Schools boss with a love of learning

WHEN Patrick Scott took up his post as education and leisure chief for York he must have wondered where to start. He took over an education department which had been operating without a permanent head for nearly a year - former boss Mike Peters left in October 2000 - and was charged with seeing through its merger with another department, leisure.

Both departments were already moving ahead with controversial plans, from overhauling the special schools system to selling off the Barbican Centre, the city's main sports and concert venue.

On top of that was the challenge of meeting parents' ever-increasing expectations of York schools, some of which are among the highest scoring in the exam league tables in the country.

Despite his broad-ranging role, it's clearly education that is closest to this former English and drama teacher's heart. Nearly six months on, he is close to appointing a new team of senior managers and is enthusiastic about the possibilities for the city as a result of the education/ leisure merger. But it's when talking about schools that the real passion appears.

"If you just focus in on the core curriculum and forget everything else, you throw away your birthright almost, because you forget what it's for," he says.

"Literacy and numeracy are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. If you can read but never pick up a book what's the point? Good schools never lose sight of that."

In spite of that commitment to going beyond the basics, he has set very ambitious targets for test results in schools in York for the next three years, of up to 12 per cent above the current performance.

"The satisfaction levels (with schools) are quite high among the local population and yet everybody wants their child to do as well as they possibly can.

"Those targets are high because that is what parents expect. I don't know whether we can reach those targets, but I know we're going to have a damn good try.

"I wouldn't pretend that staff in schools aren't under considerable pressure. But most of us do achieve more if we're under a bit of pressure.

"There is nothing more exciting than seeing a kid achieve something that you thought possible and they would never have imagined."

Mr Scott inherited various ongoing changes in education when he arrived, most initiated while Mr Peters was in charge. One plan that councillors have dropped since he took over the reins was the proposal to change the starting age for primary school children to the term after their fifth birthday, from 2003. This move caused a lot of confusion for the three areas that had already started the system in a pilot project.

Mr Scott says while the broad principles of boosting early years education are still in place, many head teachers told him they could not see how they would be able to introduce the change because of the income they would lose due to lower pupil numbers.

Plans to replace the four existing special schools with two new special schools are still on course, however, and one of them could be built on the Hob Moor site in Acomb.

Another ongoing project also concerns the Hob Moor site and would see the infant and junior schools there rebuilt, along with St Oswald's at Fulford and St Barnabas' at Leeman Road, under a private and public finance package which was approved in principle by the Government last year.

And it is through projects like this that Mr Scott sees the benefits of the combined education and leisure department, which in its "lifelong learning and leisure" section combines adult education, early years and performing arts services with museums, sports, libraries, youth services and parks.

"One of the reasons why the Government has approved our bid was because it is about schools reaching out to their communities, not just about replacing school buildings.

"At the new Hob Moor School, for example, parents should be able to go to the same building almost from childbirth, for health advice, education advice, adult education, to learn IT skills.

"Part of this is because schools can't do it by themselves; they can't be excellent unless they are being supported by their communities.

"The other part is the realisation that we can no longer in the 21st century let communities sink into disrepair. Schools have a really important role to play in that they're places people instinctively turn to."

He hopes links between libraries and schools will also become closer. More computer links are planned; at St Oswald's in Fulford, the plan is to combine the two in the new building.

"By bringing together leisure and education what we're doing is saying things like libraries and museums cease to just 'be there', where you just take it or leave it or use it as a way of passing a few hours.

"They become something we actively want to promote, we want to promote their value to people in York and to visitors as part of the whole 'learning city'."

But if the city wants to promote these things, what does he have to say about the sale of the Barbican, for example, or turning over the city museums to a charitable trust?

"We're not just handing over the museums and galleries. We'll still fund them. We still want a say in how they work. We want to look at ways in which we can open them up to more people.

"At the Barbican, we will make sure there is a venue there, but one that minimises losses and is more cost effective. It is certainly about trying to retain both a swimming pool and an auditorium.

"By not running some of the services, we are more concerned with standards and a strategic view of where we want to be. People who come to York, for instance, don't know whether the Jorvik Centre is private or public. What they're interested in is - is it a good experience?"

But despite the "less is more" trend, which he believes will outlast any change in national government, he still sees local education authorities retaining a vital role. "The days are long gone when LEAs should be running schools.

"The main thing is schools have got to learn from each other and the role of the LEA is to help that happen easily. It is not only to help those schools that are weaker but to create networks which open up channels of communication between schools so they can all get better together."

He mentions that York already has more "advanced skills teachers" - teachers who visit other schools to share their expertise - pro rata than any other LEA, for example, and praises the work with pupils on the edge of the school system, at risk of dropping out or under-achieving, which earned the council Beacon status last year.

"York has got terrific resources," he says.

"I wouldn't have wanted to do this job if it was just about transport and admissions."

Updated: 11:21 Tuesday, March 05, 2002