Hellerup School - a great place to learn

Hellerup School was built in 2001. It has learning home zones instead of classrooms. Each learning zone is a  home base for 3-4 classes. The learning zones are shared with the pedagogs who take the after school programme. The building is multi storey with connecting areas utilised for learning. Internal timber cladding is a feature and gives a warm feeling with lots of natural light. The library zone is central on the ground floor. The library or information centre is central on the ground floor, creating a welcome through zone for the learning community and with high visibility from every floor.  There are around 100 students per learning hub with about 4 teachers plus support staff. The design incorporates lots of breakout spaces including: ·        rooms within rooms ·        Mountain tops ·        Breakout spaces ·        Specific areas for art / science ·        Physical activity encouraged eg climbing walls / table tennis inside buidling

The staffroom is a particularly impressive. It is an open comfortable space which encourages staff to relax in a 

informal atmosphere. I think it is important for staff to have their own space to take a break from the business of 

the learning zones - and good to give something back to staff to appreciate the work they do.

Visits in Scandinavia Schools via Lene Jensby Lange

The visits in Scandinavia were arranged by Lene Jensby Lange. Lene is founder of Autens which is an educational consultancy that works with schools, local authorities, charities, architects and others to innovate learning spaces dedicated to personalising learning. www.autens.dk   

Lene and her family hosted us in Copenhagen - we had a great time sharing philoophies about curriculum and school design.

Lene took us on a tour of schools that she has been involved with in design. The next few posts are a synopsis of the schools visited in Copenhagen and Stockholm.

Utterslev Skole is a  new school with a focus on nature and science. Their curriculum encourages  project based learning to encourage creativity, curiousity and innovation. The school has regular classroom spaces – whole class teaching with some break out spaces. The curriculum is subject centric – teachers are subject teachers and have their own classroom spaces with breakout spaces that can be used for independent learning.  Creative and personalised teaching based on student choice happens when the students are  with the pedagogs. Their primary department has an integrated after school club – run by pedagogs. Pedagogs are trained to teach creatively with a holistic whole child approach. The science facilites at Utterslev Skole were very impressive. It is an honour for students to be selected to look after the range of animals in the science laboritries.

Creative response to growing rolls at Lauriston School, London

Laureston School, Hackney in London   had a growing roll and needed to replace and increase their current school size  and then demolish the old buildings. Performance, creativity and the arts are important drivers for Lauriston School and it was important that these key beliefs were reflected in the new build. The site is very tight and the school needed to be  in operation during the works. The solution was to build a new 3 storey building that created a school more than twice that of the original, at the same time increasing the play space. The foundation stage younger classes are located on ground level with free flow access to outside play. Raised classrooms create a covered playground which is a great space for all weather play. There are  roof decks at various levels   which increase the amount of external playspace and outdoor learning experiences. The school is constructed with large prefabricated timber panels and these provide an exposed timber internal environment that is  warm and visually appealing. They also work well for mounting displays. Large wooden vents, easily operated, provide a sustainable ventilation system. The  way the teaching and learning seemed to work was for the core teaching and learning to be delivered in classrooms and creative experiences in the adjoining creative spaces. Small group teaching also utilised these shared spaces. The school has some great outdoor spaces including school vege gardens and a wonderful tree house.

   Strategies to strengthen learning  links with the community was impressive,  including  a separate art studio for 

   artists in residence  and  also utilised for school and community workshops and exhibitions 

Engaging Challenging Communities in Learning Design

Croxteth Primary School, Liverpool Host: Headteacher:  Karen McBride Governer: Rev Iain Brookes The Croxteth Community Primary School and Child Development centre is in Mossway Liverpool - it is a new school build and opened in June 2012. This school is set in an area that has experienced generations of unemployment and the social issues that go hand in hand with low socio economic areas. The new school design has engaged the community and dramatically increased the school and home partnership around learning. Karen explained that a lot of the design elements came from student led design, This is a single storey building with classrooms arranged around three covered courtyards. The building includes a impressive central learning zone / information centre, garden rooms, art and music rooms, a large community room and a creche. There is an impressive ”4D Create” media room where the students can be immersed in  different worlds virtually to support their learning. There are outside areas for integrating play with the curriculum, as well as vegetable gardens and large tarmac areas. There is very little wasted circulation space and areas such as the internal courtyards are utilised for moving through as well as learning and gathering places. A key feature of the building is its sustainable ’green roof’ which has been planted with vegetation to absorb rainwater and provide insulation. Along with solar roof panels and water collection the school is very sustainable. The students are taught in regular classrooms and the shared spaces are utilised for break outs for independent and collaborative work. These spaces inspire creativity. I was really impressed  with the positive effect the inclusive process of school design had on this community. The improved results in student achievement is a testament to how school design can engage the community and strengthen school and home partnerships around learning.

