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Plowden (1967) Notes on the text Volume 1 (page numbers in brackets) Preliminary pages (i-xxii)
Part 1 Introduction
Part 2 The growth of the child
Part 3 The home, school and neighbourhood
Part 4 The structure of primary education
Part 5 The children in the schools: curriculum and internal organisation
Part 6 The adults in the schools
Part 7 Independent schools
Part 8 Primary school buildings and equipment; status; and research
Part 9 Conclusions and recommendations
Notes (486-495)
Research and Surveys about Plowden |
The Plowden Report (1967)
A Report of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England) London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1967
[page 387 (unnumbered)]
and Research
[page 389] 1080. The design of British school building since the war has deservedly won an international reputation. Much thought has been given to planning buildings which are in line with current educational trends. In spite of shortages of manpower and money, between one and two new primary and secondary schools are opened in England and Wales every day. Most of this new building has to house the expanding and shifting population. By contrast there remains a large backlog of bad old buildings in which far too many children spend their years of compulsory education. The thinking about the building itself has not been matched by work on the relationships between the school and its surrounding environment.
The Present State of Primary Buildings 1081. Surveys of the state of school buildings in 1962, one by the Department of Education and Science (1) and a second by the NUT (2) have confirmed the existence of serious deficiencies. Although the NUT survey was based on a relatively small sample, its results were similar to the Department's survey. As Table 29 shows, according to the Department's Survey nearly three quarters of a million primary school children in England were in schools of which the main buildings were built before 1875.
1082. The two 1962 surveys are now somewhat out of date. For examptey the major building programmes for England and Wales* for 1965/66 to 1967/68 include 1,492 primary school projects at a total cost of £108m. (In 1967/68 about £20m were allowed for improvements in primary schools). Less than half of these were intended to improve or replace old buildings but the whole programme will have increased the proportion of new buildings. Authorities are allocated money for minor works to be used at their *Apportionment of the most recent building programme between England and Wales is not yet complete. [page 390] discretion, and no apportionment between primary and secondary schools is available. The total amount spent on minor works in England from 1962/63 to 1965/66 was £59m. 1083. Generalised statements of deficiencies and of building programmes give only part of the story. As new schools are opened, old ones are not necessarily closed. Children living in new houses often go to new schools. Yet children left behind in the decaying centres of large towns attend schools that often match their environment. This tendency is illustrated by figures supplied by the Inner London Education Authority (3). They show that in the London area 67 per cent of county primary and 85 per cent of voluntary primary school buildings were erected before 1918. Both figures are near to the top of the range for the whole country which for county schools runs from 48 per cent in the most favoured authority to 70 per cent in the worst placed. The corresponding figures for voluntary schools are 76 per cent and 95 per cent. In London, 80 per cent of primary school buildings had outside sanitation whereas in other areas the range was from 48 to 80 per cent. Old schools are not necessarily unsuitable. Some can be brought up to modern standards. But cramped buildings make modern primary school methods more difficult and may add to the problems of recruiting teachers. Some schools have temporary annexes and this division between two buildings is awkward for both teachers and children. Old buildings are often on restricted sites, in neighbourhoods with little space for children to play, and near or on main roads. School Building Since 1945: Number of Places and Costs 1084. The main effort in school building after 1945 was devoted to meeting the demands created by war damage, by the lack of building during the war years, by movements of population, by the raising of the school leaving age from 14 to 15 and the abnormally high numbers of births in the immediate post-war years, a birth rate which stabilised above that of the 1930s. In spite of all of the difficulties faced by the building industry between January 1946 and the end of 1965, nearly 5,000 new primary schools were completed, providing about 1,200,000 places. Another 800,000 new primary places were provided by extensions and remodelling. Some of these are in temporary accommodation which eventually must be taken out of use. In the past 20 years about £1,000m worth of building for primary and secondary schools has been completed, three quarters of it by major projects and a quarter by minor works. In addition, there is about £100m worth of work under construction. 