Overview

With up to 30,000 young people leaving schools in the UK each year with few if any qualifications, despite the best efforts of many schools to address their needs, have we got the design and organisation of our secondary schools right? Is the Government's ambitious 'Building Schools for the Future' programme in danger of re-housing old problems in new buildings? Following his investigation for Chanel 4's Dispatches programme, The Children Left Behind , former head teacher James Wetz asks: how can we organise our secondary schools so that all young people are encouraged to learn and gain a stake in society? With experience of running large urban secondary schools himself, Wetz is convinced that size is a crucial factor. In Urban Village Schools he draws on the observations of marginalised young people to show how pupils, especially the vulnerable and those with challenging backgrounds, fail to manage the complex settings in large inner city schools. Using a theoretical framework derived from attachment theory, examples from educational practice in therapeutic settings, and international models that emphasise the human scale, he proposes a radical new approach: the 'urban village school'. Based on a learning community of 350 pupils, where staff teach no more than 75 pupils a week, the urban village school will put relationships at the heart of its organisation and design. Wetz outlines its principle features and includes plans and visualisations from award-winning architects, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios.

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9781903080115

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James Wetz is Visiting Fellow at the University of Bristol Graduate School of Education, and worked for over 30 years in state secondary education, 16 of these as a head teacher. He is a Fellow of the RSA and of the Centre for Social Policy at the Warren House Group in Dartington. He published the report 'Holding Children in Mind over Time' (2006) and researched and presented the documentary 'The Children Left Behind' for Channel 4's Dispatches series in 2008.

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