Stirling Campus Office Block Conversion

Abington Vale Primary Late 2012, Abington Vale Primary school became part of the Northampton Primary Academy Trust. The school saw this as an opportunity for more autonomy to drive the school vision around collaboration. The academy joined together four schools which each became a campus of the Academy. Abington Vale is a primary school across two sites. Park Campus is the original site built in 1968. While in UK on my travel fellowship, we visited Stirling Campus which opened in 2013. The local council purchased Stirling House, a three story commercial office block in 2012. The office block conversion design principles are open, flexible and collaborative. This was the first initiative in the country but apparently it is common to refit commercial buildings as schools in Scandinavia and USA. The academy is committed to developing a dedicated outdoor space for the 4/5/6 year olds and this was under construction while we visited. The driver for building this new primary school was roll growth, as they are expecting more reception students over the next two years.   The council had commissioned a report to consider options for a new primary school and the cost of the commercial building fit out was significantly cheaper than a new build. The 180 reception students currently occupy the ground floor and the principal is working on getting the next levels ready for occupation as these reception students moves through the school. Principal Laura Cichuta is passionate about the spaces and ensuring that as the students move up through the school that the curriculum design of collaboration, flexibility and personalising learning will be consistent. The challenge for the school is that the allocation of space per pupil is less and there was not funding for furniture and computers. However they use lots of different funding routes for solutions to these issues. The take out for me was around the rich discussion had with Laura around the development of teaching and learning. She said that the starting point is working in teams and building those teams. You have to collaboratively work through; ·        How do we organise? ·        How do we make it work?  I was impressed with the fact that whole groups could progress through the building as the school grows- they just move up a level and the next intake moves in to the ground level. The big advantage with this is that the pedagogy, which is aspirational around personalising learning can gradually be imbedded as the school grows. The other huge advantage is the opportunity to experiment and play with the open spaces to consider the possibilities of future learning space and learning design opportunities. The idea of a school in an office block conversion is a bit of a foreign concept in New Zealand, however I can see if carefully designed and with a commitment to indoor as well as outdoor learning spaces - it can be an excellent, economic fit for purpose.

Visit to IPACA Academy

The first schools that Terry White took me to in UK was the Isle of Portland Aldridge Community Academy (IPACA) opened in September 2012, bringing together five Portland schools, the Grove, Brackenbury and Underhill, Southwell and Royal Manor Arts College. The new primary school is a converted leisure centre. The school is co-educational state school providing for students aged 4 – 16, together with Foundation Stage units including nursery and reception age children.

IPACA is sponsored by educational charity The Aldridge Foundation, which has strong links to the community forging employment opportunities for school graduates. This thinking is considered critical as most school leavers stay in the area – the school has a commitment to   building  networks with commercial and manufacturing organisations in the district and incorporating opportunities for students in their teaching and learning.

IPACA is led by Head teacher Alison Appleyard and its Governing Body. This body includes Sponsor Governors, Staff Governors, Local Authority Governors, Parent Governors and co-opted governors selected by the Academy Trust

Professor Stephen Heppell,  is the patron of IPACA. Stephen is recognised internationally as a leader in education. As a Heppell.net school the staff  here have the advantage of working directly with Stephen Heppell who influences the direction of the school.

Gary Spracklen is the Director of Digital Learning and Innovation across all campus of IPACA. His role is to drive the vision around digital learning and innovation. As an early adaptor and enthusiast for digital and future focused learning, Gary is exploring different ways he can work with the leadership team to make sure that the thinking and culture around digital learning and innovation is consistent across all five campus with ideas being explored at all levels of the school.  His blog can be explored at www.digitalipaca.blogspot.co.uk

Is an ”all through school” focused on ”stage not age” Currently 5 years to 9 years, but new build will take students to 18 years. The students work in house groups, across two year groups.  Each space can accommodate 90 students with 3 teachers, plus two teaching assistants. Most learning support happens in the classroom. A typical lesson has one teacher leading 1 supporting and 1 stretching more able students. Every learner has a chrome book from Yr 7 up. 

