SCIL Vision Tour – SMH Framing Discussion and reflections

What if you started a space like the HUB for a school? A learning space by day a collaboration space by night. Enabling students to pull in the learning at the pace where they are ready compared to a the continual flow from a teacher

Cathy – Brisbane CEO – open 1 to 2 schools per year. Looking at architecture and design. Getting staff on onboard and moving away from industrial model.

Answer: would rather have vision than architecture but both would be better. Allowing teachers to be learners / co-researchers / co learners. If you are going to do this then it needs to be reflected in your CPD. Protect the time for this to do. You can change things in two or three years. Loves the term democratization of learning. Use of language control and command vs empowerment and engagement. Has been a great tour and a great team.

Lizz Hutton – Brindebella, why do students loose engagement from kindergarten as they approach year 12. Looking for coolaboration

Jonathan shaema – Board member at Brindebella. KEY QUESTION: What key strategic ideas will retain students in learning at new site.

Lester – Concordia in Adelaide – oldest Lutheran school in SA. Going through a physical planing process. How to align the physical space and the pedigogical space. Great kids but want to get them engaged in learning. Looking at resource centers in the modern school. Are resources people not just books? KEY QUESTION: What does best practice collaboration mode look like?

Answer: some schools if you get vision right teacher teams can develop without coercion. Idea of voluntary weekend away.

Rhonda – cartholic education Brisbane. Planning design in new schools.

Answer: more about vision for learning. Having a strong vision and then finding the spaces to match that.

Marcelle – Adelaide, has a ‘black space’ industrial complex where arculitecture is flexible. Second campus in lower socioeconomic area. Trying to create an environment that is supportive for students in this area. Enjoys innovation and unless you collaborate you don’t know what you don’t know. Utilizing a space is dependent not only dependent on space, you need the teachers and students on board.

Answer: start with the objective of student engagement. Different educational ideas, structures and architecture will apply in different contexts but keep student engagement as you goal.

Dave Grundy – excited to be working at NBCS. Wants to bring staff on board with the journey.

Brett – headmaster at a collage in Brisbane. Developing reputation as an accademic school. ‘Uses dimensions of learning’ Wants to keep accademic reputation but us aware of how traditional learning can result in difficulty at university. Looking at library of the future and building a STEM program and looking for how ideas from across the world can improve the program. KEY QUESTION: do we develop a forward thinking student relevant student owned learning culture?

Answer: had seen some good examples. Some examples are what you would not do. Found answers to questions he was not learning.

Bruce – Sydney Anglican schools. Looking at how schools are built, how technology is used, how to get teachers get on board. KEY QUESTION – How do we successfully create and design with a successful language for collaboration?

Answer: teachers need to unlearn how they have been trained to be collaborative. Without the vision it is s…t . The organization needs to implement the vision to every individual.

Stephen Harris – What does professional space look like in a primary school? Design make a move, build, media centre.

San di’ago – selected teachers were retreating from student directed to teacher directed. Get the ‘classroom space into the common space’. Develop learning space culture. Breakdown barriers between disciplines. Develop a common language. What common language do you need to develop so students are getting a unified message? Getting children all to have a great learning experience that is not dependent on the teacher they have for each subject.

Knowledge worker age – employment for a project rather than a staff ratio based on a number of students. Does class size language cause management thinking not engagement thinking? Can we allocate funding and budgets according to the pedagogy you are trying to instill.

Why do students want to burn their books when they leave school? Can project based learning cause students to treasure their learning?

Three generation groups
– 3 to 7 year olds the i-generation.
– 8 to 13 year olds the web 2 generation
– 14+ the social media generation

How is teaching and leading going to change as these generations come through.

Power is Freedom!

Is there only one pathway to academic strength? We are moving from the push-to-pull era.

How can I contribute to a culture of learning? Does what we do reflect what we are saying?

What are we prepared to change to shift our culture so that everyone is able to succeed?

Paradigms shift? Individual achievement to collaboration.

Does collaboration we focus on where the play is at? Or do we look to where we want the play to go?

Simon Langdon – Grammar School for Boys

The Langdon Star Centre
Schools being assessed on students performance in external exams results in students jumping through hoops and only accessing knowledge from in the box .

Students are encouraged to do their own research.
Researched focus school. What is students engage in tertiary based research. Appointed a professor to mentor students to develop research papers.

Focusing on the infinite not the finite.

This is a selective grammar school that only allows the top 23% of students from year 6 in.

