BSF Design Guidance

Good design is vital to the BSF programme and the PfS Design Team work with CABE and the DfE to ensure that local authorities and schools are given the best guidance to ensure design quality. Buildings and grounds need to be functional and flexible to suit the schools needs both now and in the future. They need to be built well and to last, and they must have an impact - within the school, as a catalyst for transformational learning, as well as the local community.

Guidance and publications relevant to the design of schools within the BSF programme are available from various sources, and some of the most useful are listed in the blue menu to the left.

PfS design guidance

In addition to the design-related BSF Standard Documents and Guidance, the Design Team at PfS have established a Design Process Protocol that sets out a common process for local authorities to follow through each stage of BSF. The protocol clarifies the key design-related activities and deliverables required from the LA, approvals and PfS activities from Strategy for Change Part 1 through to post-occupation evaluation.

Linked to the Design Process Protocol are templates for the drawings needed, and proformas for abnormals (in the OBC appendices) and Schedules of Accommodation (zip file) to be identified in standard formats.

Looking for room data sheets or area data sheets? They are in the the Output Specification zip file.

The importance of design in BSF

It has always been true that the only constant in education is change, but the current need to update or replace the secondary school stock through the BSF programme coincides with some major changes in the way educationalists are thinking that learning will evolve - from full use of ICT to changes in organisation and pastoral care. These will have implications for how we design and adapt the learning environment.

However, we also need to recognise that the school of the future needs to allow teachers to teach in their own way - including current or 'traditional' methods - as well as being adaptable for various future scenarios. PfS Standard Documents are based on a school being organised in suites of spaces, which may suit a traditional departmental or faculty model, as well as more adventurous options for a year-based integrated curriculum, house-base structure or schools-within-schools.

We value the input of a full range of stakeholders in individual BSF projects, and use this and previous post-occupancy feedback to inform our benchmarking, and in turn improve the brief and future designs. Feedback from pupils, for instance in sessions using the Design Quality Indicator (DQI) for Schools, often includes the need for well-designed toilets, innovative social space and pleasant landscaping.

While headteachers may see a wider picture of a new or different organisation in the future, for instance including team-teaching and small groups, class-based teachers often think first of what they need in their room: broader discussions with pupils and architects can help them to see that new and remodelled buildings can offer much more.

Adaptability

The basic classroom may be similar to today's, but needs to be large enough for the inclusion of pupils with assistants or wheelchair users and flexible, with adjacent spaces, for short-term changes in teaching styles, through appropriate furniture and equipment. It is also crucial that each suite of spaces offers adaptability of moving walls for longer term change. Three general classrooms could become two practical spaces, or a large learning space with small group rooms adjacent. These options may need more width as well as easily reconfigured internal walls, with structure and services to match.

Design and ICT

With the massive investment in ICT that comes with BSF, in tandem with building improvements, rooms can be owned by the pupils, rather than the teacher, and the whiteboards display can suit any specialist subject or project as they connect to the teacher's wireless laptop. Multiple subjects could be taught in seamless projects all morning - with no bells and less pupil movement; as well as better pastoral care and opportunities for inclusion.

In the school of the future, every classroom is an ICT room, so architects and engineers need to plan for the cooling and air quality needed ? either for around two-thirds of users to have laptops all the time or for all users to have laptops on for two-thirds of the time ? with sustainable natural ventilation solutions.

In the long term, ICT will impact on the need for traditional exams, but in the short term, multi-purpose halls need to cater for these, to avoid the sports hall being used, as well as for assemblies, performances and events. Halls and sports facilities also offer the most useful provision for community use outside the school day, and the design needs to allow for this, along with possible access to learning resource areas (such as the library and other ICT-rich spaces).

Dining and social spaces

Dining and catering need careful consideration to allow healthy meals in a healthy environment. Successful schemes to date have often involved merging the dining area with the main circulation route (as at Jo Richardson, in Barking?and Dagenham, and others) to offer an all-day catering option that can also be used for ad-hoc meetings and socialising.

Social areas can also be well provided through good landscape design, which we encourage in BSF. All schools should be able to offer sheltered seating areas and a hard-surfaced multi-use games area, even in tight urban sites, like many of the early BSF projects.

Provision for pupils with special needs

BSF also offers an opportunity to reorganise provision for pupils with SEN and disabilities: ensuring mainstream schools are accessible and apprpriately designed with space for one-to-one sessions, therapy and hygeine (as in BB98); but also building special schools to a higher area and standard to suit the needs of those with complex or severe needs (as in BB77).

Design and sustainability

Finally, sustainability and considering climate change are important in BSF designs. All BSF schools must achieve a BREEAM rating of 'very good' where applicable, and the DfE has set the funding level to allow this to be achieved. In 2007, the Secretary of State announced that all BSF schools in Waves 1-6 that were six months or more away from starting construction must now achieve a 60% reduction on carbon emissions. All local authorities must also explore the feasibility of long-term carbon neutrality through measures such as off-setting.