“as well as new and reFurBished Buildings, you Bring
new ways of Teaching, leadership, state-oF-the-art
ict and resources. so it’s a compleTely fresh sTarT”
tim Byles, partnerships for schools
and are they relevant to every lesson? as principal consultant and those that are in good condition and in the right location
with the management consultancy team at atkins, it’s up to can be refurbished to a high standard.”
raj sanghera to find answers to questions like these. he says policy initiatives in the uk, such as the introduction of
getting ict right is a balancing act and that computers specialist diplomas for 14 to 19-year-olds, are creating fresh
should be phased into a school. challenges for schools. the diplomas, for example, can mean
“we have to recognise that the way children learn is that students take lessons in different schools. while
changing,” says sanghera. “having grown up with texting, computers can help – as students can carry their work with
msn and Facebook, they’re digital natives. their brains work them on one central device – that has implications for BsF
in a different way to past generations; they multi-task.” programmes. “students will move from school to school as
what this means is that some traditional teaching semi-nomadic learners, so a holistic solution is essential.
methods could be turning children off. “we have to find out devices need to work whichever school you are in,” stresses
how the digital natives learn and respond to that,” sanghera sanghera. “traditionally, schools have competed against each
says. “teachers now need more strings to their bow.” other,” he adds. “But in the new model they will have to
these new approaches to teaching are re-negotiating the collaborate in developing learning resources.”
traditional boundaries of education, both in the way the given the fresh demands being made upon schools, it’s
34 learning space is used and how children are taught. greater unsurprising that some existing buildings have been found
flexibility and freedom for individuals to learn in their own wanting. “one of the key problems is that the school stock
way means big changes for both teaching staff and pupils. has been allowed to deteriorate,” says watson. “we had
“teachers like to have a classroom that they call home,” says a spurt of building in the 1950s and 1960s, but have not
watson. “But we’re trying to get away from the idea that done much since then. many school buildings were cheaply
teaching happens behind a closed door. we need a more constructed and have been added to in a piecemeal fashion.
fluid space, where teaching and learning coexist.” now the estate is crumbling.”
one simple idea aims to reduce the pandemonium
between lessons. “when we’re creating these transform- Sustainable schools
ational schools, instead of getting 1,700 pupils to move there’s now a greater awareness that when building the
around every half an hour, we’re trying to encourage the schools of the future, they must stand the test of time. as well
100 members of staff to move instead, because it reduces as the fact that low build quality adds to lifecycle costs, greater
disruption, bullying and wear and tear,” says watson. demands on school buildings, environmental concerns and
higher energy prices are forcing a reappraisal of how things
Out with the old? are built. designing long-lasting, sustainable buildings is
in making a case for new schools, there’s a tendency to something atkins has taken a lead in.
deride anything that’s out of fashion – and then send in the “it’s no longer a corporate social responsibility issue, it’s a
bulldozers. But are old buildings always a bad thing? when primary business driver to actually take carbon, embedded and
london’s westminster council gave the green light for the whole life, out of capital projects,” atkins’ chief executive,
demolition of pimlico school – a brutalist edifice of the keith clarke, told Bloomberg tV recently.
1960s, loved and hated in equal measure – it provoked an “it’s moving very fast to a point where we’re calculating
outcry. so why not just improve existing buildings? carbon the same way as we calculate wind loads or calculate
“BsF isn’t just about new buildings,” emphasises Byles. pedestrian movements or power usage,” he said.
“across the programme, around 50 per cent of floor space atkins’ clients in the middle east have been swift to
will be new build, while the other half is refurbishment to embrace carbon critical design – taking carbon into account
different degrees. although over 80 per cent of the schools right from the beginning of the design question. as well as
were built before the mid-1970s, some more recent buildings working with taaleem on dubai’s Flagship school, atkins is
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