SPM can provide the data you need to support the Project Need section of your application.

• Evidence of pupil capacity from an independent source
• Scenario modelling for increasing capacity of the exiting site versus expansion
• Up to date Net Capacity Assessment for the whole institution

Get the data you need with School Property Matters

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With the conversation around strategic estate management being so prominent in the education sector over recent years, little is being discussed about how to truly secure a strategically managed school estate. Establishing a ‘data driven’ estate function within your school or trust is the only way to ensure an estate that is strategically and effectively managed.

The perceived priorities of works to be done within the estate will vary depending on the position each stakeholder looks at the estate from. Teachers may only be concerned with the issues in their classrooms, therefore believing they should be top of the list. Alternatively, Headteachers may believe the need for new or improved teaching facilities is paramount. As an estate manager, you need the ability to remain objective when confronted with these differing viewpoints and demands, to truly set the priority list for capital expenditure from an unbiased perspective. Having a complete set of data, including floor plans, capacity data and condition reports for your site will enable you to make these decisions with confidence, demonstrating to each stakeholder where their priorities lie in the bigger strategic picture. 

The need for data only increases with the number of schools within your trust. Each school will ask and fight for their site to be the focus of your capital funding allocation. Arming your estate function with data will enable them to disarm lower priority demand, decisions made will be objective and allow for greater transparency of the decision-making process. For example, if you were to have 5 schools within your trust the only way to ensure fair and equitable allocation of funds such as School Condition Allocations is to have an informed capital programme detailing how the capital works fit in with the ongoing building maintenance. 

If your trust is taking on new schools, doing the necessary technical due diligence by sourcing preliminary data for the new sites prior to the schools joining your trust is essential. The maintenance, capital programme and pupil capacity of the sites will become your responsibility, so any residual estate issues need to be highlighted and a dowry negotiated for taking on the responsibility of the buildings. This will enable you to plan for any significant expenditure that your new sites may require.   

When speaking about this topic, School Property Matters Managing Director Jeremy Pilgrim summarised the importance of having a data driven estate function by posing the question ‘How can you manage it if you don’t measure it?’. Establishing clear, independent base data as the basis for your estate strategy is critical to the smooth running of your estate function, a data driven estate function is in complete control of the facts surrounding the estate and as a result, is able to make fully informed, equitable decisions in all areas. 

With billions invested in providing extra pupil places over the past ten years, pupil capacity planning has very much been in focus nationally. 

However, at an individual school level the science of pupil capacity planning is poorly applied, resulting in a wide range of problems from over-crowding, poor space utilisation, escalating maintenance costs and unnecessary capital expenditure.

Speaking at Managing the School Estate Summit 2021 Jeremy Pilgrim of School Property Matters has 25 years’ experience, carrying out and analysing over 4000 surveys for 2500 schools as well as advising schools about the condition, capacity and utilisation of their buildings and facilities. 

With this background Jeremy believes that capacity planning is a crucial piece in the Estates Management jigsaw, even though current guidance on this area is limited in the DfE’s Good Estates Management Guide for Schools.

Jeremy asserts: “It is impossible to take a strategic approach to Estates Management without a clear picture and understanding of your school buildings’ capacity.”

While it is typically the headteacher who gets the call from the Local Authority about accommodating more pupils, they frequently do not have the right data or expertise to hand to provide a considered response about how their buildings need to expand.

“At the moment capacity planning falls between two stools but we want to encourage Senior Leadership Teams to think about their buildings and their school separately,” Jeremy explains. 

“The physical facilities are clearly the responsibility of the Estates team. Whereas the operational unit comprising teachers and pupils remains the headteacher’s domain to look after.”

Reflecting on some capacity planning disasters he has witnessed over his career Jeremy says: “I’ve seen schools raise hundreds of thousands of pounds of parents’ money for something they didn’t need, with personalities driving a capital programme.

“I’ve also seen a science specialist school resort to teaching A level science students in the school hall because they didn’t have enough labs – despite having three art rooms each the same size as a science lab.

“I know of one extremely cramped and overcrowded school that took many more pupils than their buildings could accommodate and disadvantaged itself in bids for expansion funding by achieving outstanding grades.

“And I’ve seen Local Authorities tempt headteachers with meagre expansion budgets when actually the work required was triple the cost.”

All of these problems, Jeremy believes, can be completely avoided by establishing a clear, factual baseline of capacity requirements, and making your Estates function the natural custodian of that information. 

“Headteachers don’t necessarily wish to appear hard-headed so it would suit them to delegate capacity planning to Estates,” Jeremy comments. 

“Armed with the data it is then the Estates function that can negotiate with the funding bodies and become a very useful ally for the Governors and Senior Leadership team.”

For further insight into the strategic importance of including capacity planning in the Estates function of your school or trust listen to Jeremy’s presentation at Managing the School Estate Summit 2021.

To arrange for a Pupil Capacity Report to be carried out at your site, contact info@schoolpropertymatters.co.uk

Social Distancing in Schools – Calculating Pupil Numbers by Room Type

If schools are to maintain social distancing, they cannot run at full capacity, meaning they will have to find a way to adapt to this ‘new normal’.

School Property Matters is the country’s foremost specialist in calculating school pupil capacities; therefore, the best way in which we can support the sector at this time is to advise on the pupil capacity of a school when accommodating social distancing.

This document details the current Department for Education guidelines for implementing social distancing in schools, calculations for class sizes within primary and secondary schools, and other factors to consider when deciding how to operate schools at this time.

Last Updated: July 2021

School Property Matters is the country’s foremost specialist in calculating school pupil capacities and works with local authorities, academy trusts, and individual schools across the country. The company works within schools to measure and assess the sites and buildings and then completes detailed analysis as a desk based exercise.

As a result of the changes to restrictions put in place in England from the 19th July, we are starting to welcome staff back into our office. We will be working to a rota system to keep the numbers reduced in the short term. With regards to site visits we will continue to operate following covid secure procedures as outlined below.

The following procedures are designed with the health and safety of employees and clients in mind and cover three areas; covid testing, travel and accommodation, and site procedures.

Covid Testing

We have implemented regular rapid testing for all staff required to visit school sites. We will also ensure that staff test negative before travelling to any on site appointments. 

Travel and Accommodation

As the company operates nationally, under normal circumstances staff will stay in hotels local to the customer’s schools when required. At present, hotels across the country are open and taking bookings. Therefore at present we are able to work in any area, although we are are avoiding the use of hotels and unnecessary travel where possible.

When traveling to on site appointments, School Property Matters employees will travel separately to the location and will avoid the use of public transport where possible.

Site Procedures

Whilst on school sites, the team will visit each space and take required dimensions. Taking the dimensions involves no contact with any building elements and thus is considered to be a low risk of transmission. The key issues are identified as; interaction with school staff where unavoidable, opening of doors, and use of sanitary facilities. 

Interaction with school staff: The site team will continue, where possible, to maintain distance when interacting with any school staff or pupils in the building. School Property Matters will only send necessary staff to work on site, numbers of staff will be kept as low as possible to help reduce transmission. Where possible, staff will follow individual school guidelines in place and will discuss this with the customer before visiting site. 

Wearing PPE: Staff will continue to wear masks provided by the company where distance cannot be maintained or when requested by the individual school.

Opening of doors: Gaining access to every space requires passing through doors where the handles are identified as a possible transmission risk. When arriving at site, the team will discuss 

with school staff how to mitigate this by potentially having every door be left open for them to gain entry. Where this is not possible, the team will have disinfectant wipes and hand sanitiser to sensibly reduce the risk of transmission to and from them on any door handle. Staff will also carry a door opening hook and will use this where possible.

Use of sanitary facilities: The team may need to use the toilet facilities at some stage during the visit, they will discuss with school staff what individual procedures are in place and agree which toilets they are permitted to use. The team will use disinfectant wipes to wipe the toilet, sink and door handles prior to and after use and will follow hand washing guidance. 

School Property Matters has taken a considered and sensible approach to continuing site work within schools and is committed to maintaining covid secure practices in the workplace. 

Volvo came up with an amazing system to constantly monitor the road and detect when you were about to hit something in front of you. The car applies the brakes and stops you before the accident happens. The system was not an optional extra, Volvo fitted it to all their cars as standard some years ago.

Like most men, I consider myself to be a good driver and thought that whilst a good innovation, the system wouldn’t make much difference to me. However, over the five years I drove that Volvo I think it saved me from about five minor accidents. As I hadn’t had five minor accidents in the five prior years, I couldn’t help wondering why that was and wondered if the system might be over eager.

On reflection, I now think the answer is complacency, the first time it deployed was nothing to do with my driving, it was a sudden change of mind by the driver in front. He decided the enormous gap he was pulling in to wasn’t enormous enough and suddenly stopped, I was busy checking that the gap was big enough for me too and was proceeding accordingly. The car wasn’t distracted, it was busy doing its job and saw the situation clearly and acted correctly and avoided an incident.

Within a month an identical situation occurred, yet again, Volvo saved the day. Now at this point I became aware of the system and started to chat to others about it and joked that I no longer needed to concentrate in traffic, as the car did it for me. I think the next few similar incidents happened because on some level I had started to do what I was joking about and let the car handle that part of our combined tasks, I think in business speak we call it delegation.

Fast forward to today, the Volvo moved to a new home five months ago and my new car doesn’t have a similar system. Volvo City Safety didn’t advertise itself to me on a daily basis, there was no light on the dashboard to remind me of its presence. It was just there and had proven its ability, so I relied on it implicitly, an unspoken trust. I’m probably more vulnerable to a small rear end accident now without it, but I’m not conscious of that on a daily basis and won’t be until an incident occurs.

What has this got to do with schools and why are you telling me this I hear you ask. Well I can’t help wondering about small schools which have been in the local authority system for their entire existence and rely on their procedures and support for things they aren’t always aware of, but have been in place for many years. When they move in to the new world of independence and MATs, do they know the MATs don’t yet have all these systems and safety nets in place, as they are still evolving and learning what their role is?