Corridors are so passe - it's time to dump Victorian school ideals

Last updated 13:34, Friday, 24 October 2008

A couple of months ago I visited several new academies with colleagues to develop ideas around the design of new school buildings.

It was a fascinating, challenging and enjoyable experience. We are in an age where our understanding of when, where and how an individual student learns has changed dramatically.

Our understanding of the brain and its complex functions has given us valuable insights into the process of learning and our development of assessment and curriculum materials has allowed staff to accurately measure the progress of students. From this we can target support and intervention to ensure they reach the highest standards.

Our knowledge and use of ICT means many students can learn in exciting interactive ways and at times which suit them. Staff can use this to plan lessons which can give students access to information and experiences which are exiting and relevant to their everyday life and which can bring an up-to-date global experience.

The unfortunate thing is that these giant steps forward are not matched by the buildings many schools find themselves occupying. The majority of school buildings in the UK were built in the Victorian era or in the 1950s and 60s.

One of the great pioneers of this was the Victorian industrialist Sir Titus Salt. He believed his workforce in his mills around Leeds should be well educated so he built schools for everyone.

However, understanding of learning and education was based on a very different model from today. The Victorians built their education system on the factory model and their desire for order and conformity. All pupils did the same thing at the same time and in the same way and this was reflected in their building design. A school consisted of classrooms all of the same size which could hold a specific number of children.

It meant that science laboratories were the same size as English classrooms and most schools had long corridors and were surrounded by large open play grounds. Children were divided into groups of 30 and each group had the same timetable each week, lessons were all the same length.

Students were also assessed in the same way and at the same time, whether they were ready or not.

Schools built in the 1950s and 1960s were designed around the same ideas but usually with poorer quality building materials so they are beginning to look very tired indeed.

The new buildings we saw were completely different. They are designed around learning and students and to allow flexibility and innovation. Instead of classrooms there are learning spaces which vary in size. A large lecture theatre for example would allow 60 to 90 students to be taught together at the beginning of a module or piece of work. Students would then break into smaller groups in work spaces to do the next set of tasks. Some might use ICT, some might use a laboratory, others might use the library.

The buildings are designed around a central atrium where students can socialise, eat, mix with staff and work in a relaxed, warm and pleasant environment. Many new designs don’t have corridors; rather learning spaces flow into one another.

In most current school buildings corridors account for around 18 per cent of the floor space all of which requires heating, lighting and supervision. Once this is removed there can be savings as well as more effective use of space.

Education has changed in the last 150 years and we need buildings which reflect these changes and ones which allow our students to achieve their highest standards.

Traditional Victorian designs were good, but they’re not good any more.