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“A school building isn’t just a collection of bricks and mortar; it’s a dynamic learning environment...”
Promethean Education Strategy Group Curriculum Development

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Promethean Education Strategy Group Promethean Education Strategy Group

Case Study: Twickenham Academy, UK | 740 students Article: reproduced with kind permission of George Cole, Nick Jones and the Twickenham Academy.Building a new school?
Nick Jones, principal, Twickenham Academy, gives education writer George Cole his top ten tips on how to build a new school. George Cole, a former teacher, is a freelance journalist and author. He can be contacted at George@thelastmiles.com

by working through the steps at their own pace. This personalised curriculum arises from our partnership with our sponsors: theSwedish schools company Kunskapsskolan and our local authority. A school building isn’t just a collection of bricks and mortar; it’s a dynamic learning environment, and your school’s design should facilitate this process. There’s no such thing as a universal blueprint for building a new school, but from my experience, here are ten things you should consider during the planning and design process. Lookat how your new school will help you deliver your educational objectives In our case, this means having a building that is flexible enough to accommodate a variety of teaching situations, from small group workshops to traditional classroom lessons to lecture-style presentations. Students will also be able to choose the places where they learn best. Some like to work individually, while others makefaster progress when working as part of a small team. A traditional school building often doesn’t allow students to make these kinds of choices. We will also need to make extensive use of new technology, as our curriculum is supported by an online ‘learning portal’, so our new school building is purposely designed to accommodate it. This isn’t just about having enough power points, but ensuringthat the building’s design and architecture support the use of IT, whatever the location. Look at what you’ve got already and see how you can use existing space creatively For example, we’ve converted an old gym into a learning space by using some clever furniture solutions and adaptable IT, like portable interactive whiteboards. This approach has many advantages, including being cost effective –you don’t necessarily need a brand

The opportunity to become involved in the building of a new school is both exciting and challenging. Exciting, because it’s not often that teachers get the chance to influence the design of their school and shape their teaching and learning environment. But there’s a real challenge in striking the right balance between being visionary and realistic, imaginativeand practical and embracing the future, while holding onto the things that work well today. It’s also a huge responsibility, because the decisions you make will affect both existing and future generations of teachers and students. I’ve been involved in several school building projects, including a major rebuild currently taking place at my school, Twickenham Academy, in the London Borough ofRichmond upon Thames. Our school – which has around 740 students and 55 teaching staff – is being rebuilt from the ground up, and when the project is completed in 2014, there will be a new and radicallydesigned school building on our existing site. But we’re not being radical for the sake of it; the new school will help us deliver an innovative ‘stepped curriculum,’ in which students plan a moreindividualised programme,

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new school building to build a new school. We’re also using the new learning space as a change management tool, where teachers can experiment with new forms of pedagogy. By doing this, you can subtly adapt your school’s culture; from a traditional school building with a traditional curriculum, into one with different types of learning spaces and a more personalised...