Amidst the multitude of stories about Building Schools for the Future in the past few weeks, there has been little up to date research quoted about the impact of school environments – and a lot of incredibly woeful debates and uninformed accounts saying “do school buildings matter?”.
Our most recent survey of over 500 teachers shows that school environments have a positive impact on pupil behaviour, teachers ability to teach effectively in the classroom and their well being. It follows a similar landmark survey done in 2008 ‘Just another brick in the wall’ which showed the need for school capital programmes to involve teachers and create more flexible environments.
More than half of teachers who responded to our 2010 School Environments Survey felt that their school building was not supporting their “ability to teach effectively by providing an environment that has a positive influence on behaviour.”
Results of the 2010 survey conducted by the BCSE, Teacher Support Network and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) showed that teachers overwhelmingly agreed (95.8%) that the school environment had an influence on pupil behaviour, with 52.1% believing that their surroundings had a negative effect.
As part of the survey, teachers sent in photos of their existing school environments including staffrooms and working spaces
Among teachers’ criticisms were lack of space for students to “relax”, lack of “exciting, flexible and appropriately sized classrooms for students”. One teacher said “we currently have 250 more students in our school than we were designed to accommodate”. There was also significant concern for “good quality toilets” causing one teacher to comment “students are very vocal about inadequate toilet facilities, which makes them feel unrespected.”
Clearly the survey shows school environments matter. Money invested in school buildings is an investment in teachers and children, not a wasted luxury. We need professional environments which support our teachers to do their jobs.
ATL general secretary, Dr Mary Bousted, said: “Teachers work incredibly hard to give their pupils a good education regardless of the physical environment, but it is much harder for children to concentrate if the classroom is too hot or cold or they can’t hear properly. We can’t stress enough that for teachers and children to teach and learn in an effective manner, school buildings need to be safe, clean, and inspiring.”
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We all know that the environment matters, that it can enhance or detract from the learning taking place within it. We all have examples of clients that tell us they have noticed a positive change in students behaviour and therefore attainment when moving into new buildings and spaces…
So why is none of this documented conclusively? Why is there no evidence that is beyond question? Surely if we can prove this, this is all the ammunition we need to prove this is money well spent?….