Agenda item

To consider the report.

The Chair of the Board introduced the report, which set out the work that had been undertaken by The Dorset Centre for Excellence since its opening, including progress made since the previous board report.

Officers responded to Member comments and requests for clarification, details included:

• The school operated a quality assurance cycle, which sought feedback on rotation from key stakeholders, including pupils, families of pupils and commissioners, to ensure that there was a well-rounded view of what was going well and identify any areas for improvement. Prior to the end of term, both pupils and their families would be sent a survey to ascertain their experiences. If concerns were raised, these were logged, reported to the commissioning team and addressed accordingly.
• The Managing Director was confident that the standards of the school would be maintained based on the business model that was in place, providing that the capital investment programme remained as expected. He further referred to the ‘schools within schools’ programme, which would allow better management of the site and therefore higher standards for pupils.
• It was important that the school struck the right balance for the use of its facilities between commercial and community uses, and therefore had established a Commercial and community sub-committee with this in mind.
• The school was very community minded and an example of this was the hosting of short break activities which took place during school holidays. The school had also held a community day held last year, which had proven to be successful and was particularly valuable for the families of both existing and potential students. Additionally, a number of community organisations had come forward to enquire about using the site.
• On the commercial side, there was a long-term aim of utilising part of the site as a staff development centre, which could also be used for conferences, but this wasn’t currently a priority. The directors were also in the process of exploring options for social care provision in some of the housing buildings on-site with council officers.
• There was a lot of potential on-site and it was very important for the school to ensure that this was utilised to its full potential, but not to the detriment of pupils.
• The development currently being undertaken on-site was a council led project but regular discussions surrounding environmental impact were regularly had, there were some challenges with older buildings and certain elements, but further detail would be provided to Members in due course.
• There were 32 new pupils expected to join the school in September and the arrangements were being finalised for the last two or three pupils.
• The sixth form was expected to have a capacity of 40 pupils, once the site had been fully developed, although this could vary based on the commissioning needs of the school. From September, there would be one class of sixth formers, made up of 8 pupils.
• The ambition to introduce residential social care was a significant item being considered by the commercial and community sub-committee and it was hoped that the directors would be in a position to bring forward proposals in the near future following positive conversations with commissioners and other officers.

NOTED