Where would you prefer to go to school?

Gayle Souter-Brown on 26 February 2010 at 4.06pm

BSF offers a real opportunity to transform the lives of kids in the UK. After attending BSEC yesterday I am however concerned that some contractors are taking the opportunity to make fast cash at the expense of well considered, inclusive design. PFS cannot evaluate a building against a set of criteria without looking into whole site, whole community development and benefit.

With its proven gains for mental, physical and emotional health and hence learning outcomes LOTC and natural play must be factored in to the initial design, not bolted on if and when funds permit.

Richard Williams on 26 February 2010 at 4.14pm

Natural Daylighting and ventilation is most important with health, well being and productivity. Lighting from above provides maximum daylighting whilst reducing the use of high cost electric lighting whilst reducing the all important carbon footprint. To find out more, please feel free to contact me.

Kieran McNally on 26 February 2010 at 4.23pm

Our school is just about to be refurbished through the BSF scheme . I have been asked for my thoughts about what i would like my DT area to incorporate . i have strong views but with the ammount of money being involved ,I would like to see other schools who have gone through this process and ask for their opinions as to whether or not the decisions they made were the right ones and what works and what doesn't . I would be grateful if you could give me some contacts so that i may set up a visit to these schools . My school is William Ellis School, Highgate Road, London NW5 2QT

James Bacon on 26 February 2010 at 4.42pm

Firstly, there can be no doubt that buildings contribute to the learning process through a good layout by enabling good organisation of the school programme and management; also by creating spaces that contribute rather than conflict with the relevant activity providing good daylighting. Then we must consider external appearance of the whole and the logic apparent in entrances and roofscapes, proportion and heirarchy and, does it make you smile?! does it make you welcome? Then we must consider long term flexibilty and maintenance to inform our method of construction. the pictures you show are of two extremes, but remember some the "old" schools in your photos were designed by Architects using "new" system build methods, and my prediction is that large areas of sheet cladding and "green" timber cladding will look very dull after 10 years.. For longevity, appearance and recycling, the use of clay tiles and bricks or mechanical bricks can hardly be beaten. But the buildings are only a part of schooling, Without a desire for knowledge the mind will remain closed.

James Bacon on 26 February 2010 at 4.49pm

An additional comment, the original Architect should remain as a consultant for an agreed fee for the life of the building, thereby making the firm accountable for the design, many schools are progressively ruined by short term additions and modifications.

Maritz Vandenberg on 26 February 2010 at 6.59pm

When the Building Schools for the Future programme was launched in 2004, Ministers promised that it would result in every state secondary school in England being rebuilt or refurbished by 2020. In fact, the grand total of schools completed by December 2008 was 42 instead of a promised 300. In January 2008 Mr Ty Goddard, director of the British Council for School Environments, which represents hundreds of schools, local authorities, architects and building companies, charged that the stupefyingly burdensome bidding process imposed by the Government (and which all participants agree to be responsible for the above shortfall) was wasting enough taxpayers’ money ‘to fund a new school in every local authority’. Unless the BSF programme has been magically transformed since 2008, most of any further funds poured into this ongoing disaster will be spent on red tape rather than school building. In which case the Treasury should make a £2.3 billion per annum contribution towards the elimination of Britain’s budget deficit by abolishing the entire programme now.

Gayle Souter-Brown on 27 February 2010 at 9.58am

Kieran,

Sorry I don't have the name of the school but one idea I've seen recently invloved locating the DT area close to the Art dept, with the building angled to provide a courtyard area outside. Your students could collaborate with the Art dept and use the workshop to produce sculptural and other works for display.

Another idea is to think in terms of the best commercial workshops, where the workers are happiest/best motivated/produce the best work - there is abundant natural light, wide opening windows and doors for fresh air and leafy trees outside to balance the machinery within. Too often the DT suite is located in the back of the school with views of the carpark or bin store. Planning of your individual space must be looked at from a whole site development point of view.

