From ideas to designs: BSF starts to become a reality
We are now at the very exciting procurement stage of the BSF process. Two bidders, Balfour Beatty and Equity Solutions are working with the Local Authority to secure the job of building and refurbishing schools and providing all the services needed to make Oldham schools function effectively. Two schools have been selected as “sample” schools: North Chadderton and a new Catholic school which will see Our Lady’s and St Augustine’s becoming one school. Sample schools are the first to go through the design process and the first to be built. A group of Year 8 students attended a BSF launch event at the Queen Elizabeth Hall earlier this year, along with staff from North Chadderton and representatives from all secondary schools. The aim of the event was to introduce the bidders and to allow our students a chance to say what they are hoping for from the process. This was done via a video which our students made in conjunction with students from Our Lady’s and St Augustine’s. The bidders were very impressed by the contributions of our students. As a sample school we are heavily involved in this stage of the process. Every week a team from school is meeting with the bidders for Design Meetings. Similar meetings are taking place to look at ICT provision, Facilities Management and all the legal and financial aspects of the process. Between now and Christmas things will move at a very quick pace to ensure we give the bidders as much information as possible to come up with the best possible plans and designs. This is a time consuming process and as designs and ideas for our new school start to appear we will need to consult as widely as possible to make sure that we get the best school to meet our needs. Wherever practical we will use groups that already exist such as the Student Council, Staff Forum and our Governing Body for the purposes of consultation. However, we are exploring ways that we can consult a wider audience via our website and we will make all our stakeholders aware of this as soon as possible. This is without doubt an exciting time but everyone involved with North Chadderton needs to understand that the goal of the procurement process is to find the best people to build all the Oldham schools and not just North Chadderton. As such our opinion is only 15% of the final decision as to who is chosen. Be assured though that although we are fully committed to transforming education in Oldham, we are making our views very well known and have representation on a number of the decision making panels. One thing we have made very clear to both bidders is how important it is for us to ensure that the BSF process does not in any way interfere with the smooth running of our school and our continued improvement. Our students cannot wait a couple of years until we have new buildings to receive a good education – their time is now and we are working hard to ensure they have the best learning environment we can provide. You can find further information about the BSF process on Oldham’s website: www.oldham.gov.uk/bsf
