The Centre for School Design » Seminars

School acoustics – making ourselves heard

Ian Fordham — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 16:22:51 +0000

We held a great seminar on monday at East Manchester Academy discussing the full range of issues connected to school acoustics. This is a topic we’ve looked at quite a bit in the past but it seemed like a good time to find out what changes had happened and will happen to the current guidance and legislation as well as the solutions emerging in the system. We also had the great fortune to have two world experts come over from the US to address the group – Professor Carol Flexer and Dan Ostergren, thanks to our sponsors Lightspeed Technologies.

All of the presentations from the seminar are available here. I will also post up an update to this post with some of the highlights from the event early next week.

Academies conference – 13 May 2011

Ian Fordham — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 09:49:32 +0000

We are delighted to be the main supporting organisation for the upcoming Wellington College run Academies Conference that takes place on Friday 13 May 2011. The Secretary of State, the Rt. Hon Michael Gove MP, will give the keynote speech and will be joined by other leading figures, including Lord Andrew Adonis, Elizabeth Sidwell (the new Schools Commissioner), Anthony Salz (Chairman of the Board at the Department of Education), Anthony Seldon and Andy Schofield (from Wellington College and Wellington Academy respectively) and Martin Church from KPMG. Others will share their experiences of founding academies.

With more than 600 academies already established in England and many more to follow we know all too well that state independent schools have already become an established part of the new educational landscape. Academies: Making Partnerships Work is a conference that will ask important questions at a critical time: why should schools, universities and businesses invest in academies? And how should new partnerships be established in the future? This conference will give the vision – and the advice – about where next for the Academies programme? The event will also be followed by a tour of the new Academy.

We think it will be an excellent opportunity to debate the key issues in this rapidly developing field. To book a place at the event visit the Wellington College events website.

Free schools – opening up the debate

Ian Fordham — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 12:53:58 +0000

We are just doing some final edits of video material from Gleeds TV from last year’s British Council for School Environments Annual conference and in particular the debate about Free Schools – with Fiona Millar, Indy Johar, Jon de Maria, Sobia Bashir, Dale Bassett and Pascale Scheurer – is one of the best and most articulate debates I’ve seen.

We will post up the video in full very shortly – but here is a taster of what Indy Johar (Research 00, Demos and Respublica) and Pascale Scheurer (Surface to Air, Wired and Hackney Free School for Creative Entreprenurship) think about this key policy issue in the context, respectively, of the international/global debate about education and learning and at the grassroots / policy level in England.

Lord Knight: the future of school design

Ian Fordham — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 09:30:07 +0000

The BCSE Building Better Schools conference was in full swing one week ago.

We are still getting some great feedback from participants and speakers alike – including this comment from leading journalist Fiona Millar:“I found it very interesting and was sorry I couldn’t stay longer as I really wanted to try and find out more about what is going to happen to the schools like ours”

We will be posting all of the main presentations, videos, photos from study tours, reflections and key outcomes of the seminars in the next week. For those who missed the event – there is a great summary of the discussions via this #BCSE twitter transcript.

In the meantime we asked one our keynote speakers Lord Knight of Weymouth (@jimpknight) to reflect on his time as Schools Minister, the successes and challenges of the Building Schools for the Future programme and look ahead to the future of school design

Building Better Schools conference – have your say

Ian Fordham — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:00:33 +0000

Over the next few weeks we are finalising our programme for our BCSE Annual Conference – which this year has the theme:

Building Better Schools – academies, free schools and the big society

We are delighted to be hosting our conference this year with Manchester City Council who have led the way in thinking big about school design and whose academy and school building programme, like Knowsley Council last year, has been held up as a national model of excellence.Last year’s World Learning Environments Conference was a fantastic event taking in leading speakers, presenters and seminars from across the globe. Videos from the event can be found on the Gleeds TV website.

This year, we are returning to focus on the “Best of Britain” and showcasing innovative practice, thinking and leading work in designing, building and using schools. We are keeping a similar format for the event. Day one will feature tours of leading schools and academies followed by networking and an evening drinks reception and day two will be the UK’s leading conference on education, design and innovation, based uniquely within one of Manchester’s leading academies.

