In the guidance to local authorities producing their Primary Strategy for Change, issued by the English Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), there is much emphasis on the quality of analysis and strategic thinking rather than quantity of words. There is emphasis too, on clear ‘consultation’ with stakeholders from pupils to primary care trusts.

As they say, this is; ” a unique chance to be bold, innovative and consider radical options.” It’s also welcome to see such words as ‘approach to change’, ‘educational transformation’ and ‘change management’.

It is worth noting this paragraph in this guidance:

Achieving educational transformation

• involving schools and communities in planning and designing specific projects with particular emphasis on using the experience to transform education;
• ensuring that ICt supports the overall aims for teaching and learning and institutional development;
• links to early years provision and to secondary education;
• innovative approaches to design, supporting wider educational transformation

Could this, at last, be the freedom people on the ground need to think through:

• What does successful teaching and successful learning look like?
• What do you want your teaching and learning to look like?
• What makes children want to learn?
• How do we build a team around the child?
• And how can great school design serve these ends - or develop as Kenn Fisher calls it - a ‘pedagogy of space’.

Is it also acceptance of the fact that the very involvement of stakeholders can in itself be a tool for transformation?

We will only ever build schools fit for 21st Century teaching and learning if we actively and meaningfully involve those that work and learn within our schools.

Our schools need to be teacher-centred and child-centred.

So, how should school design respond to pedagogy, advances in learning technologies and children’s services?

In short, how do we design and build the ‘classroom-plus’ or children’s services school?

British Council for School Environments (BCSE) members are passionate about designing, building and providing quality services to schools.

We are seeing huge investment in England, Scotland, Wales and N.Ireland in the fabric of our schools that we have not seen for generations - from the Early Years, to Primary schools through to Secondary schools. From the Primary Capital Programme to Building Schools for the Future we have much to celebrate and lots to learn.

Our organisation was formed with the specific aim of bringing all the partners together - whether from public or private sector or client or supply side - to improve the quality of learning environments. We are made up of local authorities, construction companies, schools, suppliers and architects. Anyone with a passion and interest in creating quality learning spaces.

We provide a forum for exchange, dialogue and advocacy for anyone interested in learning. We are on www.bcse.uk.net to find out more about our work and membership.

We are also going to try out this blog to see if it helps satisy the thirst for knowledge and debate out there on school services, design and build. This is truly a global movement.

As our membership grows and our activities increase we are seeing an increasing desire to share experiences of word class teaching and learning underpinned by thoughtful design and build.

We are asking our schools to do so much more in an ever more crowded world. Our teachers too are operating in an ever more pressurised environment.

These learning environments are as important as our homes, offices and places of leisure. They should be treated as such.

Our schools need care, attention, research and love.

Tuesday 11th March - Went down to South Bank University, Elephant and Castle, to speak to the London Schools Sustainable Forum. It seemed to be a day rich with speakers, a good audience and a commitment to put the issues on the agenda. The Forum is facilitated by the Government Office for London and attracts policy people from local government and teachers.

Many of us are on our own personal journeys in terms of sustainability. Linked to the curriculum it’s also a powerful tool however small or large the project. The school building itself can rightly become the ‘third teacher’.

That’s why this is so profound. Remember too, it’s also people who make stuff happen despite the frustrations of process and organisational blocks. I welcomed the fact there is a mass of policy initiatives, yet I feel that there is a danger of missing the obvious, the simple and the less glamorous.
A windmill alone does not ensure environmental, social or economic sustainability. We have to avoid ‘greenwash’.

I quoted from BSRIA research, ‘Primary School Carbon Footprinting’ produced by Roderic Bunn and Adrian Leaman that looked at a school built over a hundred years ago, a school built in the 1970’s and a new school.

This is a fascinating read : “Despite being an awkward building to use Leigh Primary School is a time capsule of Victorian robustness and simplicity. Its energy performance is steady. By contrast, Kingsmead Primary school is more flexible, adaptable and thereby more suited to the modern curriculum, but sustaining this good energy performance clearly requires diligent management and maintenance by the school staff and local authority.”

We need a wise debate based on a rigorous data set that also acknowledges the profound need for flexible spaces to meet modern curriculum challenges and the needs of our teachers and learners.
Much of England’s school investment in primary and secondary will be re-furbishment and re-modelling.
As these wise owls say:

“The rush to replace all our old schools is predicated on a fundamental belief that anything not built in the 21st century is substandard.” They counsel against a headlong rush to just build new.
Thought-through, quality refurbishment or re-modelling must not be seen as second best and may well be the least worst option for the planet if we can’t get so-called modern methods of construction right.
Link : www.bsria.co.uk

In terms of schools in England we are waiting for the setting up of a task force charged with looking at Zero Carbon schools. This taskforce has to operate in new ways - dynamic- action focussed, led and chaired with a bit of verve. We will need system-change in school construction, design and supply. Succesful companies are already doing this and they are also forging better supplier relationships. Proper partnering also brings trust and the confidence to innovate.

We’ll need to be brave, but above all honest, about what in the process drives us to create carbon heavy schools.

Is it a matter of cost? Is it the procurement process itself? And are there enough proper (economic or otherwise) incentives to help us lever the change we need?

The Task Force should call for the immediate introduction of Post Occupancy Evaluation of our schools. We can’t do anything without knowing how a building works technically - energy usage etc-and how real users feel about it.

How can we have such massive welcome investment without post occupancy evaluation?

And, why oh why do we put perfectly good furniture in landfill and not recycle it through the charity Education for All  Link: http://www.educationforall.com/

We are going to have to really think through how our schools are built and engineered. The process of how we create a school with proper meaningful stakeholder involvement also needs attention.
Merely creating new ‘old’ schools won’t support changes in teaching and learning and proper childrens services. Despite the management and leadership challenges our schools, often rare community assets, need to be used more fully by members of the community.

I Left the Forum with a few suggested top-tip’s (there’s lots) around developing sustainable schools:
a) Solving things together and across organisations is often better
b) Involving teachers, learners and the community is common sense and is about creating ownership
c) Don’t just look for ‘add on’ extras without thinking through maintenance and upkeep issues
d) Reduce, reuse and recycle is a good place to start the journey
e) Support the work of ‘Education for All’ re-cycling