1085. Total school building programmes in England and Wales for the next few years are 1967/68* £120m, 1968/69 £138m and 1969/70 £138m. New places will continue to be used mainly for shifts of population and for increases in the secondary school population resulting from larger age groups and the raising of the school leaving age. As a result the money available for improving primary schools is likely to be small. The capacity of local *All the programme values are expressed in terms of costs in the first part of 1966. The money value of future programmes will depend, of course, on changes in building costs. An announcement made in July 1966 had the effect of raising the face value of future building programmes by nine per cent. [page 391] education authorities to carry out the increased work may also limit building. There is a shortage of professional staff in local authority offices that has already caused less work to be started than is authorised by the Department. Local education authorities will have to increase their capacity by 20 per cent in order to reach current authorised levels. In the 1970s the schools will continue to make great demands on building. On present birth rate projections over 400,000 extra primary places are expected to be necessary from 1971/72 to 1976/77. It is estimated that in this five year period building worth more than £110m a year will be needed, about £76m to meet increased school population and about £34m for new housing development. The Improvement of Old Buildings 1086. The Department's Survey estimated that building work costing £588m would be needed to bring all English primary schools up to standard. Of this, £491m would be needed for improvements, the rest for the replacement of places in schools to be closed or reduced in size. In all, the cost of bringing all schools, primary and secondary, in England up to the standard required by current building regulations would be £1,268m including provision for raising the leaving age and the complete elimination of overcrowding. These estimates are now out of date: even at the time they were made movements in population could not accurately be estimated and local education authorities had to make assumptions that will not all hold true when rebuilding actually takes place. Nonetheless, the surveys point to two main conclusions. The first is that many primary school children will long continue to attend schools in really poor buildings unless there can be a speeding up of programmes aimed at less ambitious schemes of improvement than are at present usual. The second is that primary schools are bound to make enormous and continuing demands for building resources. Since the total cost will be so high it becomes all the more necessary that new buildings must be adaptable to changes in the patterns of education, some of which can hardly be predicted now. 1087. We have seen for ourselves that outstanding primary school buildings can support teachers in their use of modern methods, raise the standard of children's behaviour and change their attitude to school, and win the enthusiasm of parents. As one mother said 'it's worth a long walk to bring the children here'. We are deeply concerned about the number of primary schools that must continue in old buildings for which there is no hope of replacement. Standards of school buildings often fall short of those of quite ordinary households. Children have to use cold, dark and sometimes even insanitary lavatories. In 65 per cent of schools they are outside the main building. We have heard from many sources of the dislike of school that can be created by the condition of school lavatories. This is supported by recent studies of the difficulties in adjusting to school experienced by a small sample of children. (4) Children cannot be encouraged in hygienic habits if there are no basins adjacent to the sanitation. Equally, they cannot be expected to keep themselves clean if there is no warm water or even no piped water at all. Serious problems are caused by small classrooms and lack of space for physical education. [page 392] 1088. Table 30 gives the number of primary schools in the Department's survey with specified defects. We consider that an essential minimum is that all schools should have piped water, a warm water supply, water borne sanitation indoors, electricity and a staffroom, although this is not to dismiss the other deficiencies as unimportant. Table 31* shows what the total cost of remedying these deficiencies might be. These estimates can only be a rough guide, and the number of schools involved has almost certainly decreased since the 1962 survey.
(i) Temporary premises include hired premises off the main site and buildings in temporary construction: in cases of doubt, a building was classed as temporary if the loan period was less than 30 years.
1089. The cost of remedying the worst defects, if all these schools remain open, may be as much as £70m, and is unlikely to be less than £50m. The improvement would not be a substitute for complete modernisation, but would provide better conditions in the worst primary schools which will have to remain in use. We recommend that the Government should an- *The lack of piped water (166 schools) and electricity (135 schools) is often the result of a lack of a mains supply in the area. Since we could not envisage a pipeline or electricity pylon being built out of educational funds, we have not estimated the cost of providing these services. [page 393] nounce a building programme of minor works designed to get rid of these deficiencies within a period of seven years. At this rate the annual cost would be £7-10m. (England only).
*(1) Nearly all schools without water borne sanitation also have outdoor lavatories. This estimate assumes schemes remedying both defects.
