The City School entrance does not immediately implecate bad design or an unsuitablility for its current use, neither is it in any way inspiring as an institute for education and even less so as it becomes apparent that the built-on façade is not part of the City School at all, but a community use educational resource block retro-fitted about 8 years ago. The addition in its purpose is extremly valuable as a facility but blocked all light into what were the art rooms, which have now subsequently become science labs. The art rooms now sit behind closed blinds on the southern side, cutting off to the fantastic views of the rolling suburban landscape. The school building, initially built for 900 pupils and now accommodates just less than 1500 pupils, is ill-prepared (and ill-equipped) to deliver the curriculum effectively for today’s and future standards of education. Hence the building is due for redevelopment under the Building Schools for the Future programme. The school visit gave a further insight into what we may want to achieve with our project, however although ideas discussed the brief this is still not entirely clear and work needs to be done to fully establish the brief and project’s ultimate goals. The school has supported itself in the search for funding to provide bolt-on sustainability measures with the aim to achieve a Green Flag award in the Eco-Schools sustainability framework. This incorporates implementing measures such as recycling facilities, green travel plans for the pupils and staff, as well as supplying renewable energy technologies. It is commendable work and should be something that is encouraged for all schools however we feel as a group that our Live Project should target the social dimension of sustainability inherent in delivering the sustainable message and raising awareness as well as impacting on sustainability within the BSF programme. “Sustainability is not about bolt-on, its about integration. It is like a stick of rock where sustainability runs right through the whole thing.” Clarifying exactly what constitutes a sustainable school is a major part of our project research. The British Council for School Environments divides the subject into 3 main areas: social, economical and environmental. Socially the school must act an excellent resource for the community whilst also exemplifying sustainability principles. Economically the school must have longevity, be affordable to build and maintain but add value in its ability to transform to meet the demands of future education methods. Environmentally the school must minimise adverse impacts in construction and operation.
The school has been working to produce an ‘eco-garden for growing food and educating the children and has sought funds from HSBC but the teachers involved have struggled to invest the necessary time to develop the project. This, or something to this end, could be key opportunity for us to create real and physical thing at the school that may provide a valuable resource for both the school and the community. However it is key that this is linked back into our research with the BSF programme. Ken and Mariam’s primary objective seems to be raising awareness to pupils and members of the community of the importance of sustainability and their impact on the environment. In making visual links between an ‘input’ into piece of ‘kit’ and its ‘output’ the processes are made clear and whole thing becomes demonstrably educational, thus enhancing over-all sustainability. An eco-garden could be educational space that may also provide a resource to the wider community in the shape of courses or workshops based on conservational, ecological and environmental issues similar to those demonstrated at the Heeley City Farm. The eco-garden could act as a test bed to demonstrate the potential for a larger community garden/sustainability farm project that could become developed with the new school building and incorporated into the wider BSF programme. This could be launched with an opening ‘event’ that might coincide with the ‘Enterprise Week’ being held at the school…
