A lesson in raising aspirations

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

CABE has stepped up its support for Building Schools for the Future to help ensure that good design contributes to a radical rethink of education, says Mairi Johnson

BSF is not just about replacing crumbling schools. It represents a break with the old way of doing things and a radical rethink of secondary education for the 21st century. Transforming the way teachers teach and children learn and providing opportunities for the whole community, however, requires something very different from school buildings and grounds.

In 2006 the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) assessed the quality of secondary schools completed during the previous five years, before the BSF programme had begun. This showed clearly that the quality of school design was not good enough to fulfil the aspirations of BSF – too few were inspiring, innovative, flexible and environmentally sustainable.

Less than one in five was rated as good or excellent and half were badly designed and poorly built. While most performed well on size, safety and accessibility – all of which are regulated – nearly all failed to tackle basic issues of environmental sustainability such as providing natural daylight and ventilation.

School design had hardly changed over the previous 50 years and failed to reflect education reforms and new ideas about teaching and learning, including the massive impact of IT. Although there is no certainty about group sizes for teaching, the need for private study areas or the extent of remote working, what we do know is that education in the future will be very different from today. School buildings therefore need to be flexible and adaptable.

A well-designed school encourages creative teaching and successful learning. It has a direct impact on children’s performance and attainment; it attracts good teachers, raises morale and provides an incentive for staff to stay. Poor design, on the other hand, often stands in the way of raising standards. This has been amply documented by research in the UK and abroad.

Schools should raise aspirations – for students, teachers and the whole community. Good design can create a school that welcomes everyone, that makes children feel proud of their school and see learning as exciting. It can deter bullying and create a safer environment. Children want classrooms with daylight and fresh air, civilised dining and communal areas, and outdoor spaces – with some protection from the rain – where they can learn, play sport and be with their friends. Durable finishes that age well will discourage graffiti and vandalism. And – now a priority – a school must be able to adapt to and mitigate climate change.

BSF provides a one-off opportunity to get the very best – we won’t be able to go back and rethink in 15 years’ time. But achieving high-quality design and value for money is complex. The government is therefore funding CABE, which is working closely with Partnerships for Schools, to provide free support and guidance to all local authorities involved in BSF.

Part of that support is the schools design panel – a group of specialist experts offering detailed advice on school building designed through BSF. The panel is headed by Ken Shuttleworth, of Make Architects and a CABE commissioner, and met for the first time in July. Designs are assessed against 10 criteria, ranging from creating a school that students and the community are proud of to putting the right strategies in place for environmental sustainability.

Particularly important is getting a brief in the first place that will realise the ambitions of BSF. And to get a good brief you need a strong client – schools and local authorities who know what they want and are able set a clear vision for their schools.

CABE’s new practical guide – Creating Excellent Secondary Schools – demystifies the process. It identifies 10 points for a successful secondary school – from design that inspires learning to a sustainable approach to construction and environmental servicing. It also includes 13 case studies.

For example, in Bradford, the city’s three BSF schools were consulted even before the procurement process began. Buttershaw High School decided that it wanted a single group of students from every year group to work with all three bid teams in order to build the student perspective into the design.

CABE is confident that with increasingly experienced clients and designers, the next waves of BSF schools will actually be capable of transforming secondary education.

Mairi Johnson is head of enabling (public buildings) at CABE