Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Do BSF schools resemble modern shopping centres?
A report by government funded body CABE criticises the design quality of England's new schools.
Every secondary school in England will be touched by the BSF design process, so when a well- respected and government funded architecture body concludes that the quality of design is "not yet good enough" it is bad news for pretty much everyone. This is exactly what has happened with the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment report disclosed under the freedom of information act in July.
The CABE report looked at the first 40 schools to be built or proposed under the Building Schools for the Future initiative and concluded 80% were not of a good design quality.The designcriteria used to evaluate the 40 schemes were:
- Adaptability
- how safe pupils felt
- use of outdoor space
- architecture
- sustainability
- the extent to which interior spaces helped teaching and learning
- pupil pride in the building.
Some of the most frequent criticisms were the emphasis on non-educational factors such as car-parking and creating enclosed or secluded areas and corners in the grounds which had the potential to make pupils feel unsafe.
This comes at the same time as a report from the CBI emphasising that the BSF programme must keep the quality of the educational experience at the centre of the programme and ensure that the £35 billion is money well-spent. Children have been in poor teaching environments for decades and an overhaul of all secondary schools across the country was never going to be an easy process, but it is with all key players not loosing sight of the reason behind the scheme that success is most possible. It is essential that the architects and designers understand current thinking on the features of successful learning in order to design inspirational schools.
Evidence has shown that where the new school designs work, they really work. BSF schools have won awards for design and innovation and the first study looking at the impact on pupil attitudes towards school and learning of a BSF school re-build reported positive changes in attitudes and quality of experience. (Bristol, NFER). The BSF programme needs to make sure the future designs and builds follow the methods of those successful ones thus far and takes the message from the CABE and CBI reports that focusing on transforming the educational experience for secondary school learners is integral to design success. Successful design engages at every stage with the needs and aspirations of those using the space and so the future BSF re-build schemes must engage genuinely with both teachers and learners if they are to follow in the footsteps of those most successful so far.
Partnerships for Schools, the non-governmental body set-up to deliver the Building schools for the future programme have annouced they are working with the DCSF and CABE to devise a set of objective criteria for all new school designs to meet.
Visit the Cabe website Partership for Schools press release response can be read here.