An iPad, an Apple TV and a Projector…

I made this little video to show how you can use an Apple TV to mirror the screen of an iPad and how this could be useful in the classroom. Thanks to Tom Harbour for starring!

An iPad, an Apple TV and a Projector – some ideas for the digital Classroom

The iPad can be used as a presentation tool, using the camera to quickly make the slides, and the “Show me” App to annotate over the top. You can also use the camera function to turn the iPad into a mobile visualiser, to demonstrate close work or share exemplary students work with the rest of the class. Nice!

New Technology Plans for the New Build

My role in the BSF Project at City of Leicester is now focused on the provision on New Technology in the new building. I am currently involved in a series of meetings with Northgate Managed Services, who will install and manage the ICT provision for the first 5 years.

I gave a presentation to our Colleges Leadership Team last week, outlining my current thinking on this. Below is one of the slides detailing provision for the standard classroom:

You can see the full presentation here.

Not everything is decided yet – too many unanswered questions. However, the basic plan is taking shape, and I’m hopeful that the provision will suit staff and students pretty well. Its certainly a lot better than our current setup!

BSF Building Work Starts

After much wrangling, the build phase of our BSF project at the City of Leicester College finally stated up in April of this year, and is scheduled to be completed by October 2013.  Below right you can see the first steels going up for the Business and the Design & Technogy Hub.

Digging Commences – April 2012

Work in Progress – June 2012

 

Visualisations of The City of Leicester College New Building

We have received some 3D visualisations of the current plans for The City of Leicester College from Miller Consortium (see the post “Latest Floor Plans – circulated for discussion”).

These begin to give a much clearer vision of the character of the proposed new build.

Vehicular Approach to the new building

Below are some more views – click on the thumbnails to get a better look of the current design for TCOLC!

Plaza Approach	Entrance	Foyer Section
Dining Terrace	Vehicular Approach	Interior Views
Overview	Ariel View

Latest Floor Plans – circulated for discussion

After some initial feedback from our staff, Miller have produced a first draft of the proposed new school building.

The decision was made to place the new school at the “Wyvern” end of the school plot.  This decision along with the need to build around existing structures has dictated the shape of the new build – a capital T with 3 additional wings placed diagonally from the “down stroke”, to catch the best of the sun.  The proposed structure has rooming arranged over 3 floors, although 1 floor is “lower ground” and is much smaller than the other 2.

I have attached the architect’s draft floor plans.  These plans will be discussed next week in faculty meetings, and comments fed back to Miller.

Staff this week have also been asked to complete a “pre-occupancy” survey, to gauge their opinion of our current situation.  If the rest of the staff respond anything like mine, there will be many “poor” and “inadequate” responses!   Our present buildings are crumbling away and present many obstacles to good teaching and learning.  The sooner we start building the better!

TCOLC SK001 Rev A Lower Ground Floor Plan

TCOLC SK002 Rev A Upper Ground Floor Plan

TCOLC SK003 Rev A First Floor Plan

Accommodation Schedule Finalised

The College has drafted what it hopes is its final Accommodation Schedule – the document that details exactly how many rooms in each part of the building and its size in square metres. The total footprint of the proposed build is 13,546 sq m.  From this document, the Architects can start designing the actual building.

From the schedule, it is easy to make out the most important design aspect of the new building – that the school will be arranged in paired faculty hubs around large independent work areas.

For instance, Mathematics will be paired with ICT and each will have a suite of rooms located around an independant work area totalling 200 sq metres (equivalent to about 4 standard classrooms). This pattern is repeated through the other hubs. Additionally there will be a staff work area, meeting room and office space in each hub to house Faculty heads, CLT and AchCos.

The faculty pairings for each hub are:

• Mathematics / ICT
• Science / Life Skills / Social Science
• Design & Technology / Business
• PE & Expressive Arts / Humanities
• English / Modern Foreign Languages / MEA

Compared to the original plans from 2005, it seems that the Central area about which the hubs were arranged has shrunk, and the space redistributed within the hubs – the Expressive Arts / Humanities and Design / Business hubs in particular swelling to about twice the size of the others hubs. Although I imagine these areas will be placed towards the centre of the building, allowing them to be zoned for day/night use.

The schedule details quite large classrooms compared to some of the phase 1 schools – with the majority at around 60 square metres each. This is significantly larger than the teaching spaces presently in Gill (around 54 sq metres) Wyvern (around 48 sq metres). There are some smaller classrooms though to cater for smaller groups, and some are planned to be partitioned to make larger teaching spaces as and when required.

The College was told it needed to include a space for a new sports hall in the plans, despite already having a sports hall. BSF rules and regs means that whilst there is no reason to think that the College could not continue to use the Sports Hall it shares with the community, there is no guarantee the agreement will last 25 years. As such, a Sports Hall sized shape will be included, which will be subdivided into a gym and dance studio.

The full Accommodation Schedule – February 2010 is attached here.

“Schools In” – Exhibition of Students creative views on BSF

The Leicester City BSF Champions group visited the “Schools In” exhibition, launched today at Rufford Abbey Country Park.

The exhibition showcases the creative ideas of students at seven BSF schools in Nottinghamshire, working with artists and architects to help realise their visions for their future school. Additionally, students from Magnus Church of England School performed a dramatic piece, outlining their views on their present school facilities and their hopes for the school after BSF.

The exhibition continues at the Gallery until 14th March.

TCOLC Accommodation Schedule

Despite some recent scaremongering in the local press, our BSF bid has been accepted by Government and the College is now fully engaged in the process of developing and updating plans and designs for the new build.

The College plans continue to centre around a total rebuild of the school – the new building catering for 1200 11-16 students and a further 370 sixth-form students.  We are currently working on the accommodation schedule – the number and size of all the classrooms and facilities. Below is a little sample of the schedule for the maths faculty.  The full draft accommodation schedule can be viewed as a separate pdf.

This is very much a draft and is currently being chopped and changed daily (hourly?).  It does, however,  give an idea of the complexity and detail that needs to go into the plans. I can imagine there will be quite a lot of horse-trading over the next few weeks as the plans get condensed into the space afforded by our funding envelope – roughly 12000 square metres.

Leicester BSF Phase 2 Update

Leicester City’s plans for  BSF phase 2 have now been presented to Government and will be discussed at Cabinet on 14th December 2009.   City officials are very hopeful that the plans will be passed.

This is good news for the City of Leicester College, as we are next in line to be rebuilt.   Once these plans are passed by Cabinet,   the College will have just 16 weeks to reach a Stage 1 Submission – detailing the project’s scope, elevations plan, outline proposals and cost estimates.

After what seems like an age waiting for BSF, things are set to start moving very fast indeed! (fingers crossed xx)

 

 

 

Beaumont Leys Scoop top BSF Prize

Beaumont Leys picked up two awards, including the top prize, at the Partnership for Schools annual national award ceremony earlier this month.

The Leicester City phase 1 school was awarded “BSF School of the Year” and also the special “Grand Prix” prize for the most transformational team.

Beaumont Leys wins top BSF prize

Head Teacher Liz Logie later commented:

“When we were working with the architect, I was clear that I wanted a building that was fabulous and gorgeous, inclusive and secure, open and flexible.

I think we succeeded. Building Schools for the Future has had a dramatic impact on everyone’s sense of well being and this is clear in students’ attitudes, behaviour and effort.

There is a real sense of pride, which is great to see”

Beaumont Leys - Interior view

An honourable mention for Soar Valley College, which  was nominated in the Most Inspirational Use of Outside Space category, and also to Leicester City Council – considered for the Innovation in PE and Sport prize.