Key educational elements of  the design include:

·        spaces within spaces

·        flexibility

·        personalising learning

·        Why before the How and What

·        mixed age learning

·        digital learning

The flexible environment is achieved by a range of different furniture including high backed sofas and utilising furniture to make withdrawal spaces. These spaces were observed being used flexibly in the junior areas of the school

Gary  explained that in UK there is huge pressure to teach to the SATS which schools and teachers are judged on nationally. Personalising learning is considered to be a risk because there are tests to pass and jobs and careers can be lost if the student achievement results take a dive. IPACAs SAT results are impressive. Gary is working with staff across all campus to have confidence in letting go didactic approaches and to have the belief that the fantastic student achievement results will just get better with the open and team teaching approach in the modern learning environment that IPACA is committed to.

We had a brief visit to the Royal Manor campus where the senior students are currently located and met with principal Alison Appleyard where we discussed the proposed  new campus at Southwell Park. This exciting project is an old Navy base that is currently a commercial centre.

It will cater for students between 3 and 16 years old, with the main school buildings divided into houses or “schools within schools”, and a separate section for early years children from Nursery to Year 3, with its own entrance and play areas. 

The plans or Southwell Park  include:

·        a performing arts theatre

·        heated swimming pool

·        a new sports hall

·        specialist sports, art, drama, music, science and environmental science facilities

·        cutting-edge computer facilities and new technology to support learning

·        a dedicated zone to support enterprise for students and the community.

TheSouthwell Park campus would offer a range of after-school activities and facilities will be available for after school and community programmes as part of the commitment to linking to the local community.

--- SEE GARY'S GOOGLE ATMOSPHERE PRESENTATION BY CLICKING HERE ---

My take outs from the IPACA schools include:

• ·        The collaborative teaching model of one teacher leading the lesson, 1 supporting and 1 stretching students, plus 1 or 2 teacher assistants for three teachers with 60 students.
• ·        The importance of the school structures supporting the vision of the school – eg exploring leadership and team structures in relation to the school vision around teaching and learning.
• ·        Teacher development around the vision and reflecting the vision/ way of working needs to be a priority. If we want staff to be developing a programme of personalised learning / learner led design – then they need to be involved in such a programme for their professional learning.

 I    I was impressed with the work in schools in UK where new schools were being created utilising commercial buildings - in this case both a leisure centre and naval base. This is a great way to respond to roll growth accommodation needs and get good bang for buck. The concept of several schools or campus in an Academy was new to me.   I wonder how head teachers can keep in touch with staff and learners across so many campus. The current New Zealand Government policy direction is to create communities of schools informed I think from the academy concept. While I am sure there are advantages the concern for me is that Government policy makers may consider this a way to drive right wing policy around testing through a top down hierarchy rather than developing curriculum that is future focused and relevant to learners future lives.

Flipping Learning Design - the start of the journey in UK and Scandinavia

Over the 10 weeks as recipient of the 2014 ASB / APPA travel fellowship, I had conversations with educationalists, designers and architects – during visits of twenty two schools in five countries. These schools were actively engaged in new school design and new ways of teaching and learning.  My next few posts will  explore school design and aspirations around personalising learning of the schools visited.

The school  types  visited in UK and Scandinavia , included state, church, international, independent, primary, secondary, academies and free schools. It included new school builds, remodelled schools and schools that were built in refitted commercial buildings. 

The visits in UK were arranged by Terry White. Terry is a director of UK  Learning which is the UK chapter of CEFPI  (Council of Education Facilities and Planning International).  He is  an educational design solution consultant for Nova Co-Design which supports schools through the process of designing new schools and developing  and supporting the teaching vision to be implemented in the new builds.

The visits in Scandinavia were arranged by Lene Jensby Lange. Lene is founder of Autens which is an educational consultancy that works with schools, local authorities, charities, architects and others to innovate learning spaces dedicated to personalising learning. 





Both Terry and Lene were incredibly generous with their time and hospitality. I found it really interesting that in the UK and  in Scandinavia the local authorities funded talented project leaders like Terry and Lene who seemed to have ownership / leadership over the design project at all phases. A key feature of their role  is to drive the vision around personalising learning and design.

In New Zealand the role of driving the learning vision is usually done by  the principal, whose task it is ensure that  the architect understands the learning culture of the school and how that might look in the new build. We discussed at length;  personalising learning, school design and the impact of the political, social  and local context.

What a luxury to have such design consultants funded to actively engage with schools to support their transition from old ways to new ways of teaching. 

The school visits were a  fast series of walk throughs where the  worlds of pedagogy and design, intersected and  fused with vision and concerns. They all aspired to learner led personalised curriculum and design that would drive these concepts.

The challenge in all the schools was to  embed and sustain teacher practice related to learning vision and school design so that learners will be prepared for their future world.