How to Design a BSF School

For those wondering about the process of designing a new school under BSF, this video is well worth a watch.   It’s a slideshow with audio taken from a lecture at the University of Nottingham by Alan Dale, an Education Architect and independent consultant for a number of London Boroughs on BSF.

The first 5 minutes are  a bit dull, but it does get better! Try and stay with it beyond the first couple of slides!

In the video, Alan Dale explains how the BSF design process moves from initial vision, to a list of rooms and requirements, to considering adjacencies, before moving on to design ideas.  He takes a look at different plan forms and also discusses issues around circulation and flexible building design.

The lecture gives an interesting overview of the process  of designing a new school, and you can spot a number of the similar design elements in our own original design plans from 2005.

Leicester BSF Update

A quick update of the present state of play:-

Phase 1 of Leicester City’s BSF project was recently completed ahead of schedule and on budget.  The City Council are now gearing up to deliver the remainder of the project as quickly as possible over the next 3 years.

The City’s overarching Strategy for Change for phase 2  is “very near readiness for submission to Partnership for Schools”.   The sections still needing updating are SEN, Inclusion, Access and Diversity, which are all due to be completed by the end of this month.

There have been some tricky negotiations recently around student numbers to be included in the strategy, as trends suggest secondary school numbers will continue to fall over the next five years, before rising sharply.   These negotiations will have a big impact on the City’s BSF project as the Funding Allocation Model centres on  projected student numbers.

If the Strategy for Change is accepted by PfS, then our College will most likely be completing a New Project Request towards the end of November, with the design phase commencing soon after that.

There is also a possibility that The City of Leicester College will be designated a Private Finance Initiative, along with Crown Hills School.  If this happens, we will need to complete the New Project Request by the end of next month.

Whilst the College’s own plans are dependant on the City Council’s Strategy for Change being accepted by PfS, The City of Leicester College is expecting a funding envelope of around £19.4 million, to be used to finance a complete rebuild of the school.  Under current plans, nearly all of our present structures will be demolished with the exception of the Design block.  This space would be converted into Business Units, bringing commercial companies onsite and adding a new dimesion to our Business and Enterprise specialism.

It looks like BSF phase 2 is gathering momentum, so watch this space for future BSF news and updates!

“Read the rest” for a quick glossary of BSF jargon used in this post..

Integrated ICT – Dream the dream

This video is from Ramesys Education, who have been awarded contracts to manage ICT services for BSF schools in Manchester and a few of the London Boroughs.

It’s a vision of school day where the use of integrated ICT enriches and enables students to learn effectively. We follow 2 students as they go about their day, making use of a variety of gadgets and systems and generally having a very relaxed and jolly time.

What I like about it most is not so much the technology itself, but the reliability of all the components. They all seem to work flawlessly and are totally hassle free.  Sasha doesnt once appear to want to bash her laptop repeatedly into a wall in frustration when it eats her homework assignment or loses connection in the middle of her presentation.

Unfortunately, by all accounts the reality is somewhat trailing the dream – I heard that the Learning Platform Ramesys have been putting into their schools is horrible.  The managed ICT services is for many the biggest bugbear in BSF. For me, the most important things will be the reliability of services provided and the ability for teachers to continue to be innovative and try new things.

Thanks for the feedback! How about some comments?

I have received lots of positive feedback about the blog, after announcing its existence to staff this week. Thanks for that! Hopefully there are enough posts up now for readers to get an idea of what the blog is about and how I’m hoping it can help the BSF process at our College.

One thing I would encourage everyone to make use of is the “Comments” feature of the blog. There is a comments link at the bottom of every post, and it can be used to ask questions, request more information or to give your own views. For instance, if you liked the idea of a learning plaza, as detailed in the last post, click on the comments and tell us what you liked about it and how you might use the space in your lessons.

Also, if there you have your own ideas about BSF you would like to share or to kickstart a discussion about, contact me for “contributor” privileges so you can add your own posts to the blog. The authoring software is very easy to use – it’s no more complicated than sending an email.

The opportunity to rebuild our school will not come along again in our lifetime, so let’s get involved now!

Learning Plaza – Could it work at TCOLC?

I was recently shown this video clip of the  “Learning Plaza”, at New Line Learning Academy, in Maidstone, Kent.  I thought was interesting and would like to share with you and ask if staff and students at our college would like to see something similar as part of our new build.

The Learning Plaza is designed to hold 90 students at any one time – equivalent to 3 standard classes.  There are enormous green tiered sofas at either end of the room which act as little amphitheatres.  Between these is an assortment of office-style work space and ICT facilities.   Teachers gather the students at one of the ends for group-work.   Students can choose to kick off their shoes and lounge around on the sofas, working on their tasks with notepad computers, or sit at more traditional desks.  You’ll have to watch the video to get the full idea!

Students respond favourably, saying its more relaxing and encourages them to behave – they dont want to get banned from using the space. The staff at the Academy are also very positive about the impact the learning plaza has made, and consider it a contributing factor in their improving results. So what do you think?  As a teacher, would you enjoy working in a space like this?  Could you share space with 2 other colleagues/classes or do you prefer having your own classroom?  Do you think students at TCOLC would respond well to working in this sort of environment? As a student, do you think you would learn better here or in a more traditional classroom? Vote in the poll, or post your comments below!

