Press release: Student views to play key role in BSF design process
16 January 2008
Partnerships for Schools will be revising its Strategy for Change documentation to recommend that all authorities entering the Building Schools for the Future programme get pupils more involved in the design process for their schools.
Speaking in front of the Schools Minister, Jim Knight MP, and representatives from the 34 local authorities joining BSF in Waves 5 and 6, PfS Chief Executive Tim Byles urged councils to make the best use of the opportunities offered by the Sorrell Foundation.
He said: ‘In some local authorities, we are seeing excellent examples of student engagement in the BSF process – often through the Joinedupdesign for BSF workshops offered by the Sorrell Foundation.
‘It is clear that new schools in which students have had input to the process – not as designers or architects, but as users of the building – are schools where the student body and staff feel real ownership. But we want to see more of this. BSF is not something that should be ‘done’ to students and teachers and the local community. It is about them and so they must be a part of the process.’
The Sorrell Foundation’s Director of Programmes, Sharon Plant, said: ‘Our Joinedupdesign for BSF workshops result in a design brief articulating what pupils want in their schools. A client team of pupils follows a process of research, discussion and inspirational visits to develop ideas. Architects tell us the pupil design briefs give them a fantastic insight into everyday life in schools.’
Tim Byles was speaking at an event in London on Tuesday 15 January to provide networking opportunities for the local authorities in the latest waves of the national BSF programme. Nineteen local authorities joined the programme in Wave 5 at the end of 2007, with 14 local authorities in Wave 6 over the coming months.
Notes to Editors:
- Building Schools for the Future (BSF) is the largest single schools capital investment programme for over 50 years. The aim is to rebuild or renew every one of England’s 3,500 state secondary schools during the lifetime of the programme.
- Partnerships for Schools (PfS) is the delivery agency for Building Schools for the Future. PfS was established in April 2004 as a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB), and is operated and funded under a joint venture between DCSF (formerly DfES) and Partnerships UK.
- Wave 5: Birmingham *, Blackpool, Bradford *, Camden, Derby, Ealing, Greenwich *, Hartlepool, Kensington & Chelsea, Lambeth *, Liverpool *, Newham *, Nottingham *, Sandwell *, St. Helens, Tower Hamlets *, Waltham Forest *, Wandsworth, Wolverhampton.
- Wave 6: Bedfordshire, Bournemouth & Poole, Doncaster, Durham *, Halton, Hammersmith & Fulham, Hillingdon, Kirklees, Luton *, North East Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Portsmouth, Redcar & Cleveland, Stockton on Tees, Suffolk.
[*denotes the authority is also involved in an earlier BSF Wave] - For more information about Joinedupdesignforschools and the Sorrell Foundation see: http://www.thesorrellfoundation.com/