As with all our events we aim to be interactive and engage with people before, during and after the conference – so while we have some great speakers lined up – we would like to ask who would you like to hear from and would you like to showcase some of your work at our conference.

There are also a range of sponsorship and partnership opportunities for the conference – if you would like further information please email me at ian (at) bcse.uk.net

Remodelling education – key lessons from history

Ian Fordham — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 15:09:28 +0000

Open air schools

Yesterday’s launch event of our new resource ‘The New 3Rs’ threw up some really interesting observations from the presenters about the new landscape we are working within – and some radical options for the future of schools and school design.

Interestingly many of these had their roots in the history of schooling and identify a need to learn the lessons of the past to be able to make sense of the present more challenging climate and to succeed in the future. Presentations from the event are available here and I’ve summarised the key discussions below.

Ty Goddard, BCSE, started by describing the policy context of free schools, the drive for new academies and the next months as being turning points for the system and industry. We must deliver more for less but ensure we don’t drive out the quality of the thinking that’s taken place over the past 5 years. Remodelling he suggested had been the Cinderella element of capital investment, whereas refresh and reuse had been given less profile than new build. Yet in the new era of public spending restrictions – the new 3Rs have the potential to be even more dynamic and create better value for money.

Michael Oliff from Scott Brownrigg described the genesis of education buildings from Victorian times to the present and identified trends that could show us the way forward, in a time where budgets are restricted. Board schools showed an economy of design matched with high value placed on natural light and a mixture of home, instruction and project spaces, which mirror current day designs. In the 1920s, there was a movement towards ‘Open air’ schools which emphasised the outdoor environment as a key element to teaching and learning, at little cost, and in post war Britain modular and off site solutions were found to build and upgrade schools en masse to deliver system wide education change and cater for an age of austerity. Sound familiar?

Paul Zucharelli from Davis Langdon continued the excellent debate with a bold statement– “we know as much as we can about costs but what about the ‘value’ of education? – how can you measure the value of carbon reduction and improving educational achievement and wellbeing and of community?’. He continued by describing the various cost models available and put the 3Rs on a continuum of change – remodelling could be likely to re-inforce the status quo in terms of teaching and learning, whereas refresh could change a school’s approach, albeit on a much smaller scale. Reuse he suggested was the most exciting option as it challenged the conventional wisdom about schooling and many participants at the seminar endorsed this with example of state schools, independent schools and higher education institutions using non conventional spaces.

Finally we heard from Bob Athroll from Willmott Dixon talking about the need to measure outcomes in any building project. In a changing climate, he said, we must focus on the specific needs and requirements of teachers and pupils – whether that be improved behaviour, better spaces for teaching and learning or a more secure site. He neatly summed up the advice he provides to schools by saying that the key for a successful school design is a 3 part question: We should all ask ‘how do you want teachers to teach, how will learners learn – and how will the building support that. In a time of great change, sometimes the most simple questions are the most powerful.

What you may have missed in May

Ian Fordham — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:01:21 +0000

With so much to look forward to in June (National School Environments Week 18-25 June and the BCSE Industry Awards 24 June), we thought we’d make sure that you haven’t missed any of the important developments we picked up in May.

Becta have been the first high profile casualty in the education sector

It all seems so long ago now, but a month ago, we weren’t entirely sure what the political landscape around education was going to look like.

The only thing we knew for certain was that change was in the offing whatever happened and a new government would move us well beyond the status quo.

All governments inevitably end up having to defend the less attractive consequences of their policies, and new governments have plenty of low-hanging fruit to choose from when they’re looking for high-impact improvements.

As we awaited the electorate’s verdict, our eyes were upon one of the biggest obstacles that ambitious schools face – the system of procurement. We thought that the outgoing government had allowed a rigid conformity to grow up and that the system was driving out sharp new ideas. It will be interesting to see how far the concerns that we raised in this pre-election post will be addressed by the new government.