1090. This will involve a new emphasis in building investment. We have been told by the local authority associations of the difficulties caused by what seems to them to be an artificial division between the major building programmes (projects costing more than £20,000) and the minor works programmes. An authority unable to begin a major project cannot transfer the money to a number of minor works projects no matter how urgent they are. At present money saved by skilful design cannot be used for work elsewhere. Many authorities find it hard to keep within the cost limits; those who do should be allowed to apply the savings elsewhere. We appreciate that flexibility may make government control of investment more difficult. Thus, a local authority that is able to fit in a series of small minor works is hardly likely to defer for long the major projects whose place they take. Minor works are completed more quickly so that the gross total of completed works over quite a short period might be larger than the country can afford. Yet the improvement of primary schools will depend on an increase in the money that can be spent on minor projects. We hope that the Department will make further changes in their controls so that small jobs that can be done easily will be carried out quickly. There should be greater flexibility in expenditure as between major and minor building projects and we hope that authorities will be allowed to spend the money saved in the completion of major projects on minor projects. 1091. The Department offered guidance to local education authorities on the problem of dealing with old schools in a building bulletin published in 1963. (5) It was suggested that a school should not have a minor capital building project unless it would be in use for more than ten years. It was assumed that old schools would be brought up to the same standards as a new school. Such projects can cost as much as 80 per cent of the cost of a new school and make a heavy, and disproportionate, demand on professional manpower. For these reasons, perhaps, few old schools have been completely remodelled and methods of making modest improvements in old schools with say, 10 [page 394] to 20 years of life, have not so far been studied systematically. We, therefore, suggest that the Department of Education and Science should undertake detailed exercises on the relationship between costs and the provision of essential amenities. It may be that for relatively small sums large improvements can be made but that after a certain point the return from increased expenditure decreases. We also hope that one of the foundations might institute a competition somewhat on the lines of the Civic Trust awards for imaginative but inexpensive improvement to old schools. Understandably enough, architects prefer a clear site and a free hand with a new building. Yet old schools need schemes that for small cost will go straight for the essentials of opening up space, introducing more light and colour and remedying deficiencies in acoustics, heating and sanitation. Developments in School Building Since 1945 1092. Most of the schools built immediately after 1945 were not dissimilar to pre-war schools. Architects concentrated on physical standards and in particular on lighting and ventilation. The kind of plan often produced was that known as 'the Finger Plan'. One storey classrooms were arranged in parallel rows, with a wide corridor on one side. Only about 40 per cent of the total floor area was to be found in the teaching spaces, though some teachers continue to appreciate the generous circulation and cloakroom areas that were characteristic of those buildings. Buildings sprawled over sites using up valuable land. Classes were dispersed, children were involved in long journeys to cloakroom, lavatories, hall and dining room. Most of the rooms were of similar size and character and their relationships were not determined by educational needs. 1093. In the late 1940s, two connected developments took place. The first was in design. From the end of the war, some architects had been observing children at work and consulting teachers about the sort of environment they wished to create for them. Up to 1949, primary schools were costing more than £200 a place and were taking a long time to build. It became clear that the necessary places could only be provided if there were a new approach to the cost of school building. As a result, in 1950 the cost limits were reduced from £200 a place to £140. Much more compact plans were designed in which the total floor area was reduced by rather more than a third although the amount of teaching space increased. Circulation space was reduced and such corridors as were necessary were often designed as part of the teaching space. It then became possible for some authorities to build classrooms exceeding 800 sq. ft. in area, in contrast to those of 520 sq. ft. which had previously been a regulation minimum. Buildings become more informal and domestic in character and likely to foster friendly, personal relationships. A greater variety of equipment and materials including more books led to new needs for display and storage, and for different types of working surfaces. Cost studies were also made so that by careful control of items the cost per square foot was kept down. Although some useful features may have been lost in the drive towards economy, inessentials were sacrificed to safeguard essentials, and the schools which emerged provide greater educational opportunities than their predecessors. [page 395] Developments Since 1956 1094. Many of the new trends began in local education authorities and were taken up by the Ministry. In 1956 the Ministry's Development Group made a detailed study of junior school requirements and the result was a new school for 320 built at Amersham in Buckinghamshire. This project included the design of all the furniture, and applied the results of new studies in lighting, colour and acoustics. (6) In this and previous investigations, the architects had observed a new relationship between teachers and children and a blurring of division between one subject and another, between theoretical and practical work and between one lesson period and the next. The 'teaching area' was conceived as the whole school environment rather than as a series of individual rooms. The design of class spaces offered opportunities for changing ways of learning as the children grew older. The Amersham school was followed by the Finmere village primary school for 50 children (see Diagram 8). This design followed a pattern well suited to the family character of the village community. 