Former student became the creative director of google. Model was workers spent 20% of time going into what they don’t know. This has been applied at Simon Langdon.

Strong focus on university preparation. Inspiring for teachers as well because they can get teachers doing real science.

ArcGIS

MoEDAL

Connecting into the community.

Student societies.
Student directed and produced musical production. (Done after exams, Supported by school)
Society lectures.

Students say they need to actively engage for support.

Some teaching style is similar to standard school but there are extra opportunities.

Year 7 – my community (similar to year 7 project for NBCS)

Headmaster – Matthew Baxter.
– phrase ‘the democratization of learning’
– teachers are not able to control what teachers are capable of learning.
– national curriculum results in students that are not creative and abandoned it.
– looked at what university graduates are doing.
– currency in the economies in the future (innovation, creativity and leadership)
– change in the market to a model where there are millions of markets but only a few customers.
– 1 in 10 Icelanders have published a book.
– 3D printing (if you can draw it you can build it)
– exams are a necessary but not sufficient hurdle.
– allowing students to be architects of their own learning.
– if that is your end product what do you do to facilitate this in years 7-13
– The students are achieving this but they may not be able to articulate how this has happened.
– year 7 will learn a traditional curriculum with extra opportunities attached.
– 220 students doing A level physics.
– awesome year 13 projects but how do we come to this.
– we want students to be happy and have good well being and be able to manage a multidisciplinary world.
– backwards planning.
– student voice (but not a foe-democracy)
– students judge teachers as a real process.
– this way we don’t just judge on a one off lesson.
– telescope are not controlled by teachers but are driven by students.
– using their own media/social media to determine how they can be used.
– other schools are struggling to do this

What is the staff uptake on additional opportunities?
– started with Becky
– added Dave
– other teachers are signing up.
– Becky is freed up two days a week to keep it going.
– added to teacher standards the Langdon teacher standards.
– All senior staff teach a high stakes class.
– students are encouraged to challenge teachers.
– teachers have chosen a conservative profession but if you have 30% on side you can not loose.
– tension how far to embrace this philosophy and keep to government expectations.
– embedding
– how do you encourage the 20% and beyond?
– started as small programs and has grown
– open university courses dropped in favor of authentic research.
– what can be done in a comprehensive school?

Matthew Moss High School

– start with some profound thinking.
– authentic use of translational analysis
– teaching academic language as though a second language
– learning outside the classroom
– project based learning
– mindset
– One year courses – do less things at once.
– human scale education (staying with one group to build relationships, small scale can improve efficiency)
– effective life long learning inventory.
–

800 learners 11 to 16

Growth Mindset – Carol Dweck (books Mindset)
– if you praise students for being clever then they will only strive where they can succeed.
– Growth mindset is where students strive to improve
– teachers can have fixed mindset and prevent growth.
– simple words can reinforce fixed mindset. ‘Well done you have done a great job to finish that quickly’ growth mindset ‘I am sorry I gave you such an easy task. Let’s build something more challenging’.
– fixed mindset can be a problem in a transition to university.

Theory X and theory Y
Don’t tell them what to do ask them what they want.
Start with the learner

No one washes a hire car! If you don’t own it you won’t look after it.

30 periods per week. Content independent!

Presentation is important
Development of a viva.
Reflect on process

Vivas are where assessment started. Written exams are a product of industrialization if education.

Book to read. Built to last.
Deep learning vs exam performance.

ESSA Academy

300 Students away for Islamic holiday today. Excellent presentation room with central screens to allow a circle but all can see presentation.

Old Haywood school was a failing school was closed and in January 2009 ESSA was opened. The community has turned it’s back on the school. 40% white in community only 9% white at school. ESSA draws on a low socioeconomic area. Most families are unemployed or employed in several low paying jobs.

