Initiatives: Pathfinder Trust

 A trust school is a state-funded foundation school supported by a charitable foundation or "Trust". In September 2006 the Department for Education and Skills announced 29 Trust school pathfinder projects involving 50 schools would be working towards acquiring Trust status. There are now 35 pathfinder projects involving 70 schools.

With the Government's extended schools agenda, classrooms are becoming the focus for a wide variety of community services ranging from health to adult education.

The latest national programme is set to take the role of a school to a new level when in September 2007, the first group of "trust" schools was put into operation.

Among them was Garforth Community College and four of its feeder primaries on the outskirts of east Leeds. The schools' ambitious plans include offering cradle-to-the-grave learning opportunities to the entire of the former mining community.

"We need to start thinking about one big education sector rather than five individual schools," said Paul Edwards, Principal at Garforth Community college.

"The idea is to work together closely and support each other. We are looking at making the entire town a learning zone, providing courses and classes for people of all ages. There will be more activities for the local community than ever before."

The high school's place as one of the first "pathfinder" trust schools was first announced last September. Since then, staff have been putting together plans to take learning to the next level.

Although it would retain many links with Leeds' local education authority, the school would gain much more independence from local government and could pursue its own educational agenda along with Ninelands, Strawberry Fields, East Garforth and Green Lane primary schools.

"We would take control of our grounds, employment of staff and admissions, although we would use the existing admissions system used by Education Leeds' local education authority schools," said Mr Edwards.

"Each of the schools in the trust would maintain their existing governing bodies but one representative from each school would become a trustee of the trust."

One of Garforth's headline plans is to introduce foundation degrees for adult learners. Classes would take place in the primary schools with lectures and seminars overseen by staff from Trinity and All Saints College in Horsforth.

The degrees would be another feather in the cap for a school that has in recent years become one of the top performing state schools in Yorkshire.

Proud of its place in the performance tables achieved with a comprehensive intake of all ability levels, the success of the school is widely believed to have played a major part in the town's rapidly rising house prices

Along the way, the school has made many changes, including changes to curriculum which allow pupils are able to take their GCSE options a year earlier, in Year 8

"We have a very short Key Stage 3 before pupils move on to Key Stage 4," said Mr Edwards. "I anticipate that in future even more children will be starting their GCSEs early, doing the curriculum over three years."

Before the trust plans are granted, the schools must go through an extended period of consultation which finishes in June. If everything goes to plan, the trust would be up and running by September.

One of the major benefits would be financial - the schools could collaborate in areas such as maintenance and catering, with a combined pot for building projects.

There would also be more leeway to further engage with the community. Garforth Community College already runs a smaller-scale trust which provides a wide range of educational courses. The diverse array of classes range from Arabic dance, Tai Chi and Salsa to Spanish, guitar and cake decoration.

The existing trust also runs the Garforth Arts Festival, which in the four years it has run, has featured top musicians including saxophonist Courtney Pine, folk singer Kate Rusby and Richard Hawley.

Another major focus will be the 14-19 age group, with plans to offer Open University courses to pupils in the high school's ever-expanding sixth form, which currently numbers about 400, with a staying-on rate of about 75 per cent.

"Our plan is to have a staying-on rate of 100 per cent with about 600 in the sixth form," said Mr Edwards. "With the variety of courses we will be able to offer, every student should be able to access a course that is suitable to them."

Garforth already operates three out-of-school centres which focus on vocational courses. Dozens of students are already enrolled on courses in a hairdressers salon, a health and beauty centre and a business school.

Another innovation is the positioning of the school's inclusion centre in the business school. Unlike typical "sin bins", where pupils are disciplined away from other pupils.

At Garforth, the school introduced a no-exclusions policy last September and instead sends unruly youngsters from both the high school primary schools to work in the business school, sitting just yards away from studious sixth formers who act as role models.

Since the new system was put in place, the number of pupils who would have been considered for temporary exclusion has reduced to a trickle in a school with almost 2,000 pupils.

"Part of the idea is to change the attitudes of students who might be having problems," said Mr Edwards. "It's still not a particularly pleasant place to be because they are away from their classmates and they have to work hard, but while they are here they are working alongside motivated students and hopefully that will rub off on them."