Design your own school...

[firsttimemothergoose]

I'm in the very exciting position of being able to have some input into a new building and have basically been told to think of what I would like in an ideal world. It sounds great but weirdly, I'm stumped for ideas. I have some ideas for classroom layout but wondered if anyone had some exciting ideas? So, if you could design your own school, what would you include?

Not exciting but staff workspaces are usually overlooked. Good light, robust storage and plenty of power and network sockets to enable staff to do their planning and assessment effectively.

Our school recently got rid of toilet doors, as in the ones to the corridor not the cubicles. Bullying and vandalism reduced overnight!

I'd like classrooms to have temperature controls that the teacher can control. So there should be a thermostat to control each room, not a whole corridor. And air conditioning or fans to keep us cool in the summer.

Primary?

Storage, storage, storage. You can never have too much.

I hadn't even thought of a planning space but I do complain every time I have my 'time out' actually in the classroom with the children because I have nowhere else to go so I'll definitely be using that idea!
I actually have quite a good idea of the classroom layout (which includes lots of storage!) I would like and would love indoor/outdoor space.
I love the smart boards which move up and down for the little ones.

It's for primary, yes.

Based on Primary...

I used to have a walk in cupboard with shelving each side in my old school. I miss that cupboard. Would have been even better without the mouse family in it.

Wall space for display boards is really important to me. Not piddly little ones, nice big ones.

A sink at child height with cold and warm water, an area with hard flooring for messy activities.

A tall, lockable cupboard in each classroom, so you can hang your coat/handbag/cycle helmet etc all in the same place and in the room where you work.

A staff room with both comfy-type chairs and coffee table, and standard height chairs and table.

Oh yes, we had a work room. Had computers and a photocopier, was good. We also had a quiet room for children with additional needs (so 1-1 tutoring, SEN group work, space for visiting specialists, children who had extra time in tests etc).

lookslike you haven just described my ideal classroom! Big display boards, sink and walk in cupboard!

I've also always wanted to have a reading corner with a sofa instead of a plastic chair!

Any ideas on a bigger scale? In a dream land where you could design the whole school what would you include?

Office space / staffroom space that kids can't see in to! Did a few days supply in a newly built school where some bright spark had given each department an office with huge windows on two sides facing onto corridors. Stupid idea, gave us nowhere to hide when we needed a good cry / shout / swear / hair pulling out session!

Large, open, purposeless spaces for the children to make their own. I find that so many new build schools have designated spaces designed for x, y or z activity without letting children 'colonise' them.

Our newish build has smart boards in each class, built in walk in cupboard with shelving for files etc and places for coats. Our infants have huge bifold doors onto decking for indoor outdoor play with a communal internal central area with sinks and desks. Our juniors have a class either side of a central area with sinks and storage which again have bi fold doors so can be opened completely across the length of the building or shut down to make 3 spaces. Every door has a porthole windows so you can see in before entering. Every room has storage built in around 1 edge.

Calm areas/rooms for children with ASC or sensory processing difficulties.

Sorry, don't mean they would have their own separate rooms, just have places they could go if needed/timetabled.

Sorry, don't mean they would have their own separate rooms, just have places they could go if needed/timetabled.

Discreet hook points in the suspended ceiling, so that you can display work by hanging it from the ceiling (eg bunting-style, mobiles, 3d work).

Storage
Two sinks - I have this and it's fab
Large cloakrooms for the pupils where the coat pegs aren't crowded together and they can get their stuff without having to squeeze past one another
Reliable fast wifi
Lots of power points - not at floor level but just a bit higher than your tables so you can have tables against the wall and use the sockets easily

Love the discreet hook points, may be an issue with alarms though...

Right, you asked for ideas

Think about acoustics carefully, they can make such a difference.

Make sure that if you have the lovely big windows for classrooms that you have a way of blocking the sun from turning them into greenhouses! I used to boil in one of mine. If the sun will be angled into the classroom, make sure there are blackout blinds or you won't be able to see the IWB.

Oh, lovely deep windowsills that you can put tactile displays on.

In terms of the whole school, sometimes it's nice to be able to pop your head into someone else's classroom so if you are planning to have parallel classes then maybe doors linking them would be good? Just a thought. Or even fold back doors to make one massive classroom if it was needed.

Staff toilets tucked away rather than going straight on to the corridor. Have always hated children shouting 'Mrs Looks is having a wee!' in gleeful tones.

Music room. With a piano. And sound proofing

Kiln for firing pottery, so much nicer than air dry.

Large central resources cupboards for art and DT type resources.

If it's a big school, try to make the office/photocopier/staff room the centre of it. Otherwise the staff at one end can feel isolated from others. Plus it can be a reeeeaaally long walk to the photocopier.

Don't try and make the classrooms a fancy shape, it just makes table planning a nightmare. Nice big rooms with ventilation high and low if possible. If it's really windy but hot, all the work flies away when you open a lower down window!

I would have loved a room that children who are having emotional problems (ongoing or temporary) could have seen as being a 'home' whilst at school. A breakout room (can't remember the fancy term for it).

Maybe I should be an architect, rather than a teacher.

A lovely eating area for the children with enough space for them all to sit down to eat and where they don't have to queue in the rain.

We ran out of rooms/spaces to do intervention/small group work. You don't want lots of small rooms being under utilised but we were putting tables in any available space/corridor.
Areas for staff to work when on PPA - the staffroom may be OK but it can get busy/noisy at breaktimes.
Larger cloakrooms - often they are far too small and children have to retrieve coats/PE bags in pairs.

Air conditioning

White board/interactive white board where you don't have to be 6 ft to use it.

As well as a library an ebook reader for every child stored in the classroom so there is no forgetting of books.

Glass walls. I suppose this depends on the age and disruption of classes but I'm currently in a college where many of the classrooms have a glass wall, students knowing they can be seen/heard is a great motivator of good behaviour, both in class and in the corridor.

Another classroom I'm using can be split in 3 with paneling, each 1/3 has its own air con.

Agree small rooms for 1-1 and staff discussions. Another college I was at last year had these in the library so you could just go, ask which was free and be given a key. There was no way for people to know where you were if you didn't tell them so no randoms walking in but you told those who needed to know.

Not too many slopes - hard on knees and on wheelchair users. Current college has a slope leading in from car park (better than stairs) but the atrium inside is then on a slope so it's about 100m in total.

Is it just the building or do you get to choose other things?

'Follow me' printing so you can send a document in the morning then print it when you are ready, even if that is on a different campus has been useful to me. Obviously in a school it could just be other rooms / both ends of the building.

Adequate facilities for support staff/admin staff.

Automated phone with a contact after 4pm. Recently had a student collapse, she was OK after the ambulance but college sent her home by taxi. We wanted to contact her younger daughter who would be walking home from primary and older who did have a phone but had just got a new one so no number, tried both schools but no answer.

Have a look at the DSE part of the health and safety at work act and make sure your IT complies, it will ensure good lighting / heating etc. Very difficult to argue with HSAWA.