Leading change.
– Secure the Vision
– Manage Process (Rolled out a 1:1 iPad program)
– Develop the people (students leave at lunch on Friday a and staff stay for PD.)
– Secure accountability
– Build Community (internal and wider)

Vision ‘All WILL Succeed’
Currently aim is 5 x A to C for all students

Mission
Moral Imperative – doing things because it is the right thing to do.
Belief
– changing belief leads to change in behavior
– intelligence is not fixed and brought in tools to improve cognition.
– Feurestein’s instrumental enrichment
Access
– gave access through handing out an iPad.
– success and failure (laptop problems, power problems, projector problems)
– simple and reliable technology (a parrot can be trained to use an iPad)
– ran a pilot with 20 iPads and the ran a whole school iPad handout
– this built community
Community –
– students choose options in all subject areas
Personalized –
– one size does not fit all
– a personalized curriculum pathway that gives choice to students

Mediation –

Modifiability
– belief that ability can be modified

The Axioms (see photo)
– steps that lead to belief
– mantra belief drives behavior

Personalized learning program (see photo)
Timetable
See image
Joint planning time
Don’t want 6 teachers planning their best lesson. Want. 6 teachers planning the best lesson. (Eg iTunes U)
Teacher will teach 7 out of 9 lessons.
CPD – always focused on leaching and learning not technical skills. This is done in tandem.
Eg training in using the iPad to build resources not just training in using the iPad.

R&R teachers off site by 2:15 pm on Friday (once every 6 weeks)

ARD
– pastoral care change not meeting 12 students 4 times per week
– finish the day earlier and meet with 3-4 students once a week.

New Basics (year 7)- not including English and Mathematics.
Year 7 divided into three pods. (70% of week)
1 x pod leader
1 x Rich tasks specialist (moves with the task).
Deep learning

Productive pedagogies (from QLD)
See image

Bridging the gap between cognitive demand and cognitive ability.
Multi strand learning using multiple difficulty levels (chilli levels)

Chilli Curriculum.
Use of criteria allows students allows students to plan their own path to their GCSE. A student can achieve a GCSE in 2 to 4 years. (See images)
Students are able to take their GCSE in Year 9. A child takes the exam when their cognitive ability matches the cognitive demand of the exam.
These pathways exist for each subject.

Academic review day. Flags indicate students ability to move through the levels.

Homework is can be about prereading and metalearning. Families have adopted the iPads as their iPads. Same level of filtering is applied at school as at home.

lessons are called LC’s Learning challenges.

Halstrom academy

The experts in this school are the students and the staff. Putting the students at the centre not to get students to pass tests alone. Trying to work away from the political agenda. Not about didatic teaching. Starts with the students not just the parent expectations.

History 5th worst school in country but raised to 25 points above average standard without changing staff. Behavior was dreadful but it was not the teachers fault it was the fault of the system. But improvement has come by changing a systems approach to a learning approach.

Learning is a physical process to do with the brain and the development of neural pathways that develop overtime and neural pathways stick if there is full body engagement. Brain activity can be lower during regular class than when students are asleep!

Reverse learning
Traditionally:
– curriculum, long term planning, medium term planning, short term planning, delivery

Reverse:
– delivery to children, how the children tick, design pedagogy, design environments,

Product
– Independent thinkers
–
– have passion love for learning BEING A CHILD

We have a culture if leading and learners. Work is spelt F U N

Learners that are equipped for the 21st century.

Learners that believe in living their dreams.

Building is 2 years old. One wing for infants one wing for primary.
For community students are placed in conventional classrooms spaces but the class rooms are not conventional. Many classrooms do not have desks. Students move around the room to find a space where they are comfortable to learn. Immersive Learning. The environments are created to be stimulating for learning using all the senses. The theme for learning is apparent for each room.’

A strong emphasis on learning structure. ie students know what the elements of PBL are and what it means to critique each others projects. I have seen students producing multiple drafts of their projects that will be presented to a real audience.

There has been a strong emphasis on professional development for staff. But the greatest uptake has come as staff have seen other staff implementing successful programs. Staff are feeling comfortable to have a go.

The local secondary schools know that students from this school are more confident more independent and more capable.

The school is planning to start a free school next an academic school next year. High Tech High and the UK innovation unit are involved in this school plant.

Immersive Learning + Project Based Learning.

What industry is the same no as it was in 1989? Why should schools not be the same?

How do we transition schools into student focused learning in the senior high school years? What opportunities does the wider community offer?

Engagement first or discipline first?
Clear lines needed to be drawn around behavior at this school with punishments and rewards but as engagement has improved discipline has improved as well.

What will it takes to get more schools on board. Many teachers may be keen but principals are afraid to innovate. It is more difficult for successful schools to try something new. Particularly schools in lower socioeconomic areas.

Calculated risk – schools that are going to close can take risks that others can not.

‘Standards’ are the floor not the ceiling.

