Reflections from the Education Buildings Scotland conference
The focus of the 2019 Education Buildings Scotland conference was the Learning Estate Strategy, and the ambition to ‘connect people, place and learning’.
This summary note by Architecture and Design Scotland reflects on the themes discussed over the two days.
A global 21st-century challenge that keynote speaker Lene Jensby Lange observes is “we have too many young people leaving school not knowing what they’re good at. They have learned that they’re not good learners. This is a tragedy”. We need new ecosystems of learning and spaces where everyone can be the best they can be.
Including young people
“You can’t empower people” advised John Loughton in his powerful closing keynote. “You build the conditions for people to empower themselves”. His message was simple: be clear on the ‘why’ of your decision making, the purpose of your action, and how this really supports and includes the voice and needs of all young people in shaping future spaces.
Inclusion formed a key focus of Cabinet Secretary John Swinney’s speech. He emphasised the defining mission of the Scottish Government to enable children living in poverty in Scotland achieve their potential, by working with the teaching profession to close the poverty-related attainment gap. “Just as we design learning that will help all pupils to fulfil their potential, we want to design and provide spaces which provide for a wider variety of learning contexts and experiences.”
Explore our reflections on the five separate themed sessions, looking at the five key themes of the Learning Estate Strategy.
Education Buildings Scotland Conference 2019: session summaries
“The measure of whether a school is fit for the purpose of delivering the education curriculum.”
[Core Fact]
Designing for inclusion and support should consider all five of our senses. Research on innovative learning environments and teacher change provides a framework for 14 themes to design for changing 21st Century learning needs.
The intention and purpose of the change is key to successful evaluation and improvement. This is about collaborative briefing, linking learning, wellbeing, and space.
Corsehill Primary adopted a school-led, incremental, low-cost high impact approach to adapting spaces for STEM, creating play, learning, discovery and outdoor experiences. The results include sustained improvements in literacy and numeracy and changed self-perception of learners.
Marr College and the University of Strathclyde illustrate the potential of targeted interventions in existing buildings, increasing opportunities for collaborative learning whilst maintaining what already works.
“The learning estate should be well-managed and maintained, making the best of existing resources, maximising occupancy and representing and delivering best value” - Learning Estate Strategy, Principle 3
The South Australian Government experience suggests three spatial concepts of investing in ‘school as community hub’:
- buildings
- clusters of buildings/campus
- whole neighbourhoods/placemaking.
Wellbeing sits at the heart of their hub concept, supported by a results-based accountability framework which measures the impact on the local population and service performance.
Better design is at the heart of better-quality construction. The cost of poor design is 21% of the construction cost lost through defects. Better outcomes in future construction will be achieved through more collaboration, and platforms for collaboration linking the right skills at the right time, with benchmarks and collective responsibilities.
Outdoor spaces offer high-impact, value-for-money learning spaces which support incremental design around observation of children’s use of space, practitioner support and ongoing consultation. Good design, and creative use of natural settings support better wellbeing, diverse learning experiences and resilience.
“The Scottish Government has an ambitious climate change policy target for all buildings in Scotland to be near zero carbon by 2050” - Learning Estate Strategy
At the building level, Passivhaus approaches to school buildings are being tested in the UK and Scotland. Benefits include improved comfort standards, energy standards, reduced energy production by design and rigorous quality assurance. The construction industry in Scotland is exploring how to achieve Passivhaus using the current workforce and upskill the supply chain within five years.
The ‘Learning for Sustainability’ agenda offers user and community-generated responses to behaviour change within buildings and spaces. New ambitious ‘in use’ energy targets for the new Learning Estate programme set out by SFT invite collaboration and design innovation and increased awareness of the impact of embodied energy.
Architecture and Design Scotland highlighted the opportunity of a place-based approach to demand management and creativity in the design of services, buildings and locations of investment.
“Learning environments should be greener, more sustainable, allow safe and accessible routes for walking, cycling and wheeling and be digitally enabled” - Learning Estate Strategy, Principle 6
Digital natives expect digital tools to be an everyday part of their education.
Increasingly IT platforms are being used to allow tailored interaction and support such as allowing a student to discretely ask for assistance. It can help making presentations more accessible to people with particular needs so they can sit anywhere in the room and removing stigma. Systems can enable peer and staff support during homework times, preventing people getting stuck and helping those who pass on understanding in developing theirs. In the further and higher education sectors ‘gamification’ is being used to make training for real-world situations more immersive.
Global examples from Asia and America highlight the pace of technology adoption in schools and colleges. In China, existing spaces in schools are being adapted to ensure all spaces are technology enabled. Digital partnerships with industry enabled one school to develop a lab to create and test a driverless car as a core element of the curriculum.
The expectation is that technology-enabled ‘deep’ learning will lead to improved outcomes. However, many people are still learning how to navigate human relationships in this medium and how to maintain our own mental health in a 24/7 immersive world.
26% of young people are now saying they’d like more time away from devices. Codebase highlighted the need for both technical skills and social resilience in a changing work landscape, which is both more collaborative within work, and more likely to include changing jobs more often across a lifetime.
“Investment in Scotland’s learning estate should contribute towards improving learning outcomes and support sustainable and inclusive economic growth.” - Learning Estate Strategy, Principle 10
Dr Eddie Edgerton of the University of West of Scotland spoke of ’intentionality’ around investment; designing for outcomes from the outset of a process.
Inclusive growth needs to be an intentional, core benefit of investment, not a side benefit of a single investment. This invites multi-partner negotiation, shared visions and collaborative platforms for implementation.
The City of Espoo in Finland has built a culture of innovation supporting city and national industry by linking learning and city investment. The ‘School as Service’ model with Aalto University distributes senior phase learning across the city, supported by mentoring, digital and real-world learning experiences. Learners are innovators, collaborating on industry problems.
The City Plan connects civic investment, industrial and learning investment as a single plan.
Changing places requires negotiation, both with existing communities and with the project promoter,
to ensure the final project integrates successfully.
Innovation district
New users of new facilities need to feel part of an existing place and contribute and benefit from the inherited investment. The experience of the Innovation District in Glasgow highlights the need to learn from place-based examples, globally, and invest in negotiation locally. Leveraging investment to maximise local benefit should influence all partner behaviour. Stakeholder experience of Morrison Construction’s Pre-Apprenticeship Course highlights curriculum benefits, reduced dropout rates and increased participation.
Place planning is critical to balancing the spatial priorities of different users, identifying opportunities for co-location, better use of assets and better experiences for users. The experience of Wallyford and Eyemouth shows the importance of a joined-up approach to managing multiple developments
Find out more about our work in the learning estate
We are currently supporting the Scottish Government and collaborating with Scottish Futures Trust to help anyone involved in design proposals for learning estates across Scotland by sharing our learning, co-ordinating advice and supporting local authorities.