Leicester Phase 1 Schools Slideshow

Thanks to Mike McPherson for sharing this slideshow of photos taken during recent tours of Beaumont Leys, Fullhurst, Judgemeadow and Soar Valley.

There are not many photos of Leicester’s newly built phase 1 BSF schools floating around the net yet, so its great to finally get the opportunity to peek inside!

Some very interesting and  different approaches to design in each of the four schools.

There was one common thread running through each new build…  you can have any colour you like – as long as it can be found in a packet of starbursts.

A Quick look at Leicester’s completed BSF Schools

Leicester City has completed its phase 1 new builds for four schools, namely

Beaumont Leys School
Fullhurst Community College
Soar Valley College
Judgemeadow College

Below are a few images of the new buildings, along with a few  snippets from their design brief  (courtesy of the Leicester City Council website).  They are a bit low quality – I’ll try and get some better ones soon.

Beaumont Leys School

Beaumont Leys - Exterior view

Beaumont Leys - Interior view

“The building itself is brick with colourful panels with transparent panels so that people can see the entrance and learning resource areas.  Set in two and three storey blocks, the offices, class rooms, toilets and other spaces will be laid out to make the building easy to navigate.  This also gives greater flexibility of teaching spaces.

The entrance foyers leads to areas including dining, the main hall and learning resource suites.  This part of the school makes up the community zone; the school has been designed to encourage the out of hours use of the school by local residents”.

Fullhurst Community College

Fullhurst Community College - External View

Fullhurst Community College - Interior View

“The new buildings have been built around the existing main hall and form part of the communal areas. A new entrance which includes a glass façade that allows for natural light and ventilation has also been constructed.  The design incorporates spacious corridors to help with the efficient movement of pupils and staircases are now located to maximise space and allow natural light into all areas. Flexible teaching spaces are a key component of the remodelling of the school and will be used for individual and group work.

Fullhurst retains its 1930’s red brick façade and clock tower at the rear of the new design. This iconic symbol of the school in the local community is the original entrance and will help to retain the character of the existing school. The school is a combination of high quality modern design and technology whilst preserving some of the architectural features of the old building. “

Judgemeadow Community College

Judgemeadow - exterior view

“A dynamic combination of teaching ‘wings’ projecting out from a hub with the social and dining spaces at the core.  The teaching wings are clusters of facilities arranged on different floors around faculty resource areas.  The dining and social areas are glazed to give plenty of light and views outside.

The auditorium, entrance, panoramic café, dining room and library are curved, glazed double height spaces.  Inside, the rooms have been carefully arranged to make it easy to get around.  Flexible resource areas are placed at the heart of each curriculum zone.  Plenty of natural lights will help make the school feel spacious.  Outside, the entrance has been designed as a safe, well lit space with routes The new school has spacious outdoor sports areas, hard and soft play areas and a garden of reflection with dining social space and a landscaped amphitheatre”.

Soar Valley College

Soar Valley College - arial view

Soar Valley College - Exterior View

“In keeping with the surroundings, most of the school is no more than two storeys high.  Inside, the rooms have been carefully arranged to make the school easy to get around.  The layout means that there is plenty of natural light and some views of the landscape.

The building has a welcoming frontage to highlight the school being there to service the whole community.  The flexible layout of the school means that it can accommodate large and small groups for uses such as adult education.  The design of the school maximises space for sports pitches including the prominent cricket pitch.”

A Review of our original Plans (circa 2005)

The following plans were drawn up four years ago (when it looked like phase 2 might come along a bit sooner than it has!).  I thought I would post them up to show new staff (and remind old ones…) what point we had reached before things were shelved for a while.

The plans are now a little out of date.  The adjacencies were not finalised at the time, and indeed some of the faculties on the plans no longer even exist!

Pairing Faculties (2005)

What comes across clearly are the main ideas of paired faculty space arranged around a central hub of shared space and resources.  This  is still very  much the direction we are moving in.

The Adjacencies Plan (2005)

The next diagram is a full site plan.  The new buildings appear behind Wyvern, starting on top of the mobiles and stretching out onto the playing fields. The Gill building and most of Wyvern would be demolished and either laid to grass or used as car park space. One idea at the time was to keep our more recent buildings, ie Gill Science block, Sports Hall and Design block, as a way of getting more square footage for our money.  It was planned to use Gill Science as space for an outside agency to be brought onsite.

Original Site Plan (2005) - Full site

The following plan is a more detailed version of the new buildings, as envisage in 2005. The shared areas, like dining halls, library, theatre and administration appear in the central area.  Complementary faculties were to be paired and emerge like spokes from this central hub.

Site Plan 2005 - detailed view

These plans were more about concept, adjacencies and basic outline than actual detailed design, and were still fluid at the time.  However, we can  catch a glimpse of our new school, and identify many of its key aspects and features.