School of Communication Arts 2.0

School of Communication Arts 2.0 http://schoolcommunicationarts.com/

The School of Communication Arts 2.0 is tucked away on a run-down housing estate in Vauxhall, London. There are no smart reception areas, no glass atriums – there isn’t even a sign above the door. This is intentional because each year each new cohort of students takes the shell of the building and fashions their own learning environment out of it, from scratch.

The School of Communication is a school for 40 students to do advertising built around a successful advertising businessman Marc Lewis.

Each day starts with a community meeting called ‘town hall’. The atmosphere is rustic but excellent with lounges in a circle. Students are encouraged to find their natural child. Real campfire time. Stand up and share.

The brief for today was to create thank you cards for the 700 mentors that work with the school. In pairs they needed to create scamps (ideas) – have lots of ideas before we filter the ideas. Best ideas come to the surface. They had the whole day to complete this task. The winning card would have their brand added to the card.

Buildings is still a church and has been a night club. Church’s are great places for community and teaching. A meeting place for ideas.

A resurrected school. It died in 1994 restarted in 2002. Originally started by a great teacher who has had an impact on advertising. Felt that university focused on how not why. He started this school while he had Parkinson’s disease and needed to dictate his vision to his colleagues.

Marc Lewis is a student of SCA 1.0 who’s life was transformed through the school. Although an advertising school develops skills for life. Marc built a fortune in dot com era. Advertising usually works in teams of two, a writer and an art director. Lewis’s former partner built the RED charity for Bono. Lewis fell out of love with money and discovered social enterprise. (Not charity, that relies on continued donations) and started SCA2.0. Some of 2.0 is the same as 1.0. But there was not internet with 1.0.

Not a school of advertising but communication arts. Find out and observe people and communicate with them. Advertisers study human behavior and see the stumbling blocks and start to solve problems.

In 2008 Lewis sat down with advertising leaders John Heggarty and Rory Sutherland. Quality of creativity had decreased and Britain with competition from the globe. Currently big ideas are coming from the west coast of the USA. The era of single careers is changing may have 7 careers and no job for more than 24 months.

When the school was restarted the business model supports the school not just the leader. Funding model based around Heroes & Legends. Anti-university, as advertising is industry based. Students get in the way of research at universities. But SCA is about jobs.

Funding – owned by industry which gives money, knowledge and people.

Legends give 25k money after 5 years they get access to 5% investment fund
Heros give 5k per year after 5 years get 1% of investment.
1/3 on scholarship. This increases diversity. Not just ethnicity and gender but also age disability and geography.

Non sponsored course = 12k for the year. Expensive but more success and employment in less time.

Self funded through active participation of students in industry.

39 students (out of work creators) 700 teachers/mentors. The students are hungry for jobs as there are not many out there.

Pedagogy (lead the child) vs androgogy –

Mavins (holders of wisdom). We have detectors for find mavins and detect rubbish.

6 mentors come in each day for students to network with. Big event is portfolio day where the agencies come in and look at books and offer jobs. Office decides on who gets the top students.

Highest funders get first choice of graduates. Usually as a partnership. 85% got a good job in a good agency. 15% started their own agency. Students are asked to come back into the school as a mentor.

1/3 have done a degree of some type. 1/3 could not get into uni. 1/3 give up a job to come here. Use of parties to interconnect graduates and current students and new students.

2400 applicants for 40 positions selected on character and personality.

Knowledge – never read a book… John gave a book called Future Shock. ‘The illiterate of the C21 will be those that can not learn and unlearn’. The first thing you show a baby lamb determines what it thinks it is. This is a mantra of SCA. Classical education and curriculum development is not able to adapt to change quickly.

Are we able to prepare talent that can adapt?

Curriculum Wiki
– anyone can consume or and the industry can contribute to.
– crowed sourced curriculum.
– Coles learning theory and reflective learning

Use of story to develop curriculum and deliver learning in a sticky way.
– use of blogging (audio, video and text as appropriate)
– the industry rates SCA as an ideas school as much as an advertising school.
– so how do we get students generating ideas.

Each year there is a story for the year.
Skeleton is written in advance
The detail is written a term in advance.

When students arrive there is no furniture and the walls are painted white.
Throughout the year the students create their agency and the students create the studio.
Day 1 Week 3 the story is introduced as a sound bite.
Students compete and submit names and industry experts choose name. Eg 2011 Spank, 2013 Bark.

