As Cambridgeshire County Council’s legal advisors on its Building Schools for the Future (“BSF”) project, three members of our projects department recently volunteered to go ‘back to school’ to give students at Neale Wade Community College a different perspective on the project. Being amongst the first in line to benefit from the County’s BSF programme, students at the Fenland secondary school have been taking a close interest in the procurement process and around 50 of the school’s highest fliers attended a week-long summer school programme with a BSF theme, co-ordinated by teacher, Martin Field.  

Annie Moy, Jo Hawkins and Patrick Thompson (right) devised and ran a one-day legal workshop which gave students the chance to prepare, present and negotiate the terms of a ‘bid’ to design and build a new school; while other students took on the role of the County Council, developing and applying negotiation criteria and leading negotiations with the ‘bidders’.  

Senior Solicitor Annie Moy said "the day was highly enjoyable and we were very impressed by the students’ willingness to take up the challenge of the workshop." 

For pictures and a ‘blog’ of the day please visit

www.neale-wade.net/blog/?p=407