'School' includes the buildings, garden, play area, and games space. Outside and inside provide an integrated learning environment. Inside, there are small working areas each with a degree of privacy and a character of its own, opening on to a larger space sufficiently uncluttered to allow children to climb and jump, dance and to engage in drama. Among the small working spaces is a sitting room, a library, two workshops with water available, a kitchen and three group study spaces. The 50 children can be divided into two working groups in separate spaces if need be. Privacy can be secured by means of folding partitions. This design has been particularly successful and within its fluid arrangements many observers see the solution to some of the most pressing design problems. 1095. Can such arrangements be effective in much larger urban and suburban primary schools where classes are larger? The design of the Eveline Lowe Primary School, Southwark (see Diagram 9), for 320 children ranging in age from three and a half to nine years, and of Vittoria School Islington has attempted to take account of many current educational and social problems. Elsewhere many other schools are being built on new designs. They are intended to help teachers to co-operate more easily in schools in which many may only be able to give part-time service, and to provide for flexibility of organisation and individual learning. In spite of great progress, there are still too many school buildings being erected which are poorly designed and unrelated to developing ideas about primary school education. (7) 1096. At the same time new designs in fittings and furnishings are being tried out. There must be suitable surfaces for the many kinds of jobs to be done at appropriate heights for the children. Upright chairs, upholstered chairs, rocking chairs, stools, window seats and boxes can all find a place in the school. Even the walls providing space for the display of children's work and for exhibitions have a valuable educational function to perform. The relationship between furniture and buildings is now being studied by the consortia established by the local education authorities for co-operation and economy in building. 1097. Hundreds of new schools are built every year. Schools last longer than teachers so that it is necessary to design for trends rather than for current average practice, otherwise schools will become obsolete long before they are [page 396] Diagram 8* A School for 50 Pupils Aged 5 to 11 Years at Finmere, Oxfordshire  This village school was designed in 1958 by the Ministry's Development Group in collaboration with the Oxfordshire local education authority. The essence of the plan is that the children mostly work in small groups or individually, the two teachers sharing their time between them. The accommodation consists, therefore, of a series of small working areas, all with a degree of seclusion, while still a part of the whole. One is a sitting room, with a curtained bed recess. Three are furnished as studies; two others as 'workshops', with access to a verandah. One is a 'kitchen' and one a library. These open on to somewhat larger areas which in turn are linked, by means of sliding-folding doors, to a space large enough for groups of children to move about more freely. If both sets of doors are open, the whole teaching area (approximately 1,800 sq. ft.) can become one space. By closing one or both sets of doors, it can become either two or three separate rooms.
*A fuller description of the design of this school can be found in Building Bulletin No. 3 Village Schools HMSO 1961. [page 397] worn out. It is both an educational and an architectural responsibility to see that the shape of schools is determined by educational trends rather than by architectural fashion. To get good school buildings requires sensitive and sympathetic co-operation between the local education authorities, who own, pay for and have statutory responsibility for them, and architects and educationalists, including teachers. Local education authorities are sometimes, but not sufficiently often, as much concerned to commission first rate buildings as to keep within cost limits and build schools quickly. More architects need to spend more time in schools getting to understand their needs. Educationalists also should think about the type of physical provision which suits schools. When there is interplay between all concerned architects can interpret in terms of space and equipment the implications of what they have seen in action, instead of making a jigsaw puzzle of rooms of specific sizes and of structural grids. All this should be implied by the architect's brief. There must always be a spearhead in educational design. These advanced schools need to be evaluated individually before their designs are adopted by building consortia. Some Design and Planning Implications of Our Report 1098. We now summarise some of the implications of our report for the siting and building of schools: (i) Building Within the Environment [page 398] (e) At the same time, the school should be protected from traffic noise and danger, fumes, offensive industrial processes and the like.These requirements call for a particularly difficult and challenging blend of protection from the surrounding urban environment, and exposure to neighbours and the community. Town planners must co-operate closely with teachers and local education authorities to solve these problems. The greatly enlarged slum clearance and redevelopment programmes of the next decade will offer enormous opportunities of progress (or lasting failure) on all these matters in the older cities. The enlarged programme for expanding towns and for new towns will provide similar opportunities. These diagrams are taken from Department of Education and Science Building Bulletins to which reference should be made for fuller discussion, as follows:
[page 399] buildings indoors. There should be quiet corners where children can sit and read, parts left wild, and 'dens' for group play: there should be challenges to physical activity as well as space for ball games. Imaginative use should be made of natural features, such as changes of level and trees.Cost Limits 1099. As middle schools are created and other changes in organisation made, and as new trends in the curriculum affect design, the cost limits of school building must be reviewed. At present, regulations provide that children in large primary schools have a smaller minimum classroom area per head than children in smaller primary schools, in nursery schools or in secondary schools. Inevitably, they are more restricted. Since middle schools will be allowed higher cost limits because of the needs of older children, a little more flexibility in design will become possible. We cannot attempt here to make any analysis of what revisions are needed. But there is a case for examining the whole structure of cost limits and regulations to ensure that the best possible development of working areas can be achieved from nursery, through first and middle, to secondary schools. We think that cost limits for building, and the sharpness of variations between the different stages of education, may be based (like staffing ratios) partly, at least, on tradition. Continuing review is required. The heating, lighting and cleaning of schools, the cost results of using different qualities and kinds of finishing material in a situation in which labour is more scarce and expensive than even the dearest of materials, all need to be considered more fully. The wider use of industrialised building is beyond our terms of reference, but current achievements suggest that these techniques are logical means of combining higher standards with lower costs. Educational Furniture and Equipment 1100. In the last few years the Department of Education and Science have become increasingly interested in the design of furniture and equipment. Perhaps the most important single development has been the furniture programme in which the Department are collaborating with the Ministry of Public Building and Works and the CLASP Building Consortium [see Glossary]. The Department of Education and Science are responsible for the basic design of the furniture while the Ministry of Public Building and Works have carried designs through the stage of working drawings and have invited tenders and placed contracts. The CLASP building programme of new schools has provided a market of sufficient size to make the operation economically practicable. [Text continues on page 405.] [page 400] School for 320 Pupils Aged 3½ to 9 Years Eveline Lowe School, Rolls Road, London SE1.  This school was designed by the Department's Development Group in collaboration with the Inner London Education Authority within the current cost limit. The accommodation was planned for the following groupings of the 320 pupils:
(a) The need to sub-divide the available space to allow a number of small groups of individuals to pursue widely varying activities.There is no hard and fast division between these group spaces and the rest of the school, for the whole environment (both inside and out) was conceived as potential 'teaching space', as opposed to a series of closed classrooms and 'non-teaching' areas. For example the arrangements for dining include a series of bays, furnished with tables and window seats, which look across to alternating display alcoves and window seats - an area designed not only for dining but as a small exhibition gallery and as working space for groups of individuals at other times of the day. The hall is equipped for a variety of large movement and drama work. [page 401] Diagram 10 Extension to Convert Existing Infants' School for 240 Pupils of 5 to 7 years into School for 320 Pupils of 5 to 8 years. Diagram 10 shows one possible way of providing for an additional age group in the infants' schools within the current framework of cost allowances. It is designed for a 'community' of 80 children and two teachers, with the aim of encouraging a flexible approach to the pattern of activity. In Diagram 10 the space can, if desired, be treated as two separate rooms, each with a small enclosed carpeted area with window seating, where up to 40 children can gather for story-telling and the like, or where a few individuals can read quietly. But there is also a shared area for the messier activities, equipped with benching, sink and tools, which opens on to the veranda. Quite a large central space could be cleared on occasions for impromptu drama, etc.  [page 402] Diagram 11 Extensions to Existing Junior Schools for 480 Pupils of 7 to 11 years into Schools for 480 Pupils of 8 to 12 years. Many authorities will be confronted during the next few years with the problem of adding new accommodation to existing schools to allow an acceptable curriculum for the older pupils, without attempting any remodelling of the existing buildings, and within the current framework of costing. There are many ways in which the available space might be arranged. Diagram 11, taken from Building Bulletin No. 35, shows a possible extension to convert a junior school with 480 pupils aged 7 to 11, into a middle school for 480 pupils aged 8 to 12. In the Diagram accommodation for music is associated with an area for craftwork (opening out to a veranda) and a space for reference and study.  [page 403] Diagrams 12A and B A Middle School for Pupils of 8 to 12 Years. Annotation to Key Plan
