Worcestershire County Council enlists education innovator Futurelab to aid BSF planning

Added: (Tue Aug 11 2009)

Pressbox (Press Release) - Worcestershire Local Authority is working with education innovator Futurelab (www.futurelab.org) to support more innovative and creative approaches to the design of its schools and learning spaces as part of the Council's Building Schools for the Future (BSF) Programme. This new partnership will allow Worcestershire to canvass the opinion of teachers and pupils and deliver its goal of creating a group of ‘learning village's’ in the area where learners are provided with more diversity and choice thanks to a stronger connection between learning institutes.

BSF will see every state secondary school in England rebuilt or remodelled over the lifetime of the programme. BSF is the largest scheme of its kind in the world and is set to transform education for some 3.3 million students aged 11-19 and provide 21st-century teaching and learning facilities for all secondary pupils and staff in England.

This contract will see Futurelab undertaking consultancy in each of the six BSF schools in the Wyre Forest area (Baxter College, The Bewdley School and Sixth Form Centre, King Charles 1st School and Sixth Form Centre, The Stourport High School, Wolverley CE Secondary School and the new 3-19 age range special school in the area). Their role is to challenge and support schools to be more innovative when thinking about design and the future approaches to learning and teaching.

Futurelab released its Re-imagining Outdoor Learning Spaces handbook to all educators to encourage them to be more innovative and creative when submitting plans as part of BSF and to consider the future uses of the learning space when planning. As a result, Worcestershire County Council contracted Futurelab to work alongside schools going through its first wave of BSF investment to ensure they get the maximum benefits from the programme.

The six schools in the area currently undergoing BSF and the wider local education community in Worcestershire LA, plan to adopt the concept of a ‘learning village’ where learning institutions in the area have a more joined-up approach to education. Aided by Futurelab, planning for BSF will make this a reality.

The Council has already introduced aspects of personalisation and is keen to develop schools suitable for the future of learning and teaching. BSF offers an opportunity to extend working relationships and partnerships and incorporate this in the design of its new learning spaces.

Dave Thomson, Learning Technologies Adviser at Worcestershire County Council said: “BSF provides a unique opportunity to challenge current thinking and to explore ways of reshaping the learning experiences of students so that they become better equipped to meet the challenges that will face them in the future. Futurelab's track record for innovation and its exploration of the landscape of learning has made an important contribution to rethinking learning and the physical and virtual environments that will be needed to ensure that BSF is truly transformational.”

Tim Rudd, Senior Researcher at Futurelab said: “It is vital that all schools think about their long-term vision for education before considering the design and layout of the buildings. The changes being made now to learning spaces will impact on many generations of learners, and they need to be planned in a way that will support this.”