School co-operatives and co-operative schools Experience from the UK

Julie Thorpe Head of School and Youth Programmes Co-operative College, UK

Co-operatives in the UK The current context: Co-operative renaissance led by the Co-operative Group –Membership –Turnover –Brand with strong emphasis on values,for example Fairtrade, green energy –Appeal of ethically-driven business in current financial climate –The revolutionThe revolution

Co-operatives in the UK The current context: –Coalition government’s ‘Big Society’ “A co-op has a flexibility and dynamism that a central state agency lacks. Like the Rochdale Pioneers, a co-op is part of the community it serves. Its interests are their interests. And it is able to respond to the needs of the community immediately and directly.” - David Cameron

Co-operative College Established 1919 Training members and managers Looking after our heritage International work Research Schools and young people

Why we work with schools “I asked them if they could tell me how many wives Henry VIII had and what were their names. The majority of boys in the class could answer that question straight away, but when I asked if they could tell me who was Robert Owen and when he was born, or on what day the British co-operative movement was founded, they could not give me any answer.” A V Alexander

Enterprise Network Funding Access to 20,000+ state primary and secondary schools

Young Co-operatives WebsiteAccreditation Free resourcesThree models

Fairtrade Provides many curriculum links Appeals to young people’s sense of fairness Raises questions of ethics in the supply chain Adds a global dimension

Greenfingers Horticulture and food production

Recon Waste management and recycling projects

Accreditation Programmes with skills-based awarding body –Stepping Stones –Key Steps –Enterprise Award –Certificate of Personal Effectiveness

Values-driven schools Co-operative whole-school ethos Deeply embedded values Raising standards

Schools as co-operatives 1 to 100 in two years the multi-stakeholder trust model Embedding in the community Linking to values in the curriculum and governance

Schools Co-operative Society Services to co-operative schools Joint procurement A voice in the policy debate

A Co-operative Trust School

11-16 Co-educational school Oldham Local Authority school Specialist Sports College 1500 students on roll 89 teaching and 68 non- teaching staff Private Finance Initiative funded building (3yrs old). Improved results for each of last six consecutive years.

Ethical Enterprise Challenge

Schools as co-operatives Case study: Failsworth School

Oldham MBC were reorganising the schools, and it was likely a number of academies would be set up. Those schools would have power over admissions – but we wouldn’t. As a form of protection, the school worked to gain Trust status. The chosen Trust route was through the co-operative society.

Oldham now has three academies. Failsworth School has a new head teacher. The Government has put in austerity packages across all of local Government to save money/cut spending. Oldham was already in huge debt, but also has additional savings to make. The LA is charging more for its services to schools. Education in the UK is in a state of flux/transition, as the local government support is taken away. Many new companies are appearing – to provide services at a big cost, but no certainty of quality.

Failsworth School works closely with its feeder and other local Primary schools. This joint-work has increased under the new Head at Failsworth. It is built around co-operative values and principles. The Failsworth Co-operative Trust – which includes that joint work – will have to grow to be self-supporting. The old work of the Local Authority will be taken up by the FCT to bond together our strengths and have greater buying power to support improvement and provision. We are a not-for-profit organisation, supporting our community whilst looking outwards beyond Failsworth to raise aspirations.

The Local Authority. The Co-operative Group. Oldham Sixth Form College. We are confident our local Primaries will join us formally as individuals or as a group. We want to increase this to reflect the whole community through the Stakeholder Forum.

The Trust is essentially still a blank canvas – but we are beginning to doodle on it! We are working on transitional curriculums – 5 – 11 – 16 – 19. We will be appointing a Family Liaison/ Attendance officer to work across the Trust schools. We will be working with a local University to accredit and deliver training programmes for staff. We will be looking to buy cheaper energy/ phones/ supplies because of being a bigger buying group. We are looking to appoint our own Educational Psychologist to work across the schools. We are offering budget support to our local primaries as part of our joint working.

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