Designing Schools from the Inside Out

This is an evidence-based guide to school design and building projects, focusing particularly on interior teaching spaces and including case studies of successful projects. While traditional schools and traditional classes still have their place, there is so much that can be improved. Despite the funding available for rebuilding through the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, there are still significant barriers to change. While many school leaders know, logically, that schools should be different from how they are at the moment, the risk of getting it wrong can appear overwhelming. "Designing Schools From the Inside Out" provides reassuring evidence - using pedagogical research, design solutions and case studies of successful projects - enabling those involved in delivering capital education projects to make bold decisions. Focusing particularly on interior teaching spaces, James Clark shows how a combination of classroom furniture and IT hold the key to truly enabling teachers to achieve transformation in teaching and learning, as learners come into personal contact with both.
It is essential reading for anyone involved in large scale capital projects, including LEAs, school senior management teams, governors and BSF bidding teams. "The Future Schools Series" explores the ways in which schools' needs for the future are differing from the traditional, largely Victorian approach still adopted by the majority of British schools today. The series focuses on innovation in schools, both in terms of the school environment and pedagogical approach. A major factor in this is the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, which is the biggest single UK government investment in improving school buildings for over 50 years. The aim is to rebuild or renew every secondary school in England over a 10-15 year period. This includes significant investment in ICT to support the government's educational reform agenda. As well as improving school buildings, the aim of the agenda is to promote a step-change in the quality of provision.
Schools are starting to follow a range of innovative practice in terms of their links with communities around them, as part of the Every Child Matters and extended schools agenda, their structure and organisation and, not least, the organisation and approach of the leadership and senior management team. Books in this series will provide either an overview of transformation with specific case studies from around the UK and worldwide, or focus more specifically on one or a small collection of schools to show examples of good practice at a local community level.