Schools – the next regeneration

Schools could play a much greater role in local regeneration - if they were freed up to do so. That’s the conclusion of a report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. It recommends amendments to the national standards agenda, removing unhelpful targets, freeing schools to focus more on schemes to enhance children’s learning and life chances. Pendle Borough Council in Lancashire seems to be one step ahead here, with its recently introduced awards for school projects that get involved with local communities and tackle environmental issues. Park High School won a prize for a project called Developing Actions for Change, which looked at areas of Pendle that needed improving and worked out plans of what they would like to see happen there. Much the same idea as the nationwide Wasted Space project [‘From dead end to living space’], in fact. - Kath Stathers A summary of the findings of Schools and area regeneration is available at www.jrf.org.uk

30 November 2003

Kath Stathers