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09 CONCLUSION

Building Excellence has shown so far that there is scope to help teachers and other school users better understand the ways in which the design and configuration of space impacts on learning and teaching. This is as relevant in considering how existing learning environments might be easily reconfigured by the users as it is in considering the design of new or refurbished schools. Therefore, it is important that we find ways and spend time to help school users articulate their needs more effectively in the context of a new design and/or consider how to use existing spaces more creatively.

Similarly, it is clear that architects, designers and school managers need to better understand the requirements of new approaches to learning and teaching and the way that the design and configuration of space can aid this, in the context of preparing briefs, accommodation schedules and designing for new or refurbished schools. Workshops that bring together school users, designers and managers would clearly help to generate this understanding.

Building Excellence has also highlighted not only the role of good design in fostering a constructive relationship between the school and its wider community, but also the contribution that such a relationship can make to achieving the aims of Curriculum for Excellence.

This publication outlines a range of concepts and practical ideas to help further develop thinking around these issues, fleshing out the presentations and outcomes from the Building Excellence events. Rather than providing detailed design or other solutions, it should help to articulate the sort of questions to be asked and issues to be considered, and then provide a framework for exploring them. Two key messages which emerge from the articles, which were also raised by participants during the events, are the need for an educational vision and the opportunity to rethink space in schools.

Educational vision

The contributions in this publication and during the discussions at the Building Excellence events, have highlighted the importance of developing a shared, agreed educational vision to inform the design and use of schools. Such a shared vision can only come from collaboration between all stakeholders - schools, teachers, pupils, parents and the wider community - along with designers and school estate managers. Curriculum for Excellence provides a framework, and language, to help develop that vision, which should then underpin both the design of new or refurbished schools and the configuration and use of space in existing schools.

Rethinking (the design and use of) spaces

Curriculum for Excellence does not necessarily demand radically different designs for classrooms or schools, but it does offer the opportunity to think about how spaces are perceived and whether they are being used effectively. By recognising that learning takes place throughout the school and beyond, the boundaries between the traditional teaching environment - the classroom - and the rest of the school building and grounds become blurred. Spaces can have multiple uses which might vary depending on the time of day - social spaces can be learning spaces, and vice versa. There is an opportunity for schools to rethink the spaces they have and use them more creatively. Existing spaces might be reconfigured at relatively little cost, as some of the snapshot articles in this publication demonstrate. Similarly, there is an opportunity for designers to reconsider learning environments, facilitating education in a much wider setting than was previously considered.

Curriculum for Excellence makes clear that development of the four capacities which lie at its heart can be best achieved by reconsidering when and where learning takes place. Therefore, schools, local authorities and architects, (as users, clients and designers), all need to consider:

how can space be designed and used in innovative ways to enable learning to take place in all of these wider contexts?

The questions below suggest possible ways to think about the relationship between school design and learning across these wider contexts, and are equally relevant when applied to existing schools as to the designs of new ones. They draw upon, where appropriate, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment's ( CABE) 'ten points for a well-designed school', ¹ to demonstrate the link between good design and effective learning and teaching environments.

The ethos and life of the school as a community

• Does the design of the school building and grounds encourage integration with the wider community?
• How is the school's ethos reflected in the design of the buildings and grounds and quality of materials used?
• What involvement do students, teachers and other school users have in the decisions relating to the design and maintenance of the buildings and grounds?

Curriculum areas and subjects

• Are the internal spaces appropriately proportioned and sufficiently flexible to allow for short-term changes in layout and use and to meet the needs of the curriculum now and in the future?
• What learning and teaching opportunities can be embedded within the physical environment - for example, weather stations, sustainability features, or artwork?
• Are the internal environmental conditions suitable for different activities within the building and therefore conducive to effective learning and teaching?

Interdisciplinary projects and studies

• Are spaces organised to make connections between different areas and types of learning, facilitating project and group working?
• Is the distribution of ICT facilities suitable to allow project and group work?
• What opportunities do the buildings and grounds provide for young people to develop their organisational skills, creativity, teamwork and the ability to apply their learning in new and challenging contexts?

Opportunities for personal achievement

• Are there appropriate spaces and facilities for students to display their work?
• What opportunities do the buildings and grounds provide for extra-curricular activities such as music, drama or sports?
• How does the design encourage the personal interests and aptitudes of learners through providing spaces for club, community, charitable and fund-raising activities?

Curriculum for Excellence is about breaking down the barriers that often exist between individual subject areas, as well as demonstrating the wider educational value of activities and experiences that take place throughout the school outside the classroom. Classrooms; sports, cultural and dining facilities; school grounds; circulation, assembly and social spaces; internal environmental conditions; sustainability; and the relationship with the wider community can all be considered in the context of their potential educational contribution to the individual. This could allow teachers and school managers to better understand and utilise the potential role of good design and management of space in achieving genuine educational transformation. Similarly, it provides an opportunity for designers and architects to better understand a school's requirements holistically.

As the snapshot articles throughout this publication demonstrate, there are already many innovative developments taking place throughout Scotland. The Lighthouse Senses of Place: Building Excellence project will provide further examples of creative approaches to designing space to contribute towards delivery of Curriculum for Excellence, through the exhibition and accompanying publication, which will be launched in February 2008.

The Curriculum for Excellence programme provides a framework within which excellent learning and teaching can take place. It does not prescribe a single approach to the delivery of the curriculum, but rather encourages a range of learning and teaching styles. There are therefore no single design solutions which will accommodate Curriculum for Excellence - such solutions will vary according to local needs and can only be developed by educators and designers working collaboratively, a process that has already begun. This is Building Excellence !

The Scottish Government school estate website will be regularly updated with further examples of innovative and interesting practice from around Scotland - www.scotland.gov.uk/BuildingExcellence

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