And what happened within days of the election result being known? Aside from the eye-catching Free Schools policy, a few interesting assessments had been going around about the demise of BECTA – one of the early casualties. On the wider question of funding, this quote leaped out as us:

“Anna Fazackerley – the head of education at the think tank Policy Exchange – who says that, “one part of the schools budget that is ripe for cutting is capital”. We also heard a day later from a Building Magazine article that there was a strong possibility that all BSF programmes that hadn’t reached preferred bidder stage may be frozen, pending a review in the upcoming budget

The Institute for Fiscal Studies took the view that ..

“Either they have to scale back plans for free schools or reduce building schools for the future by a substantial degree,”

We gave a more detailed early response to the first ten days of the new government in our inaugural weekly podcast. We have been asked a lot about Michael Gove’s ‘supply side revolution’ and we’re looking forward to seeing how far the ‘Free Schools’ policy will go. We’re expecting continuing investment in the workforce and in teacher professionalism. The new government are inevitably picking up on questions of waste and decentralisation – two long-signalled themes from the Conservatives.

And while all of this is going on, it is important to carry on promoting good practice in all aspects of school design, and our second weekly podcast featured an interview with world renowned ergonomics guru Dr Dieter Breithecker about his expert views on school furniture and the key messages he has for schools and professionals working in the UK. We met Dieter in preparation for the first of two of our Masterclasses on furniture. As Dieter says when we choose any furniture for children, ‘we should not buy the mistakes of history’ – we should have the same view of the education landscape as we progress through the summer term.

School furniture and ergonomics – what matters?

Ty Goddard — Fri, 28 May 2010 08:30:39 +0000

In our second podcast I talk to world renowned ergonomics guru Dr Dieter Breithecker about his expert views on school furniture and the key messages he has for schools and professionals working in the UK. Dieter has run the Federal Institute for the Development of Posture and Exercise in Germany for the past 20 years. In his first trip to England, he has just run 2 masterclasses in London and Birmingham exclusively for us, sharing his ground breaking work on ergonomics, the importance of movement and how the choice of furniture can improve academic achievement and well being.

Many thousands of young people spend on average 15,000 hours on poorly designed chairs or what I’ve called in the past ‘turkey twizzler furniture’ – this has to end. As Dieter says when we choose any furniture for children, ‘we should not buy the mistakes of history’. In this short video he shares some of his big messages.

Post BSEC reflections

Ian Fordham — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:37:20 +0000

Ty giving speech at BSEC 2010

We arrived back from the 2 day BSEC conference at London Excel late last night – so a day later, we’re reflecting on the event as a whole. Ty’s presentation (see below) seemed to go down well although the atmosphere in the conference seemed a bit flat. Other people from the event also commented on how the exhibition element worked pretty well but the conference has lost its edge (see the twitter posts via #BSEC ) and as for the after dinner magician… lets not go there!

I think personally Manchester was a much better location and the footfall was way down as a result… and counting/scanning people every time you come in and out of the exhibition shouldn’t count in your figures! (think ‘unique users’ guys). There was also no wifi and limited mobile connection which was amazing for a modern venue. And for the final time – can we reiterate – BSEC is NOT our event, we get no financial benefit from it at all.

On the plus side the launch of our marketplace went down very well, the quality of some of the stands was superb and we met some excellent people including some exciting new leaders in the school design world (more to follow on this). We have also posted some photos on flickr of some great new organisations we came across. Our overall report – B+ trade fair, C- conference (could do better).

Ty Goddard at BSEC

PS for those who were not there – Ty called for 3 things to get our school capital house in order: 1) fast action on procurement, to cut costs not the investment; 2) wide scale post occupancy evaluation, so we learn from others; and 3) a national advisory council at the heart of government, with representation from the field

Centre for School Design at BSEC

Ian Fordham — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 07:45:11 +0000

We are all at the Building Schools Exhibition and Conference (we will be sending updates via twitter using the hashtag #BSEC) for the next two days on stand 925.

Ty is speaking in the morning of the 24 February to the main conference on the theme of ‘the truth about school buildings’. Baroness Estelle Morris is also speaking about the Great Schools Commission in the afternoon of the 25 February. So come along for a chat or to get involved with the Centre or the BCSE’s work.