City Learning Centre

A City Learning Centre is a facility in the United Kingdom which provides ICT-based learning opportunities for the pupils at the host school, for pupils at a network of surrounding schools and for the wider community. The centre aims to enhance learning across the whole curriculum by providing courses and opportunities for individual pupils from schools around the area. The multimedia establishments cater to any age and level of ICT understanding, and some offer conferencing facilities which are pre-bookable by local businesses.

The number of established City Learning Centres in England exceeded 100, and steadily grew since their introduction in 2001. Many City Learning Centres are established on the same ground as an existing school (for example, South Sefton City Learning Centre was established on the grounds of Savio High School).

City Learning Centres were heavily funded by the British Government through the Excellence in Cities programme to ensure they were able to cater for the requirements of local schools and businesses within the area, with an emphasis on enhancing opportunities in disadvantaged areas. Up to £1.2 million of Revenue Funding per CLC was available for capital and initial start-up costs plus recurring funding of £220,000 per annum.

After their first year of operation, an additional £150,000 was available for Capital Redevelopment Funding to ensure their technology remains at the forefront. However, unlike revenue funding, it was only released from the first full financial year that a CLC was fully operational, requiring that a Centre must be open before 31 March in order to trigger funding in the following financial year. This however was limited to building and structure work, computer hardware and software, but not the funding required for subscriptions for such software. It should not be used to pay for consumables, staffing costs or other non-CLC purposes. In addition, this money must be spent on the Centre and not simply shared out amongst its partner schools, unless it is to improve connectivity between a Centre and partner schools.

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Wikipedia