Grand Designs TV presenter opens new Brislington Enterprise College

07 November 2008

Grand Designs TV presenter Kevin McCloud joined students, staff and governors of Brislington Enterprise College in celebrating the official opening of their brand new building on Friday 7 November 2008. The well-known designer and Tim Byles, Chief Executive of Partnerships for Schools, unveiled a plaque marking completion of the building.

Two Year 11 students, Alice Lamb, aged 15, and Lily Bland, 16, took Kevin on a tour of the college. He was shown some of its ‘learning communities’ – a series of seven mini-schools that make up the college.

At the opening ceremony, he told guests and students that the new college “knocks me back”, adding: “It’s a great building that works really well and is facilitating the learning and lives of those who use it.” Kevin congratulated Skanska who have built the new college and now operate it, saying: “It’s rare to achieve a building of this quality”. He also congratulated FLACQ, the architects who designed it.

Kevin told the students: “You don’t need a glossy marble ceiling or big shiny glass walls everywhere to exemplify greatness in architecture. Great buildings are great because they really work." He added:”This new building may have a client in the shape of the local authority, but there’s only one client who matters and that’s you – this is your school, it belongs to you and I know you’re going to use it to the absolute maximum.”

Steve Cooper, Director of Education for Skanska Infrastructure Development, said that the building had been born out of a partnership that had education at its centre and was translating the dreams of better schools into reality. He told the students: “Fundamentally, this new building is about helping you to do your best in your studies and your lives.”

Tim Byles told the audience that Bristol City Council was the first local authority in the country to form a Local Education Partnership and the first to open a new school under the Government’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. Brislington Enterprise College was the third new BSF school to open in the city and another 35 had opened elsewhere in the country.

John Matthews, Principal of Brislington Enterprise College, said it had taken a four-year journey of transformation to not just achieve the new building but also introduce a new model of education, with the new college designed as a series of ‘schools within a-school. “What we are now seeing are confident, enthusiastic young people who feel proud of their college and have pride in themselves,” he added.

Brislington Enterprise College is the first ‘schools within a school’ design to open under the BSF programme. In place of one large school is a series of ‘mini-schools’, each with its own director and staff. Students will spend about 60 per cent of their time in these ‘learning communities’ and the remainder in shared areas for specialist subjects such as dance, PE and art.
With space for 1,755 students, the college has two learning communities for school years seven and eight, three for years nine, 10 and 11, one for post-16 students and one for physically-impaired students, plus a centre for autistic students.
The college has developed its new model based on the principle of human-scale education as applied particularly in schools in Boston, USA. Senior staff have visited Boston to see how the system works.

John Burgess, General Manager of Bristol Local Education Partnership, said: “We are delighted that Kevin McCloud was able to open the exciting new building for Brislington Enterprise College. It’s the third secondary school we have successfully delivered in just 12 months and we are now working towards the redevelopment of more Bristol schools over the next few years.”

Bristol City Council's Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Cohesion and Raising Achievement, Councillor Peter Hammond, said: "Brislington Enterprise College brings together the best of what a new building, learning philosophy, technology and student support can deliver. I look forward to seeing improved results in the coming years and for future generations to come. Brislington now has a school it can be proud of in every respect.”

Brislington Enterprise College is a Business and Enterprise specialist college and aims to become an exemplar site for e-learning – electronic learning. At the heart of the new building is the Enterprise Learning Centre, 500 square metres packed with computers and other electronic learning equipment.

E-learning in the new-look college will include:
• More than a thousand mobile electronic devices including laptops.
• Every student having their own mini-laptop by 2010.
• Fifteen students having Apple iPhones to access online learning 24/7 in a trial project.
• Every teacher having a Dell tablet PC linked to an electronic whiteboard so they can roam the classroom instead of having to stay close to the whiteboard.

Brislington Enterprise College is the third new secondary school to be completed by Bristol LEP, which was formed by the City Council, Partnerships for Schools and Skanska, who are responsible for its design, construction and operation. The first school, Bristol Brunel Academy, opened at Speedwell last September and Bristol Metropolitan College opened at Fishponds in April. The fourth school, the Bridge Learning Campus at Hartcliffe, is due to open next January.

Intended as far more than a simple building project, the new college’s design facilitates the latest innovative learning and teaching tools including an online managed learning environment from ICT specialists Northgate Education. This gives students their own personalised learning area and the support and help they need to make the most of their individual learning plan. It also provides new opportunities for learning outside the classroom.

Designed by architects FLACQ in collaboration with Wilkinson Eyre and international multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy Buro Happold, the College is built to high environmental standards.  A biomass heating system burns wood chips to heat the building and provide hot water, reducing resultant carbon emissions by 85%.
Natural ventilation is maximised with windows drawing in fresh air that rises through chimneys and leaves via louvres on the roof. The building makes maximum use of natural lighting to reduce electricity use and resulting carbon emissions, and rainwater is recycled to flush toilets

During construction of the new college, the local community had the chance to see the building at a series of open days that were well attended by parents and children. A group of students also had a week’s work experience with Skanska’s site team and learned about all aspects of the construction industry.