City Technology College

In England, a City Technology College (CTC) is an urban all-ability specialist school[1] for students aged 11 to 18 specialising in science, technology and mathematics.[2] They charge no fees and are independent of local authority control, being overseen directly by the Department for Education. One fifth of the capital costs are met by private business sponsors, who also own or lease the buildings. The rest of the capital costs, and all running costs, are met by the Department.[3]

City Technology Colleges logo

Description

City Technology Colleges teach the National Curriculum, but specialise in mainly technology-based subjects such as technology, science and mathematics. Like maintained schools, they are regularly inspected by the Office for Standards in Education. CTCs also forge close links with businesses and industry (mainly through their sponsors), and often their governors are directors of local or national businesses that are supporting or have supported the colleges. The programme has been successful in the long term with all the CTCs being considered strong establishments with consistently high academic results.[3]

History

The CTC programme was established in the late 1980s by the Conservative government under the terms of the Education Reform Act 1988 and the Colleges themselves opened in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The first City Technology College opened was The City Technology College, Kingshurst in 1988, which was later converted to an academy in 2008. The original intention was to improve education inside cities, but the programme was hampered by the refusal of local authorities in the targeted areas to provide suitable school sites. Building entirely new schools was much more expensive, requiring a greater contribution from the government, and the resulting schools tended to be on the outskirts of cities. After the programme was abandoned, the government embarked on the more modest aim of designating some existing schools as Technology Colleges, the first non-CTC specialist schools.[4]

The Learning and Skills Act 2000 introduced a similar type of school, the City Academy, later renamed Academy. Differences from CTCs include halving the financial commitment of the sponsor, and being bound by the Schools Admissions Code. The Labour government encouraged CTCs to convert into academies.[3]

List of CTCs
The BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon, London

In all, 15 City Technology Colleges were created, of which all but three have converted to academies:[3][5]

School Local Authority Opened as a CTC Converted to Academy
ADT College Wandsworth19922007
Bacon's College Southwark19912007
BRIT School Croydon1991no
Brooke Weston CollegeCorby19912008
Dixons Bradford CTC Bradford19902005
Djanogly CTCNottingham19892003
Emmanuel CTC Gateshead1990no
Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College Lewisham19912005
Harris CTC Croydon19902008
John Cabot CTCSouth Gloucestershire19932007
The City Technology College, Kingshurst Solihull19882008
Landau Forte CollegeDerby19922006
Leigh CTCKent19902007
Macmillan CTC Middlesbrough19892006
Thomas Telford SchoolTelford and Wrekin1991no

See also

References
  1. "A history of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 April 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  2. "Types of school". childlawadvice.org.uk. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  3. "CTCs (City Technology Colleges)". Department for Children, Schools and Families. Archived from the original on 4 March 2005. Retrieved 11 November 2008.
  4. Smithers, Alan; Robinson, Pamela (2009). "Specialist science schools" (PDF). Centre for Education and Employment Research, University of Buckingham. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 February 2009.
  5. "House of Commons Hansard Written Answers". UK Parliament. 19 May 2002. Retrieved 11 November 2008.
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