As a school we were
very keen to engage in a consultation process, taking into consideration the
various stakeholders, prior to moving into the concept design phase. One of our
organisational norms is ‘Valuing the Voices’ so it was only natural that we elicit
the thinking of students, parents and staff prior to putting together a brief.
We have also had the advantage of occupying the current buildings for the last
two years and have gained a good idea of what aspects work well and where
improvements could be made.
The benefits of a
consultative, inclusive process leading towards the design are wide ranging.
They include increased ownership by the community, increased ability for
teachers to make best use of the spaces according to pedagogical intentions
(Woolner, 2010). Research also highlights the benefits of engaging with student
voice in terms of the conditions that they are learning in (Flutter, 2006).
It is important
however that we don’t limit our thinking to what we already know. In terms of
learning environments we don't know what we don’t know and the need for
architects to expose us to new thinking and ideas is critical. This has to be
matched with acknowledging the short time frame available to us to develop
concept drawings. Ultimately therefore the consultation process needs to ensure
that we present architects with desired qualities of learning environments
rather than set plans.
Whilst acknowledging
the work that the school's Establishment Board did in terms of the design, we
see this as an opportunity to reflect not only what we have learned over the
last two years but also the National and Global developments in thinking about
Modern Learning Environments.
With that in mind we
designed a consultation process to elicit reflections and ideas from all
stakeholders. This comprised working with each of the Learning Hubs in turn,
followed by interviews with a smaller group of students, a number of sessions
with the whole staff together with a self-selected teacher focus group, and a
group of interested parents. Parents who were unable to attend the session were
invited to email responses in. A variety of methods of eliciting thinking and
ideas were used, depending on the group.
Over the next few
posts I'll outline the process of working with each of the groups and share
some of the emerging themes.
References
Flutter,
J. (2006). ‘This place could help you learn’: student participation in creating
better school environments. Educational Review, 58(2), 183-193.
Woolner,
P. (2010). The design of learning spaces. London: Continuum.
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