Money may be tight right now, but there is a huge amount that we can learn from the decisions that were made over the past decade of investment in school building capital project. In preparing for the BCSE 2010 Industry Awards tomorrow night, I was reviewing some of the 2009 winners to see how they compare.
I often hold Knowsley’s approach up as one of the best examples of a local authority responding directly to the nature of learning in the 21st century.
In a number of their BSF projects, they’ve shown a desire to prepare their schools for personalised learning while also recognising the needs of the whole child, adopting a ‘school within a school’ approach through the introduction of homebases.
Their Centres for Learning are also promoting healthier, happier and engaged children. One of the winners of the 2009 ‘Inspiring Design’ awards – Christ the King – has enhanced the quality of the learning environment for its users with the following features:
An atrium at the heart of the Centre for Learning (CfL), offering a large double height open space which can be adapted for a variety of learning, cultural and social use while also creating a magnificent welcoming light entrance.
Locally young people requested that large centres are divided into home/family groupings with Homebases. These incorporate a variety of spaces including learning studios and open breakout areas based around a ‘village square’. This accommodates a range of different learning styles.
Learning spaces are more flexible and longer opening hours allow the community to use the centre for educational, cultural and leisure use, so spaces are multifunctional to adapt to their needs.
The Learning Resource Area has replaced the traditional library and offers increased opportunities for more interactive learning through the provision of wireless technologies, IT banks and library resources.
External Terrace & Winter Garden provide opportunities for ‘indoor outdoor learning’ with a series of external terraces attached to each homebase. This has included an internal winter garden – a covered yet permeable space which enables pupils to explore sustainability and environmental learning.
A series of ‘warehouses’ deliver specialist subjects such as science, technology and the Arts.
The CfL is WiFi enabled and Knowsley has developed a virtual personalised learning environment for every student.
I recall that, when we were looking at this project during our deliberations for the 2009 awards, the Judges were impressed by Knowsley’s ability to engage a wide range of stakeholders in the development of Christ the King Centre for Learning.
This is an exciting new building that provides an imaginative and flexible range of general and specialist learning spaces designed with the 21st Century curriculum at its heart. It also provides lots of ideas that existing schools can tune into.
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