The #greatschools campaign, published in 2015 by Hawkins/Brown, argues that “Architects can help provide the best school buildings for future generations to learn in”. The research explores both public and private sector development of new schools and nurseries, and the benefit Architects can provide through intelligent, considered and positive design solutions for educational spaces.

New build construction can be expensive and resource heavy, and they argue ‘careful adaptation of existing buildings’ is a better long term strategic, cost effective and sustainable approach for new educational facilities.

Designing for schools presents a unique set of challenges, and also opportunities for creative and inspirational design responses. The children’s perspective on scale, form, interaction, colour and texture is a great starting point, and they are the primary users. The ‘secondary users’ might be considered as all staff, parents, administrative and office workers, but are still fundamental to the operation of the school or nursery. The challenge is to maximise the efficiency of the space to work for both sets of users – creating inspiring and engaging spaces that allow the children to positively grow and develop through the teaching programme.

Key to all educational facilities is the pattern of use throughout the day – and we can look at an early years nursery school as an example of these particular requirements. Each class has patterns of sleep, learning, story time and play time – uniquely set up for their age group. External space should be accessible and engaging – who doesn’t remember the buzz of activity when the school bell rings for playtime – a simple, and exciting sound to a child. The flow of the space, and the sight lines to all areas of the classroom are very important – keeping a watchful eye over the children while learning and playing.