Ian Bowmaker on 28 February 2010 at 10.24pm

Your pictures are depressingly true. As important as the new buildings and externals is the transformational educational change through BSF in our schools. The rigorous design and education review process by PfS is key to ensuring schools seize the opportunities to change dramatically.

Peter, Devon on 2 March 2010 at 9.36am

This is all very well, but with school budgets under pressure, maintaining the sort of green space planting schemes that architects design to high horticultural standards is impossible; The landscape maintenance contractors schools can afford use unskilled staff and are horticulturally next to useless! So, quickly the brave new world of the architect and CABE becomes similar to the world that went before. I would like to see CABE revisit schemes after 5 or 10 years to focus architects designing public sector buildings and landscapes on great scheme that society can afford to maintain. Saying that green spaces should be better funded just does not result in more funding!

Kate on 3 March 2010 at 8.54pm

To Peter: Could your students maintain the green spaces if the initial design and planting made it easy for them?

Clara Gaggero, Spell Studio on 5 March 2010 at 4.40pm

Kieran, we have helped schools in Ealing to consult with their students and staff before starting the BSF refurbishment process. Something that we found very useful was to design and build a small intervention first, as a playground or a 6th form centre. By involving the students and staff in the process, you will be able to provide them with an insight into the design process and clarify everyone's priority for the future space. This will also prove to all your school's stakeholders how design can improve quality of life and learning.

Maryanne TP Fong on 30 March 2010 at 8.42am

I have seen some slum areas & squatter huts in Hong Kong that look even worse than those pictures of dilapidated and unkempt school buildings or community social housing estates shown here. Even I myself have worked as a substitute teacher at one of those cramped, cubicle designed, dimly-lit classrooms or schools before.The extreme squalor conditions are beyond one's imagination.

Though people there tried to complain, yet long-term help and assistance was minimal and funds hard to come by. As days rolled by, gradually and reluctantly, the school principal, teachers and students have to accept the harsh reality of resorting more to self-help, hoping to stand the test of misery, and overcome life's tough challenges.

We do need to care more for the less fortunate,needy and poor in the world,and start to lend a helping hand!

Paul Bennison on 16 April 2010 at 2.01pm

I wouldn't change where my kids go to primary school despite the fact it is a series of 1960's single-storey blocks with poor internal and external spaces. why? well because the teaching is excellent, the pupils are alert, willing to learn, well behaved and enjoy their experience. i have a choice to send then to a recently rebuilt BSF secondary school but i won't be, mainly because of the the above reasons as well as some others.

I have previously worked in housing renewal areas and it used to be said that you can't change the people despite what you are able to do with new housing and the surrounding environment. the same in some circumstances can be said about new schools. in our area a number have either closed or turned into academies after significant rebuilding, so it isn't that simple. I now also work on BSF schools as a landscape architect and there are a lot of poorly designed and maintained schools which rightly require rebuilding and provided with the best facilities. will it improve a child's experience? probably yes. will it improve the educational standard of school and university leavers? business leaders in the past have said no. i would suggest it is questionable and largely depends upon the abilities of the teachers and linked to this the amount of central government control.

Clem Rutter, Former teacher and former school governor on 4 May 2010 at 8.30pm

A school is a working environment for teachers, ancillary teaching staff and many others- from 6am to 6pm or later and for 6 hours a day contains, feeds, controls and sometimes educates a thousand or so transient children. Previous design initiatives such as CLASP designed to a rigid price formula- with minimum sized boxes to legally big enough to contain 30 seated teenagers and yes a desk for the compulsory teacher- schools will not work unless all their functions are taken into account. So adequate corridors, safe stairwells all make the classroom job easier. Dining facilities, study and preparation facilities do make a teachers life easier- and these could be provided for the students as well.