Portfolio briefs – develop broad base that represent all clients
Live briefs – more specific
20 min briefs – 20 min to solve a problem (crisis solving skills)

Stunts link to story this years story ‘community needs creators’
Huge amount of structure
– blagging brief (trophies collection)
– creating a political revolution @sca2d

Behavior management –
– Early behavior help.
– When students build and create the space they will respect the space
– for this age the best learning happens when you discover it yourself.
– to develop family use a councilor to share deep issues and a improve comedian to develop willingness to share in community.
– day 5 week 1 students create their brand on a mug. If it is left out it gets smashed.
– use of embarrassing videos as motivation not to be late.
– strand if physiology called Toffler’s Transaction Analysis (5 states)
– (playfully vs dicipline) controlling parent. Natural child vs adaptive child. Adult state.
– learning comes in spurts. Initial burst then plateau. With eureka moments and push for the finish
– energy, 1000s of job seekers for few jobs. So need to become a marathon runner to survive in industry.
– first few weeks 30-40 hours rest building to 90 hours.
– students may breakdown. But better to know limits at collage

Use database to select mentors appropriate to theme.

How students are selected:
– 2000 students apply
– Do not advertise (use students to do this)
– 15 min telephone interview. Personally selected for Stage 2.
– interview/selection day in UK 12-20 students. Students show creativity and put on a show to show imagination.
– physiometric test
– solve a brief. Count how many times they say ‘yes + and’ vs ‘no + but’
– when current students speak to prospective student their decision to be at SCA is affirmed.

If yes the students are told what they need to do to be a better student.

Development of
– mnemonic techniques
– speed reading
– learn code (code academy .com, students can now learn independently)

Advise for secondary students – how to use and know time.

Different cultures have different challenges.

Montserrat College – Bringing it all together

Founded in 1926 by the Congregation of the Missionary Daughters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, Montserrat College is a school committed to the education of their students from nursery to college.
With 984 students (from pre-primary education (0-6 years), Elementary (6-12), Secondary (13-16) and High LOE and International Baccalaureate (17-18), has a faculty convinced that the student is the main driver of their learning and willing to help each one to achieve the very excellence all possible areas.
“The Montserrat College is a school where everyone learns” (H. Gardner, 2004)

Norm’s Notes – the most amazing place/vision/atmosphere/leaders. I have learnt so much here. For now here are my rough notes.

Language of school everywhere – learning landscape.
Sister Núrila – Principal
Sister Montserrat – Director of the order
Sister Monica Director of pedagogy

What is happening in Barcelona should and could be applied in Cameroon and South America. Strong professional development of staff.
50 collages.
Even partnering in Paramatta.

Assembly hall 30min in morning.
– Reflection
– human development
– spiritual development.

Different years at different times.

Younger students sing in three languages. Spanish, Catalonia and English.

Theme for preschool for this week is colours of the world. These themes are based on an overview and developed by the staff at the school.

Strong unity among staff. Shared vision.

Presentation in English.

Think of school as Museum

Excellent teachers. Paid by government but school has autonomy to select.

Natural use of technology

Excellent teachers though quite teacher directed.

Learn violin and chess from 3 yrs old.

Contrast to being crowded by students these students did not know we were here they were so focused on learning.

Compare and contrast activity from very young age to develop higher order thinking.

Three teachers to 60 students.
Seems to prevent poor use of technology

Great use of glass. Making an old space new.

Stong visioned leadership. Leadership involved in staff pd.

Year 8 were in same space for much if day.

Robert Schwartz – infusing thinking skills. Powerful if used k-12.

10th grade ‘being an entrepreneur’ do for 2 hours per week. Developing a business. Social responsibility. Follow design thinking process. Had business come to visit to set scene and give a model. An example project. Invented a device to calculate water use in shower.
Use of common space to share ideas with other groups.

Think1.tv –

Presentation –
I have recorded the presentation and will put together a summary soon.
Based on research eg neuroscience.
Three years to change school
Pd to over 2500 schools
Not just finding jobs but creating them.
Graduates? More graduates have resources to solve problems. Eg. Not afraid to try and find resources to find opportunities in economic climate.
Student up-take, there were some issues but more often from parents. Students are in school and have vision. Parents have issues more often. Eg first time with computers in 2008. Be sure of your vision and explain.
Labs currently being developed.
School day is from 9am to 5pm. Recreation from 1pm-3pm.
Teaching hours 23-25 hours per week. Up to 30hours including preparation.

photos

Hovsjoskolan- Old school in new school

Hovsjoskolan is one of the largest school investments made in the region able to accommodate 650 students. The schools are designed as open learning environments with rooms of various sizes for individual work and group work. These working environment encourages experimentation, stimulate creativity and provide sensual experiences.

