Excellence Clusters/Behaviour Improvement Programme
Introduction
In the late 90s the government introduced the Excellence in Cities programme as part of a strategy to provide a high level of support to city schools serving areas of high levels of deprivation. The focus of the programme was to raise standards, improve attendance and address behaviour, this was to be achieved through additional resources, cross phase partnerships and collaborative working within communities.
In 2001 the programme was extended to include other areas of the country under the banner of "Excellence Clusters". Drawing on what was successful in EiC a centrally devised model was rolled out across the country in five phases with the same foci as for EiCs but with the opportunity for selected schools to identify a local “strand” to which part of the resource allocated to the programme could be directed.
Lincolnshire was part of the phased roll out (2003), the DfES identified secondary schools in three distinct geographic areas based in the indices of multiple deprivation. Further secondary schools were identified by the LEA along with feeder primaries, in total 46 schools were identified for the programme because of standards issues or because they were judged to be high performing in so far as having overcome local barriers to success. While the locations were based around Boston, Grantham and Spalding the actual schools were widely spread, including a majority that served small rural communities or towns.
The Behaviour Improvement Programme was introduced in 2002 as part of a national behaviour strategy which included the introduction of the B&A consultancy strand to the KS3 strategy. Lincolnshire joined the final phase of BiP in April 2005. BiP is an extension of Excellence Clusters with schools from within the cluster being identified for inclusion into the programme based on an audit of behaviour and attendance and the capacity of each school to take on a further challenging project.
As a key element of BiP funding there is a requirement that each BiP cluster develops a Full Service Extended School; the purpose being to provide/facilitate a range of services, activities and opportunities to the school, the community and the community of schools in partnership with other agencies and service providers.
Meet the Team...
BiP Strategic Plan (September 2005)
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Paul Snook
Strategic Director BIP
01522 553273
mobile 07919 167641
psnook@cfbt.com