This particular example has been planned for an organisation of the school into three main groups, each the responsibility of a group of teachers. Each has its base in a centre. One of these, the base for 240 pupils, is planned round its own garden court; the other two, each for 120 pupils, are in a two-storey wing. The teaching area has been increased from the prescribed minimum of 12,240 sq. ft. to roughly 60 per cent of the total area available. A yard-stick of about 20 sq. ft. per pupil has been taken as a basis for planning the working areas in each centre, whatever sizes of working groups they are designed for (i.e. a total of 9,600 sq. ft. for the 480 pupils). This leaves out of the total teaching area which can be provided, some 3,000 sq. ft. for spaces either to be shared by the whole school (e.g. for music, drama, physical education or crafts) or to supplement the teaching area in one or more of the centres. Plan for School for Pupils of 8 to 12 Years 
[page 404]  This arrangement of space for 240 pupils assumes close co-operation among the teachers concerned in the organisation of work and flexible groupings. The accommodation includes rooms with seating for up to 40 pupils, but equipped for working groups of 27 or 28. Two of these, with sliding-folding doors between them, can become one space for a larger group, or for small-scale drama work. There are also two spaces equipped for a variety of practical activities. [page 405] The first items were mobile and wall storage display units for primary schools. This furniture is now generally available. The second phase has been the design of tables, chairs and other items to provide a complete range of primary school furniture. By the beginning of 1967 it is hoped that a school in Manchester will be equipped with the complete range of new central supply primary school furniture. A research project has been commissioned from the Furniture Industry Research Association to provide design data based on direct measurement of children in action. Information about this furniture is to be included in a future Building Bulletin. We applaud these measures which seem an imaginative attempt by local authorities and central government to put furniture on the market which matches educational needs and yet is economical. 1101. School building has been a fine example of how a government department can, with its partners in the local authorities, produce good results through the exercise of imagination and effort.
1102. We turn to a separate but related subject, equipment allowances. At the beginning of our study we asked English local education authorities to supply details of the equipment allowances made to primary schools. They all responded and we are grateful to them for the detailed work that they must have put into their replies. The facts in this section of the chapter are based on the financial year 1963/64. 1103. Whilst many items of expenditure, including the largest such as staffing and accommodation, are not completely within the discretion of local education authorities, the supply of equipment is. Equipment allowances are one of the few areas of expenditure in which estimates can be cut and they are, therefore, particularly vulnerable to pressure to keep down the rates. We became aware in our visits to schools of the differences in quality, range and amount of equipment available to different schools. 1104. Returns made to us by the 129 local education authorities in 1963 showed a wide range of capitation allowances. For children in nursery schools and classes the capitation allowances range from 10s. 0d. [50p] to 69s. 0d. [£3.45] a head; for infant school children the range is from 16s. 5d. [82p] to 50s. 0d. [£2.50] and for junior schools from 19s. 0d. [95p] to 54s. 6d. [£2.72] These contrast with allowances for secondary modern schools which range from 30s. 0d. [£1.50] to 126s. 6d. [£6.32] and for grammar schools from 32s. 6d. [£1.62] to 126s. 6d. [£6.32] Table 32 shows the range and distribution of allowances. 1105. These figures cannot be taken at their face value. In some areas well known for work of outstanding quality, the allowances for some age groups appear low, but the methods by which local authorities finance the equipping of their schools are often complicated. In some areas extensive buying by bulk and large discounts enable allowances to go further. Expensive equipment may be supplied outside the allowance. Eighty-nine authorities, moreover, meet all or part of the cost of library books from a special allowance. 1106. Stationery, textbooks, small apparatus and equipment and most consumable materials come from the capitation allowances. The distinction made in some areas between books and library books may encourage spending on such items as books of English exercises, which are of little value, at the [page 406]
expense of story books and books of information. In most areas, such expensive equipment as wireless and television sets, tape recorders, physical education equipment and large toys for infants are either wholly or in part additional to the allowance. We suggest that it is wrong for local education authorities to provide automatically such expensive items as apparatus for physical education, projectors or movable platforms for drama which may not suit the character or stage of development of a particular school and may be used infrequently or not at all. It would be better to increase allowances so that schools can buy for their current needs. Here and there, an element of paternalism is evident. Choices Open to Schools 1107. The amount of freedom allowed to schools varies greatly. Four authorities give strict instructions on the amounts that may be spent on different classes of equipment. One hundred and four say they leave this decision to the schools and the rest exercise varying degrees of control. All except three authorities exercise some control