New School

The British Council for School Environments developed and ran a Participatory Process aimed at surfacing design, management and organisational issues to feed into the development of the new school under the Building Schools for the Future programme.  

The one day design festival was organized around nine themed workshops looking at the Use of Specialist Spaces, ICT, Flexible Approaches to the Curriculum, School Identity, Social Spaces, External Spaces, Communication, the Extended School and Access & Inclusion.

Overwhelmingly, the pupils we worked with wanted modern, high quality, well thought out facilities, which would augment the existing high levels of respect between the students and staff but would also increase the quality of their learning and social environments.  The students are proud of their achievements and, in turn, wish for their new school to be something that reflects educational and sporting achievements.  

Participants felt they had a strong feel for St Ambrose, even before they came to the school.  They know it has a strong Catholic ethos which set the values for school life, has excellent academic results, is outstanding in sports, especially rugby, and has a good reputation. 

Priorities include:

the Catholic faith and history of the school : this created a sense of community, binding the school together, and was reflected in its values and the way every member of the school related to each other.  Despite limitations of existing facilities at the school, the boys felt there were strong friendships, great respect for each other and activities available which valued the talents of every member of the school community.  The new building should enhance these strengths through its design and its symbolism;

a heart to the school : this should be a space which created a similar feel to the existing school hall, enabling a sense of community;

dining spaces : should be well placed with comfortable seating and a healthy menu, which provided a great experience for students and showed they were valued ;

celebrate the schools successes : in particular its strong sporting tradition.  This included well laid out pitches, good display of trophies, and excellent changing facilities;

celebrate the maths and computing specialism : this was seen as an important aspect of the school’s identity, and something to be proud of;

social spaces : thoughtfully designed spaces inside and around the school to provide for relaxation and informal study;

a feeling of space : the boys felt particularly crowded in their current building and wanted a spacious and relaxing school to enhance their learning experience;

a modern building : which reflected the fact that St Ambrose was a modern school with a great history and tradition.  They were keen that the building was not overly cutting edge, being concerned that it would date too quickly and could feel impersonal;

choice and range : the boys were keen that the new school had a wide range of specialist facilities to enable broad curriculum choice at exam level (A level and GCSE) and for personal development (wishing particularly to enhance music and art for students, showcasing their creative talents).

Above all the boys were extremely proud of their school and saw its positive aspects of strong faith, friendships, sporting and academic achievement as being key drivers for the new building.

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Another school built and opened recently is Thomas Deacon Academy in Peterborough. This school opened in September 2007. Although considerably larger than St Ambrose College, it has over 2000 students, it retains a warm and open atmosphere largely thanks to the design of the building.It’s virtual tour can be viewed here.

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Marlowe Academy in Ramsgate has been open for about 2 years. The building has a central social area, used by staff, visitors and students throughout the day and as an assembly area for whole school assemblies.      The sixth form area is an open plan computer facility which can be used by other classes if necessary and the year 7 students have their own dedicated social space near the canteen.   The overall impression that the school gives is that it is centred around people and that the building promotes positive interaction between different groups.   

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The Design Festival, which took place in College on 7th November involved 300 students in considering nine key areas of development for the new school.

Ideas from the workshops include:
use of video and podcasts in lessons; improving access to staff outside of lessons; ensuring that the exterior of the building reflects the Catholic ethos; providing a ‘cloister’ environment outside; improving the bus drop-off and pick-up area and moving it away from Wicker Lane; providing common room facilities for all year groups; keeping the rugby pitches adjacent to Hale Road; providing a showcase for performance and outstanding work; enhancing the area at the heart of the school so that the Chapel is highly visible and a social area provides a view of the whole school community.

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On Wednesday we are hosting a Design Festival, which will include a series of workshops run by architects from the British Council for School Environments. Over 300 students and staff will be involved on the day and they will consider one of the following topics:

• Changes in Teaching and Learning
• Use of Specialist Areas
• ICT
• Flexible Approaches to Curriculum
• School Identity
• Social Spaces
• External Spaces
• Communication
• The Extended School
• Access and Inclusion

A Design Festival is led by experienced facilitators, and includes representatives from both the school and Local Authority, to engage participants in creative thinking about their priority issues. A wide range of stakeholders can be involved and workshops are designed to be participative, engaging and fun. Previously, participants within festival workshops have constructed their own virtual reality school, developed role play exercises, interviewed community representatives such as the local Fire Chiefs and their Headteachers; undertaken market surveys of the wider school populations; written poetry; and created collages in order to explore their aspirations for the new school. Each workshop runs through a format which encourages participants to be aspirational for the future, but grounds their thinking in reality by requiring them to prioritise their future needs.

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Visits to other schools such as Carr Manor, Salford Academy and Navigation Primary school, have shown us that each new school is in many ways unique and makes a statement about its own community, time and place.

It is important that our new school building and facilities also make a statement about the nature of the College and also fit in with the local community. To aid discussion and help us to visualise what the new school may be like we will be publishing a range of concept diagrams.

The first shows the College arranged in a cruciform shape.

Our thanks to Charles Shorland for contributing this sketch.

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Carr Manor High School in Leeds has recently been rebuilt. Costing about £19 million, for about 800 pupils, it is a good example of what can be achieved in a new school building. The layout lends itself to a House System and Carr Manor school is moving over to that type of organisation next year.

The covered areas outside make pleasant areas for break time, there are three yards in the school and the curved corridors provide plenty of light into the school builidng.

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One aspect of our ultimate design process will be the decision as to where on the site the new school will be located. At three student meetings with architects during the last month, two main options were forthcoming. Option A places the school building on the west of the site, option B places the building next to Hale Road.

The exercise also included placing an all weather pitch, running track and rugby pitch on the site. The school outline is based on a sample from DfES architects.

Those locations may benefit from a new access point onto Hale Road and the aspect of the site can help determine the best position of several features.

There was much discussion of the needs and preferences of neighbours and community views of where the school should be placed.

The main purpose of the discussion was to raise awareness of the size and scale of the major elements which have been suggested so far and to give students an insight into the various restrictions affecting the site.

Where do you think the school building should be situated? Should we aim to have a new entrance from Hale Road, or continue to make use of our existing drive? The sketches demonstrate that our site is not exhaustive, have we got room for a running track and athletics field? Could this also be a rugby pitch? Playgrounds and car parks are not shown on the sketches, but are important. Where should they be located?

Please note these sketches are concepts for discussion purposes only. No plans currently exist for the new school.

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