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.

Related posts:

1. School capital investment – getting our house in order
2. Kunskapsskolan – new dynamics in teaching and learning?