be asked about how will children be accommodated, does the school design impact on the way in which children excel, and who's asking the children what they think? w Simon Demetriou has worked on a number of local authority framework bids. He will be hosting the Property efficiency how? breakfast seminar at London's Design Museum, on 23 November debating whether workplace strategy and ‘clever' design-construction-procurement can contribute to genuine efficiencies. Contact simon.demetriou@atkinsglobal.com.

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WHITEHALL

A roof over their heads

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