over the firms with whom the money is spent. Schools are required to send all or some of their requisitions through the local authority who get a discount for large scale buying. Some authorities strongly recommend that the schools buy from certain prescribed firms. Others compile lists of recommended materials from several such firms. In [page 407] about half of the areas, smaller amounts may be spent on urgent direct local purchase. In most cases, these amounts may not exceed ten per cent of the full allowance. Head teachers should be capable of making decisions on what proportions of the allowance should be spent on different kinds of equipment and on where materials should be bought. Some loss of discount on bulk purchase would be compensated for by the fact that schools can obtain what they need without delay. Abuse of freedom could be met through audit. There should be stated limits of discretion. As more freedom is given, teachers will need more advice on the choice of equipment both from their authorities and such bodies as the School Library Association and the Educational Foundation for Visual Aids. 1108. Not all schools are equally able to see new and interesting materials. In urban areas it is relatively easy to keep a permanent collection of materials from which schools can select, for teachers to visit showrooms and for exhibitions to be arranged. More isolated schools may have to rely on catalogues and on visits from travelling representatives of the suppliers. Lectures, courses and the work of county advisers should contribute more to bringing new materials to the notice of the schools. 1109. Several kinds of loan collection are kept and they supplement the resources of the school. Sixty-three authorities have circulating loan picture schemes. Sixty-seven have books available on loan for class and school libraries, sometimes as an alternative to the special library grant. In 57 areas, films, film strips and other visual aids may be borrowed. Twenty authorities have a record library and 27 provide a museum loan service. 1110. Enterprising head teachers often augment their schools' allowance. Expensive equipment or additions to outdoor amenities are often paid for by money raising activities, such as jumble sales, or by the work of parent-teacher associations. Parents help by buying learner swimming baths, pottery kilns, greenhouses, outside climbing apparatus and so on. They also help to make, maintain and repair equipment in the school. This is a powerful means of identifying them with the life of the school. But essentials must be provided by local education authorities. Assistance for Schools in Special Need 1111. Small schools are generally at a disadvantage because they need large items but have fewer capitation allowances to pay for them. About half the local authorities go some way towards meeting the needs of small schools. Some allow as much as £50 annually to all schools with a roll of under 50. Other authorities increase the capitation allowance when the roll is small. Some give extra financial help for the purchase of expensive items of equipment while others are prepared to meet special requests. The failure of some authorities, however, to make allowance for small schools is a striking example of unfair treatment. Small schools which do not get special help are often penalised. Extra allowances are given in other circumstances. Twenty authorities make allowances for newly appointed head teachers. Newly opened classrooms, sharp increases in the number of children on roll, schools wishing to experiment with, for example, teaching machines, suggestions made after inspections, are examples of cases in which extra allowances are and should be given. Only nine authorities, however, say that [page 408] special help is given to schools in difficult areas where wear and tear on all kinds of equipment are often particularly heavy. There is, we believe, a strong case for allowances to meet needs of these kinds. Disparity in Local Practice 1112. There is wide disparity between local authorities. In some areas allowances are so low that the educational opportunities of the children are impoverished. In one area, for example, the capitation allowance for infant and nursery schools is 23s. 0d. [£1.15] from which consumable materials, books, including library books, apparatus and equipment must be bought. Help is given for the purchase of physical education equipment and large toys, but not automatically, and parents are not encouraged to help raise money. Not surprisingly, this authority in 1961/62 fell short by one third of what the Publishers' Association in their report on expenditure on books in maintained schools, which was endorsed by the AEC [Association of Education Committees], considered to be a reasonable rather than a good level of expenditure on books. This is not an isolated example. Head teachers in such areas need to be exceptionally enterprising and skilled in improvisation if their schools are to be even adequately equipped. Not all head teachers use their initiative in this way. Some in all areas persistently fail to spend their allowance even when the allowance is not generous, and may believe that there is merit in practising such an economy. Recommendations 1113. In this chapter we have not attempted to cost the main demands on building resources apart from those needed for essential minimum improvements in primary achools. The total building cost implications of our report are summarised in Chapter 31 and Tables 39 and 40 Our recommendations on buildings are as follows: (i) The government should make the additional money available for a building programme of minor works over seven years starting in 1971 at an annual cost of £7-10m designed to rid primary schools of the worst deficiencies. [page 409] Our recommendations on equipment allowances are as follows:
1. The School Building Survey, 1962, Department of Education and Science, HMSO, 1965.
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