Before the design will work the design research and consultation must work!
Design consultation will have a greater impact, by entering territory that has never been entered before, really getting under the skin of the users and ultimately finding out what will make their school a happy and healthy place to be!
A recent report claimed that more than a third of teachers feel the poor design of their school has a negative effect on their ability to teach.
The report was released in time for the National School Environments Week, which ran from 25-30 June. Almost 90 per cent of those who took part in the research said that classroom layout is the single most important factor in the school environment when it comes to teaching and learning. Only 60 per cent, however, said they were able to make adjustments to aid teaching.
The BCSE is calling on the Government to follow a list of recommendations aimed at establishing good practice in the design and build of schools.It says that a regular, large-scale survey of teachers and pupils to find out what can be done to improve the design of schools across the country will also help to get the future design of schools right. In addition, it is calling for the creation of a national databank containing information on designs that do and don’t work. Director of the BCSE, Ty Goddard, is calling on for the Government’s schools capital funding programme to reconsider the design and building process for schools.
‘The promise of billions of pounds to refurbish or rebuild schools is a fantastic opportunity – a real cause for celebration. But this new research shows the importance of getting the design and build process right, or we’ll end up with new schools that don’t work and fail our children, teachers and communities,’ he says.
Here is a concept for a future classroom!
Getting the design of the building right is one thing, however, the design will not be right until the consultation has been carefully ‘designed’ and carried out with the same thought and detail!
Design consultation will have a greater impact, by entering territory that has never been entered before, really getting under the skin of the users and ultimately finding out what will make their school a happy and healthy place to be! It stays away from the monotonous survey, tailoring it to a specific user group and making the whole experience fun and thorough and set to shape the future. We should be applying this to every form of design from web to building!
To read the full report on ‘Bad school design harms pupils’ see the link below.
The survey results can be found at: