The Centre for School Design » building schools for the future

Let’s be proud of our schools – set them free

Ian Fordham — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 08:00:32 +0000

We all have a memory of that place we call school. A moment of insight or fun; a teacher that inspired; the classroom; the sports field; an art room; a playground; a science experiment; the awful toilets. Our childhood in our schools has for many a particular and enduring place in our memories. And schools stir great passions and great divides – when in fact there is more to connect us together than divide us. And in an increasingly competitive education system globally, there is now more to gain from having a common sense view about our schools – so we don’t fall further behind Singapore, Finland or China.So what we must do is set our teachers free, set our schools free and set the system free. The trajectory of government legislation in this area is exceptionally positive – new academies provide greater freedoms in terms of staff pay, conditions and the curriculum and, as middle class parents are now saying in a recent Durham University report the results are starting to add up. Free Schools too have enormous potential to address a major problem of a lack of school places – resulting from a population timebomb of children coming into the system – and they put parents, charities and teachers into the driving seat of setting up their own school. Critically both policies are based on a growing evidence base in Charter Schools in the US, which have radically changed the education system in America.

But despite this, the education system – much like the National Health Service – is like a large tanker. It takes time to turn around, takes pioneering leaders to show the way and takes courage from the large majority of frontline teachers who, despite caricature, are small ‘c’ conservative in nature. So the question for us is – have we set the bar high enough? Are we being ambitious enough in the change we want in education? And can we free up schools even further so they and we are able to compete with other countries?

Our report launched last week, Free Schools Thinking, encourages teachers, parents and government to deliver even greater freedoms, at a faster pace of change and beyond just freeing up the model of schooling (academies and free schools) and the supply side (academy sponsors, chains of schools). More fundamentally we should be freeing up all schools in terms of:

the time when teaching and learning takes place, including longer teaching days;
the people who help to support schools including local businesses and entrepreneurs;
the spaces where learning takes place including corridors, playgrounds and after school clubs;
the places where schools can be located including redundant offices, government buildings and factories.

Free Schools Thinking also entails an understanding that school environments can be a major tool for school improvement. Every top private school, academy and comprehensive knows they must invest some of their budget in creating ‘decent school environments’ to inspire and develop future leaders of this country. And this is not about the bricks and mortar or glass atriums – which we know are just a means to an end. This is about common sense elements such as light, temperature, air quality, acoustics and decent furniture – which are important in our workplaces but sadly not in all schools. It is vital to refresh, refurbish or reuse schools to ensure they function well, last for a generation and make a difference in terms of results and achievement.

The bureaucracy surrounding such programmes such as Building Schools for the Future were an insult to our architects, construction companies and suppliers who are in fact not just building some of the best schools in the UK, but are exporting British products and expertise to a global market. The waste represented in this policy represented the ‘Worst of Britain’. Freeing up our schools to think differently about the way education is delivered, reducing bureaucracy, stripping away planning laws and rewarding excellence is the ‘Best of Britain’ and vital if we are to compete with the fastest moving economies and education systems in the world.

Let us be proud of our schools – let us set them free.

Note: this post is adapted from a ‘Platform article’ written by Ian Fordham on ConservativeHome – the most visited grassroots Conservative Party website in the UK

School environments DO matter

Ian Fordham — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 07:06:16 +0000

Its been pretty disheartening to see the debate taking place in the media recently that are carrying stories that buildings and school environments don’t make a difference. Despite this view flying in the face of all common sense, the practical experience of teachers and young people, an enormous chunk of evidence from office, retail and the commercial sector from around the world and a decent, albeit smaller scale chunk of evidence from schools in the UK – the view seems to go unchallenged. Well until now…

Whether this is part of a backlash from the excesses of the Building Schools for the Future programme – which was wasteful and took its eye of the ball about measuring impact and doing Post Occupancy Evaluation on each building… or that its part of a more concerted drip, drip campaign to clear the way for less thinking (and spending) on the built environment and towards low cost, cheap as chips schools – is a matter for debate.

But its time we set the record straight – school buildings and schools environments DO matter and they DO improve educational outcomes. And despite feeble efforts to discredit this (even from the NFER of all places, who this week produced a quite appalling piece of ‘research‘ that undermines their hard won credibility in the sector), the evidence is there for all to see. And quite frankly – if the school environment deniers want a head to head in public to debate the evidence and present their case – name the time and place and we’ll be there!

Here are a couple of quotes for starters (we will also publish our response to the Capital Review next week – that contains even more) but lets not let good evidence, common sense or the experience of millions of educators around the world get in the way of a simple headline:

“Physical elements in the school environment can be shown to have discernible effects on teachers and learners. In particular, inadequate temperature control, lighting, air quality and acoustics have detrimental effects on concentration, mood, well-being, attendance and, ultimately, attainment”

The Impact of School Environments, Woolner et al 2003

“In a survey of 530 teachers, 87% believed that school environments influence pupil behaviour on school buildings”

Just another brick in the wall, Teacher Support Network/ BCSE 2007

“The effects of the school environment on young people’s attitudes to education and learning at Bristol Brunel Academy report that vandalism, graffiti, littering, and bullying are much less of a problem. The ‘before’ and ‘after’ survey of around 200 students suggests a strong association between the move to new surroundings and students’ outlooks regarding their experience of school and their expectations for the future”

