Participle

In 1998, the UK government announced a large investment in improving school buildings. This project turned that investment into a method of updating how 21st Century school children could learn in new ways. An award winning new national approach was developed by an inter-disciplinary team working in partnership with a then ‘failing’ school in South London. Pupils and staff worked with the community to re-design the curriculum, school management system, pastoral care and an award winning new building.  As a result the school is now one of the 20 most improved schools in Britain and the process has had a national impact and been used by over 40 schools across the country, School Works itself has become an award winning enterprise, recently re-named the British Council for School Environments.

In 1997 a new Labour government proposed a massive investment in re-building Britain’s secondary schools.  £45 billion is to be invested in our schools over 15 years. Whilst recognising that this was a much needed investment we asked firstly, why simply refurbish post war schools when learning, the work place and the wider world have changed so much and secondly, how could we turn a proposed infrastructure investment into a social investment, an investment in learning.

The school environment matters.  In a poll by the British Council for School Environments in June 2007, 87% of the 530 teachers in England who responded said that they felt school environments influenced pupils’ behaviour.  When asked to rate the design of their school in terms of its effectiveness as a learning environment just 12% said they considered the design of their school buildings to be effective, while 32% said they were poorly designed. One teacher said: ‘The standard of the environment sets the standard for the quality of learning. If the impression given to students is that this room doesn’t matter then the impression is that it doesn’t matter what they do in this room.’

Designing 21st Century Schools

School Works set out to tackle these issues in practice, working in partnership with Kingsdale School in South London.  A large, mixed inner city community comprehensive, Kingsdale was at the time an officially failing school, on special measures and therefore unable to receive capital funding.  We argued that it was exactly such a school that should receive investment and the government committed £10 million to a test case project, to look at how we might use an infrastructure project as a catalyst for wider educational and social change.

An inter-disciplinary team which included educational experts, psychologists, artists and architects chosen through an international competition, worked with the school leadership team, pupils, staff and surrounding neighbourhood to develop a new curriculum, a different approach to pastoral care, a programme of management change, and to deliver a new building within which all this might be possible.  Throughout, pupils and staff were at the heart of the creative and decision making processes.

Kingsdale was built in the 1950’s and had a range of glaring problems which were seriously affecting the way students learnt. Fundamental, simple building issues existed. Narrow, long, corridors meant that there was a ‘traffic’ problem with children in opposite directions all trying to push through the cramped passageway to get to different classrooms when the bell rang to tell them that another lesson was about to start. The toilets were in such a state of disrepair that not only did the smell permeate throughout the school but in order to avoid using them pupils would go home and stay there so a pattern of truancy was set up that could have been avoided. There was little natural light, no proper cafeteria, which again encouraged children to leave the school premises, and the use of CCTV cameras and patrolling security guards created an oppressive and aggressive atmosphere. 

Other wider issues existed, about how the school created new types of interaction. In order to meet the demands of the twenty-first century with greater emphasis on technology, a job market that demands team work, and a more flexible approach to learning, Kingsdale decided that there should be a wide range of vocational courses and qualifications and that it would also become a centre of life-long learning, by developing links with parents, the neighbouring primary school and the local community.

To support the new vocational curriculum and life-long learning there are now clustered, flexible learning spaces that allow for interactive groups working in a way that resembles and prepares for the hi-tech workplace. The congested corridors have been replaced with a large, natural light-filled central space that allows better surveillance of pupil’s behaviour and does not rely on CCTV and security guards.  The canteen has been redesigned and reorganised so that the queuing system is more democratic and less likely to become a place of conflict. The time-table has also been rethought so that not everyone is moving through the school at the same time.

Lockers have been redesigned as a result of an art and science project carried out by the school which makes pupils feel that they have their own personal, safe space which are highly visible in the central, communal area and not tucked away as a haven for bullies. A “house” system has been introduced to create a sense of belonging among small groups of pupils of different ages within the large student population. New children are welcomed into the school by mentors from their own house.

The results

In 2004 Kingsdale was recognised as one of the UK’s top 20 improved schools with GCSE results increased by 30%. An independent evaluation of the School Works process by Price Waterhouse Coopers recommended the widespread adoption of the project process and principles. The Department for Education set up an Advisory Group under the Schools Minister to take forward its policy recommendations.

What happened next?

In 1999 Hilary Cottam set up School Works, a social enterprise dedicated to overseeing the project at Kingsdale and supporting the dissemination of the process more widely.  School Works has since worked with 52 schools in 13 Local Education Authorities, always putting the school pupils, staff and wider community at the heart of the project, whilst winning awards as an innovative business.

Since the starting point in 1999 significant advances have been made. Under the government’s Building Schools for the Future programme, it is now accepted as common practice that decisions on a school’s physical fabric should not be taken in isolation from the broader learning agenda.  Britain has seen some radical, beautiful and functional new school buildings.  Sadly however such outcomes are still far from the norm. Participle concurs with BCSE, Cabe and the House of Commons education select committee, that too many of the schools currently under construction or recently completed are not fit for purpose and represent a terrible missed opportunity to revolutionise learning.

School Works itself has become an award winning enterprise, recently re-named the British Council for School Environments.

Further information:

Learning: Kit for Purpose