Lilian Baylis transformation continues with PFI contract

Lambeth

Date: 31.03.2003
Ref: 1546
Press contact: Jo Rogers
Tel: 020 7926 2739
Email: jrogers3@lambeth.gov.uk

Press Release

Lilian Baylis transformation continues with PFI contract

Lambeth's Local Education Authority (LEA) has signed its first PFI (Private Finance Initiative) contract. The contract is with FocusEducation (a Joint Venture consortium of Bovis Lend Lease and Bank of Scotland) - for a brand new building, on a new site, for Lilian Baylis School.

Government support worth £20.4 million will be available over 25 years to design, build, finance and operate the new school, and to maintain it as new over the period of the contract.

FocusEducation will start work on the Kennington Road Depot Site in Kennington Lane, SE11, now that the PFI agreement has been signed. The new school building will be ready to open by January 2005, catering for around 600 pupils; and Lilian Baylis will continue to be the only non-selective, mixed, community secondary school in North Lambeth.

The new building is the next step in the transformation of Lilian Baylis School. During the last two years the school has become oversubscribed; results have improved; attendance has improved to above the national average; and the school has started to offer a huge range of exciting extras - including Saturday school, palmtop computers for home use, and courses for the more able at South Bank University and Lambeth College. Next year it expects to become a specialist technology school.

Lilian Baylis School is currently in the top 5% of schools in England in terms of 'value added' at KS4 - that is, the progress made by pupils between being tested at Key Stage 3 (Year 9) and again at Key Stage 4 (Year 11). This was featured in the league tables published by the government in January this year.

"The new building will offer state-of-the-art facilities including open learning areas where students can use computers from 7am to 6pm to study independently," says Councillor Anthony Bottrall, executive member for education.

"The fact that Focus Education will manage the facilities will reduce the burden on the staff - freeing them to concentrate even more of their energy on continuing to raise educational standards."

The new school building is seen as an important contribution to the regeneration of the local area. A Community Learning Resource Centre will be also part of the new development, offering a resource for the whole of the North Lambeth community. It was this feature that led to the school winning the national competition for specialist school status sponsorship from the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists (WCIT) - one of the leading City of London livery companies.

ends

Note to Editors

If you would like to come into Lilian Baylis School for a photo to accompany this release, please contact Gary Phillips (Headteacher) on 0797 192 4763.

Lilian Baylis School works in partnership to raise achievement and aspirations with The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, South Bank University and Lambeth College.

Issued by the Communication Centre
London Borough of Lambeth
Lambeth Town Hall
Brixton Hill
London SW2 1RW

Telephone 020 7926 1000
Fax 020 7926 2835
www.lambeth.gov.uk

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