I have a good friend (and BURA Board member) who is very senior in regeneration and who lives in a village outside Manchester.
His three lads attend the local primary school in the centre of the community.
He has no complaints about the quality of education his three boys receive but he is greatly exercised by the role of schools in our communities generally, and the role of his local school in particular.
Apparently there is a well-established Under-12 Football Club, a pukka outfit, in the local league and recognised by the FA and what-have-you, who have been refused permission by the head teacher to practise or play in the grounds of the school, even though they do not need to deploy any staff or have use of the changing rooms.
They have been refused, point blank, presumably on grounds of insurance or some other red tape and the poor team have had to make other, far less convenient, arrangements.
To say that this is a crying shame would be something of an understatement: this is a lost opportunity to consolidate the school's position at the heart of its community, the very community on which it depends for support.
As my mate remonstrates (actually, more accurately, he howls this in indignation): who owns our schools then ? Surely it is us, we the people, and not the head teacher or the education authority ? These people merely hold these assets in trust for us. And nobody was asking for a free-for-all (after all, it wasn't as if the youth leaders were proposing to put on a rave). All that was being requested was a responsible use of the assets for the good of the community.
Aren't we missing something here?
When I was working on Elephant & Castle last time around (on the ill-fated St George/Land Securities bid in 1999, since you ask) we put schools at the heart of the regeneration strategy that we presented to Southwark council.
It was at this point that we, as a professional team, came across the most astonishing statistic: that school premises are only deployed for 13% of the total time available !
I still find this almost impossible to believe (although, I guess, seven hours a day, for five days a week, for only 40 weeks in total, is the entire school working year - you do the maths) but even were take-up to be double this tiny proportion, we are still talking about a scandalous underuse of significant community assets.
I will never forget the look of utter disbelief that crossed the faces of the entire team, as any rudimentary cost benefit analysis made it clear to all of us the sheer and wanton extent of the waste. And, of course, the opportunity.
This is an utter travesty; both in general and in the case of my mate's kids' school. In more-for-less Britain this lamentable situation cannot be allowed to continue. I know that Buiding Schools for the Future (BSF) have some cutting-edge ideas here and BURA will be seeking a proper debate on the role of our existing schools in community-inspired regeneration programmes.
Individual head teachers, or - worse - education authorites stuck in a time warp, can't be allowed to block the legitimate and responsible use of our assets for the very people they were built for. And, indeed, for all the other sections of our communities who could benefit.
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