Transforming Croydon Schools

St Andrew’s

The London Borough of Croydon is bidding for Government funds to develop its secondary schools through the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. Additional funds may also be available for primary schools. In this way, Croydon intends to transform its schools. This is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity. Decisions made now will have repercussions for at least thirty years. So far, all the indications that these funds will be released for Croydon are positive but the final decision will not be taken until January 2011. 

At St Andrew’s, our School Transformation Team (STT) has been working with Local Authority officers and consultants to come up with a Strategy for Change which will set the school off on a path into the future. This Strategy for Change focuses on the educational vision. It is this vision that the architects and planners will work with, in order to re-configure the school’s buildings so they support the day to day operation of the new school.  

All secondary schools in Croydon are thinking about how they need to develop so they are fit for purpose for the next thirty years. Each school has to determine its five Big Ideas for Change. These sit at the heart of the vision which each school has for itself. They indicate how the school believes it needs to grow and adapt so that it can best serve the children who will join it in the decades to come. 

St Andrew’s Big Ideas are below. You will see that we recognise the need to adapt to a changing society whilst maintaining a focus on the development of the individual student. We know that the society our students will inhabit as adults in years to come is likely to be very different from the society we currently inhabit. 

As funds and opportunities present themselves, over the next five years or so, we shall move forward step by step in order to realise these Big Ideas. The Big Ideas represent the management of change. Behind this change lies St Andrew’s enduring commitment to provide a sound Christian education, reflecting the principles of our mission statement, “In God, through grace and guidance, to grow and give.” 

Over the coming weeks, each Big Idea will be explored in greater detail. Significant news, relating to Croydon’s bid for BSF funds or St Andrew’s circumstances, will also be posted here and its implications explained. 

St Andrew’s Big Ideas for Change

We want to develop… 

1. a curriculum which emphasises the acquisition of important skills for life, independent learning and a sense of responsibility;
2. a curriculum, where subject divisions have largely been dissolved, and students learn by electing for themed courses of study which interest them and develop their abilities
3. a flexible school day, supporting flexible employment structures, which allows students to learn in a variety of ways: at different times; in different groups; for different lengths of time; in different locations
4. a learning environment, managed creatively and generously, which embraces an all-through culture and allows members of the wider community of all ages to make full and effective use of the learning facilities and expertise
5. a learning culture which values and supports opportunities to develop, through an extensive and imaginative co-curriculum, interests, enthusiasms, hobbies and skills

Let’s explore Big Idea 1: to develop a curriculum which emphasises the acquisition of skills for life, independent learning and a sense of responsibility. 

If the cliché that ‘the only constant is change’ is true, then, as a school, we need to make sure that our students develop something substantial to counteract this. We need to know that they are equipped to cope with whatever challenges they meet in their adult life. We also need to know that they are employable, even though (as the prediction goes) 80% of the jobs that they will hold down in adult life have not yet been invented. 

St Andrew’s is good at ‘responsibility’. We have an extremely well-developed system, within our five Houses, of appointing school officers on merit. There is a genuine sense of aspiration and ambition towards the end of Year 10 as students seek to present themselves for office. Lower down in the school, buddy mentors shape up to prepare for the induction of the new wave of Year 7 students. There are subject ambassadors and subject captains. Besides these posts, there are a large number of other opportunities, often through the co-curriculum, where students can demonstrate their leadership or organisational skills. They can develop a sense of responsibility and commitment through the loyalty they have to show to their team, the cast of a play, the choir, or the friends with whom they are preparing for RUSH. They can take on specific projects like the campaign for skate-boarding and learn a huge amount along the way. They can perform in Repercussions or at Zizzi’s and acquire a more sophisticated awareness of how the public regards such enterprises. Yes, St Andrew’s is good at ‘responsibility’. 

May be we are less good at independent learning but this is emerging as the live-learning phenomenon takes off. Twenty-five teachers are now engaged at some level with piloting live-learning. This draws out the students’ active engagement with their learning, making passivity impossible, or allows students to take a greater responsibility for their learning by negotiating the best route to demonstrate what they have learnt. Home-learning has some way to go before this is a well-developed medium to show independence. This is a dimension of school-life which needs more focussed attention until we are able to exploit this strand of education more effectively. 

‘Skills for Life’ may seem too vague a phrase to be useful but at St Andrew’s we have made real progress over the past two years in defining these. Our mission statement gives each of our students a motto to live by. Published in the planners for ready reference are the 6 Rs of resilience, resourcefulness, responsibility, reasoning, reflection and respect. We need to develop a curriculum and co-curriculum which build in explicit opportunities for our students to practise these life-skills and be credited for their achievement. If we add ‘reconciliation’ to the list, we have identified another important principle which underpins the way we should like relationships in school to be conducted. It is clear therefore that already we have the germ identified which can mature into a coherent scheme, with careful thought and application. 

St Andrew’s is facing in the right direction to address this first Big Idea. We now need to plan the necessary stages to turn this concept into something substantial. The acquisition of skills for life, independent learning and a sense of responsibility must become something which St Andrew’s excels in promoting.

  If you have any questions regarding the process or plans here at St Andrew's, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  This account will be checked on a monthly basis and a public response to points raised by email will then be published on the web-site. If you have personal matters to raise, relating to the Transforming Schools Programme, please contact the school office.