Specialist Schools

What are Specialist Schools?

Specialist Schools are state secondary schools that aim to be local centres of excellence in their chosen specialism, and which to that end, benefit from public funding under the "Specialist Schools Programme" and from private sector sponsorship.

The Specialist Schools Programme proclaims six objectives for schools:

• To extend the range of opportunities available to pupils which best meet their needs and interests
  
• To raise standards of teaching and learning in the specialist subjects
  
• To raise standards of achievement for all their pupils of all abilities
  
• To develop within the schools characteristics which signal their changed identity and which reflect the school's aims
  
• To benefit other schools and the wider community in the area ("extended provision")
  
• To strengthen the links between schools and private and charitable sponsors

Specialist status is available to any maintained secondary school, and the Labour Government frequently proclaimed its wish to see all secondary schools become Specialist Schools in time.

Bids for Specialist status are accepted by the Department for Education in March and November each year. There are ten specialist areas: Arts, Business and Enterprise, Engineering, Humanities, Language, Mathematics and Computing, Music, Science, Sports and Technology. A school may be Specialist in respect of a maximum of two of these areas, and must apply separately for each designation.

The criteria a school must achieve to successfully bid for Specialist status are: present a four-year development plan, including targets and performance indicators relating to provision, increased take-up of specialist courses and improved learning outcomes, and to "extended provision"; to have raised £50,000 in private sector capital; and to demonstrate "at least reasonable" and preferably sustained high levels of attainment by pupils in the subject area designated for specialisation.

Specialist status entitles a school to access central government funds of £100,000 (per application) for capital projects to enhance the facilities for the specialism subject, and ongoing funding of £129 per pupil for four years (the lifetime of the development plan).

Under the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, Specialist Schools are permitted to select up to 10 per cent of their pupil intake on the basis of "aptitude" for the specialism subject. At the time, then Education Minister Stephen Byers distinguished "aptitude" from ability by defining it as a question of potential rather than current capacity.

Although Specialist Schools share many features with the 15 City Technology Colleges established between 1987 and 1993, they differ from the latter in that they are all "maintained" (ie state) schools.

Although the recurring costs of CTCs are paid for by the Department for Education, enabling them to charge no fees, they are organisationally "independent" (ie private) schools.

Background

The Specialist Schools Programme began in 1993, when the Conservative Government gave permission for grant-maintained and voluntary-aided schools to apply for "technology college" status.

In 1994, with the designation of the first 50 technology colleges, the SSP was opened up to all secondary schools and a new specialism of "language college" was announced. "Arts and sports colleges" were announced in 1996.

The incoming Labour government in 1997 announced that it would continue and expand the SSP, introducing the "community role" for Specialist Schools. The School Standards and Framework Act 1998 represented a key milestone in the development of the scheme, in cementing Labour's commitment to Specialist Schools and introducing the power to select pupils on the basis of aptitude.

In 2001, the Green Paper, "Schools: Building on Success" proposed four new specialisms - Science, Mathematics and Computing, Business and Enterprise, and Engineering. In February 2003, a further two specialisms were proposed, Music and Humanities, along with a rural subject option for rural schools.

The Government's target for 2000 schools to be given Specialist status by 2006 was achieved 18 months early in February 2005. By September 2008 that figure had risen to just under 2700 Specialist Schools.

Controversial

The principal objection raised against Specialist Schools relates to the perceived erosion of the principal of equality in school education that the Programme involves.

Supporters of the comprehensive principle in education oppose the scheme because of the inequality it entails, in designating some schools as apparently "superior" to others. Not only does the designation of Specialist Schools denigrate the work done by other schools, it is argued, but the provision of additional public funding is unfair.

Opponents claim that the Specialist Schools Programme's likely outcome is a "two tier" education system, with the best schools given extra funding - and as such, the ability to purchase better facilities and hire the best staff - and the worst deteriorating further. The Government's response to this criticism has been to proclaim a target of all secondary schools becoming specialist schools in time.

However, in the meantime, the scheme's critics also argue that Specialist Schools encourage segregation in education, insofar as the middle class parents who have long been best placed to ensure favourable outcomes from school admissions regimes will be able to get their children into the better schools, at the expense of those from poorer and socially excluded backgrounds.

The commitment to an element of selection contained in the 1998 Act has been exceptionally controversial, with many supporters of the comprehensive principle accusing the Government of seeking to reintroduce grammar school-style selection by the back door.

In these ways, Specialist Schools fit into the wider debate and controversies surrounding the Government's education policies, relating to the conflicting values of competition and choice as driving forces for improving standards, and equality of opportunity.

It is widely accepted, even by critics, that the Specialist Schools Programme has had a positive impact on educational attainment in participating schools. However, their impact on neighbouring schools and the wider community has not been studied in great detail to date.

The Coalition government elected in May 2010 announced that the funding associated with the Specialist Schools Programme would continue to go to schools, but that the "prescription and bureaucracy" which had built up around the programme would be removed.

Funding for Specialist Schools, including High Performing Specialist Schools (HPSS) would be mainstreamed from April 2011 and routed to schools through the Dedicated Schools Grant. In addition schools would no longer be required to designate or re-designate with immediate effect. However, funding for the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) and the Youth Sports Trust (YST) to support schools through the designation process would cease from April 2011.

Statistics

The Specialist Schools Programme dates from 1994 and over 95 per cent of secondary schools are specialist.

Funding for specialist schools - approximately £450 million - in 2010/11, is not being removed from the schools system and will continue to be routed to schools through the Dedicated Schools Grant.

Source: Department for Education - October 2010

Quotes

"Now that specialism is so firmly established the time has come to remove the prescription that has built up around the programme and to give school leaders greater freedom to make use of the opportunities offered by specialism and the associated funding. This is part of a wider commitment to trust school leaders to take decisions in the best interests of the pupils and parents they serve."

Department for Education - October 2010