A Good Couple of Days

We seem to have made a lot of progress over the past couple of days. Monday morning Henry (the Chair) and I met with Mouchelparkman Babcock (MPB) to go over the list of Governors' Requirements and to check what progress has been made since September. Of course, not everything's resolved, but a lot has moved on. Reprinting the whole list in a blog is probably a bit impractical (the full list can be found on the SNS website), but to summarise, subject to further staff consultation, the feeling is:

RESOLVED -

• SEN spaces
• not losing a gym
• TV studio near media/english classrooms
• configuration of staffroom/reprographics room
• use of "L" block/boilerhouse, school to be involved in recruiting new staff
• number/size of classrooms (pending staff consultation)
• circulation (pending staff consultation)

LOOKING MUCH BETTER -

• inspirational challenging design for the school reflective of school specialism
• circulation, number/size of classrooms
• stakeholder involvement (but needs to continue)
• Central ICT hosting
• specialist ICT equipment
• clarity on ICT funding levels at end of initial contract period
• ICT "interim services" offer
• office/workroom spaces

WORK STILL NEEDED -

• Value for money/market testing
• location of changing rooms (although there is a potential solution for this)
• covering of courtyard
• build timescale
• quality of materials (not yet discussed)
• building fully accessible (although has gone from 5% to 85% accessible and full curriculum can be accessed)
• energy saving/environmental impact,
• liaison between Design and Build & Facilities Management
• level of technical support (again, I hear there are proposals afoot)
• access to ICT network for media, music & web technicians
• demonstration the BSF ICT strand will offer a clear improvement in current provision
• clarity on how accidental damage and vandalism will be dealt with
• clarity on the Facilities Management "Variant Bid"
• FM "interim services" offer
• discussion needed on how Local Education Partnership (LEP) processes will work once BSF is in operation.

Sorry if some of this is in unintelligable "BSF Speak". It's a bit unavoidable in this post. Ask me through the comments box if you need any clarification.

It may look as if the list of unresolved areas is long, but we also came up with a plan to deal with most of these by the 28th November. At least MPB are clear what we're looking for, and I know they're working furiously to present acceptable proposals.

We have also had some really positive movement on ICT and I had a good meeting with support staff yesterday, but I think this post is quite long enough, so more on that in the next couple of days.

And finally, we hope to have a PTA led parent consultation evening on 22nd November. We need to check all concerned can make it, so the date is only provisional, but pencil it in and watch the website.

Meeting Count - 2/11/07 - 6/11/07 - FIVE