The school is in an area where many refugees have settled and unemployment is very high. A few years ago the busses refused to enter the estate and police always brought two cars. Now they have built excellent soccer fields and increased community engagement.

Million project was a project to take an million people and huge apartments were built. But there is not much employment in the area. Most of the population are Syrian Christians. The community is aware that they have lost everything except their language and religion. This is respected by the Swedish and in this area Assyrian is the primary language and Swedish second. Most people want to get out so as soon as they have education or employment they move away.

The kids were very excited to see us and would come running in and around the group asking our names and being very friendly.

It is a very impressive building. There is a large open space in the entry with terraced seating and great furniture and climbing wall. My first impression was that this was an awesome building.

Principals talk.
– School is 1.5 years old.
– It can be a challenge to work an open space without doors and walls.
– You need to be careful with sound and respect eachother
– 650 students 50 teachers.
– Three dining halls.
– Traditional timetable not yet project based.
– There has not been any specific PD for how to use the building only in the job training

Their was not a strong philosophy for how the open-plan space was to be used.
– language challenge
– languages can blend for students.
– 5 week theme
– coteaching, dialogue and cooperation

Main room leading to areas on perimeter. House in house space for music, physics and biology. Visually awesome! Acoustically… a
disaster. I had a headache after our time here. In my opinion this is a symptom of a mismatch between architecture and pedagogy that requires leadership and vision to solve. Clearly a strong autocratic style is required for the building to achieve its potential.

Our guide indicated that in general.
– Norway makes decisions top down model
– Denmark uses process for decisions
– Sweden all on board (consensus) style.
This makes change management difficult.

Due to the noise the teachers had retreated to the staff lounge and put cupboards up to divide off all the open plan areas and create single teacher learning areas. Every space is a learning example for what happens when teachers are not supported and brought on the journey for how to use the area.

Some things I noted:
– The building within building is parallel with walls so sound reflection is a problem.

Interactive white boards can instantly result in didactic teaching. The rule of three can help keep things dynamic.

Rule of three
– three focal points
– three walls
– three educators

photos

Soldala

Södertälje is an industrial city, about 30 kilometers south west of Stockholm. It has a large immigrant community, with 39 percent of the inhabitants have foreign backgrounds, the largest community group are regugee Syrian Christians, who settleed here following the Iraq war.

Scolan is a school with 560 students 60 teachers. Years 7-9 are moving to a new school. There are 24 languages represented in the school community.

While the school claims not to have classrooms, or regular classes they have only partly implemented open plan. There are grade groups of 60 students and 2-3 teachers. 1 teacher will specialize in each subject area. There is a wait list for this school.

Principal visited schools with architects to get the vision but has not had much more PD. As a mathematics teacher it was a journey into a new way of learning. The school is growing and will have their first year for 9th grade this year. The principal still continues to work through how this model will cater for students with difficulty.

Gymnasiums (years 10-12) do not have a similar philosophy so students will most most likely move back to a conventional classroom with the advantage of the skills they have gained at Scolan. What will it take to change the gymnasium? Some are building schools for open plan.

Some students are finding it difficult to adapt. But students who have beer in the system for a while enjoy it. Because it is open plan it is easier to see bullying and other issues.

Due to the economic situation and high refugee population the community has high unemployment. Some of the top students move to other areas. Languages are a problem. Some students are African and have lived in Italy. So their learning outcomes can be low.

Not the best students become teachers. In Finland it is highly respected to be a teacher.

School starts at 8:15

General comments from tour.
– Great space dividers
– Rotate classes but traditional teacher centered education.
– Science in separate building in traditional lab.
– High teacher to student ratio.

This school is making great progress. They are in a similar phase to NBCS a few years ago and are transitioning from the conventional class to student focused learning. It is important at the phase they are in to continue to research and innovate laws there is a possibility the dividers between classes will grow and they will revert back to the industrial model.

Ørestad K-9 school

Part of the Ørestad complex this school occupies the 1st to 5th floor the building. Is opened in May last year and unlike the gymnasium it is showing signs is being cared for. Some schools in the area are being set up as sports highs. This school is a ‘virtual aesthetic’ school which is about technology an imagination. It is a complex series of ideas and had not been condensed into a vision statement.

The basic floor design was a large central hall with classrooms to the. side and 3/4 glass walls. An awesome space……