The Effects of the School Environment on Young People’s Attitudes to Education and Learning. Rudd et al 2008

“Considerable evidence shows that there is an explicit relationship between the physical characteristics of school buildings, and the spaces within them, and educational outcomes. Poor school conditions make it more difficult for teachers to teach and pupils to learn. Every effort should therefore be made in the design stage to create the ideal (optimal) conditions for learning to take place”

Optimal Learning Spaces: Design Implications for Primary Schools, Barrett and Zhang, October 2009

“Public education—including the built infrastructure to support it —is key to the economic prosperity of our communities and nation. Responsible management and investment in public (state) school buildings pays three times: once for skilled jobs in local communities; a second in the quality that healthy, safe, and educationally appropriate buildings create for students and their teachers; and finally, a third time in the benefits that quality education will reap for generations to come”

Good Buildings, Better Schools: an economic stimulus opportunity with long-term benefits, Economic Policy Institute 2008

“This study looked at teacher retention and the quality of school facilities amongst K–12 public school teachers in Washington, D.C. The sample identifies that facility quality is an important predictor of the decision of teachers to leave their current position, even after controlling for other contributing factors”

Fix It and They Might Stay: School Facility Quality and Teacher Retention in Washington, D.C, Buckley et al 2008

New government – the first ten days

Ian Fordham — Thu, 20 May 2010 14:27:59 +0000

In the first of our podcasts Ty reflects on the first 10 days of the new government, the newly launched coalition programme for government that shares some more detail about schools policy and the rumoured cuts to the Building Schools for the Future budget. Note: please excuse the wobbly camerawork – its our first one!

Why wait for BSF?

Ty Goddard — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:13:06 +0000

Are you waiting for BSF?

Yesterday I spoke at an event entitled, ‘Why wait for BSF?’ , hosted by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. It’s early days for their work on this issue but some of the invited schools had done fantastic work. Like the BCSE’s Big School Makeover schools – these schools had not waited for permission to think about their environment in different ways. The school environment was a tool for improving their schools.

I enjoyed hearing Mark Lovat and Simon Brown from Cramlington Learning Village. These guys and their Head, Derek Wise, had toured the world and brought it all back home tailored to the needs of their learners. Dr Patrick Hazlewood and Barry Worth from the ( new) St John’s School and Community College, Marlborough spoke on BSfN (Building Schools for Nothing ) having raised £22m, then another £4.5m to design, buld and enjoy a new school. Wonderful people; wonderful leaders. Their watchwords, ‘Build your dream big enough…. And never stop making your school better.’ ‘And have a deep rooted philosophy of what education is for.’

Energetic Carl Ward from Sutherland Business and Enterprise College, Telford spoke about the first BSF ICT testbed in the country. Good idea but the spaces needs a little softening. Phil Ward spoke about the experiences of Heston Community School – they didn’t wait for BSF either.

As one Deputy in Melbourne said to our friends from Cramlington, ‘sometimes there’s a need to disturb the physical space to affect the pedagogy’ Well thought through and understood learning spaces allow a variety of approaches to teaching and learning. The Classroom – Plus school.

School capital investment – getting our house in order

Ty Goddard — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:59:14 +0000

This is an absolutely vital time. This major investment in school buildings has made a difference, and we really can’t afford to go back to not spending money consistently on infrastructure. The sheer scale of this investment is hard to absorb for many people, and it’s been ill-served by some of the ‘research’ flying around.

The Great Schools Commission [a cross-party group set up by the BCSE and chaired by former education secretary Estelle Morris] is looking at an evidence base in the UK and abroad that says this matters. It’s not about crude research expecting attainment to rise instantly. But when you see new and refurbished buildings that are understood by teachers and learners, and designed to support what the school is, then I think the argument is pretty conclusive.

I recently met Mr Castle, an assistant head of Elm Green school in Lambeth. He had taught in six schools across London, and spoke of the difference that this majestic building is making. He said “the building allows the staff to teach, it doesn’t get in the way”. They can use double-sized classrooms when they need to, and small ones for quiet work. They have an amazing space called the market square for recreation. It’s making a difference to how he and his fellow teachers feel about teaching.

Getting our house in order

We’ve got to get our house in order, as we cannot justify the costs that have been associated with the Building Schools for the Future programme. But cutting the costs are different from cutting the investment. We need different approaches to procurement. And I think we need a national advisory council at the heart of government that can talk directly about school investment to the secretary of state. Quangos like Partnerships for Schools and BECTA, by their very nature, are not best placed to explain or defend investment to a wider audience.

I’m clear that whatever school system you have, it needs good environments. We’ve got to make the arguments: it’s about the achievements and outcomes for young people, and about jobs. You look around the world and other countries are investing in infrastructure, so it’s also about UK plc. And we should appreciate the skills that we have taken years to build up in design, construction and the supply chain.

Investment on this scale hasn’t just happened because someone waved a magic wand. We had to make a case, and we have to again, with and around other public spending priorities. I was recently at the Conservatives education policy launch, in a fantastic academy in Walworth. They wouldn¹t have launched it in an allotment shed. I think that we need to communicate to both front benches that this investment matters. And we can’t do it on our own.

This is an edited version from an ‘in conversation piece’ article with Sarah Richardson, Deputy Editor, Building Magazine. Ty is speaking at the BSEC conference next week with a hard hitting presentation – ‘the truth about school buildings’.