Before commenting on the photos you have displayed, I will put my governors hat on. Everything has to be paid for, energy costs cleaning costs furniture maintenance, ground maintenance so that any building project has the potential to become a financial albatross. Schools do not control capital reserves and cannot influence their income, or even its subdivision.

Elm Court- Pretty- Whitewalls in gym, need frequent repainting.
Exterior shots- Grey skies in the East Midland showing waste bins- exterior contractors (outside school control) using different system than the school was designed for. Where is the equivalent waste area at Elm Court- if one has not been designed it will have to be created when the architects leave the site. The EC steps are lovely- but will require a teacher to supervise them during the teachers break, or to be made Out of Bounds as they are dangerous in rough play.

Toilets- five colours of paint- you can't seriously expect that to survive the first repainting. In the first school the only damage is where the substantial door closer has been ripped off the wall, In the new build even more flimsy closers have been used. Where are the hot air dryers?

Entrances are defined by the needs of the buses and parents dropping off the students. The new build will start to look tatty when posters are attached to the inside of the windows, concrete blocks don't wear well- chewing gum and the first sump oil leak from a taxi/ambulance/doitcheap school bus will degrade the clean blocks, which then will never be replaced.
That leads on to secure car parking for the staff....

Now the teaching spaces. You can see the problem- oversmall classrooms- grotty decor etc. That room has a whiteboard and a smartboard and inadequate display boards for pupils work. The tables are in excellent condition, and the curtains are drawn because sunlight means the pupils can't read the smartboard- natural light has to be eliminated or the kids can't work. What that teacher needs is more space so she can move the kids between activities- in younger groups the starter can be done in a circle, the main lesson will involve them moving to the desks to do a writing activity, and the plenary may be clustered round a poster or watching a projected DVD on the whiteboard.

It I had to teach in your new rooms, the door windows would be covered in sugar paper straight away so any excluded kids in the corridor from another class couldn't disrupt mine. I can't see the whiteboard, or the smart board that the dataprojectors are aiming at but all that glass will need curtains- blinds are too flimsy and expensive to maintain in time and money. I am worried about sound penetration from the adjacent classroom. There is no indication of how 30 kids will fit in- it looks better- but no storage for the kids- no displays- no powersockets for laptops or network sockets.

Corridors- the first image shows a low use corridor in use for storage, one notice board wasted on providing advertising space for a commercial contractor and the other heaving with work. I have seen this type of corridor- it illustrates the problem of storage. As the school matures it has to store more and more- I just do not see adequate storage in your modern designs and certainly no room for expansion. Looking at your Titus Salt image, we have the same problem of maintaining white walls in what looks like a spine. It looks really nice. I do have problems with the clean line approach because what it is lacking is noticeboard where pupils work can be celebrated. These become tatty so you are better off with a more Mondrian approach that handles clutter better. You show two girls- will it work at lesson change over with 120 kids heading in each direction. Can it be easily supervised? Maybe . Further why are the kids carrying all their belongings- that says to me they have no form base with secure storage for their stuff.

The old stairwell is grotty and needs better lighting. However contra-jour photography never flatters- The floor shows the effect that 1000 pairs of muddy feet have on vinyl flooring- but would one in a lighter shade look better? Dragging a trainer across it leave a wonderful black mark- cleaning costs rise, it is pointless photographing a floor before it has had 5 years usage when the flaws appear.

The Michael Tippett Atrium looks inspiring but what is it used for- after all it is big space to heat. How does one clean between the wooden column and the glass screen. The conduit to the lightswitch- is that a feature or an afterthought.

What you don't show are any of the staff facilities....

I love good architecture but have taught too long and managed too many budgets to remain uncritical. When moneybecomes available after a period of neglect, the resulting buildings seem to forget the actual user- architect are experts in light and space, contracts and construction, but the school cleaner, the classroom assistant, the caretaker and the teacher the experts in functions and their seemingly Luddite comments represent a deep design truth. If you need a panel of realists to reassess some of these designs before they are approved for construction, I would gladly accept the post.