BUILDING SCHOOLS FOR THE FUTURE
Creative Partnerships, Arts Council England NW and Manchester City Council commissioned Fort to carry out a scoping exercise in relation to Building Schools for the Future.
As part of DfES' major investment in the redevelopment and rebuild of England's secondary schools, the 3 partners wanted to assess the creative opportunities for pupils and teachers to contribute to, and benefit from, changes at their schools. Working with 4 secondary schools in Manchester, Fort identified a number of possible outputs which the above partners could continue developing.
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Creative Consultation: by using new media facilities, and working with artists, designers and architects, pupils should be given the opportunity to consult with developers about what they, as 'clients' need to make their new school function for its users.
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Professional Development: the investment in schools will lead to impressive improvements in the ICT facilities available. However levels of technical know-how in teachers varied from one extreme to the other. By working with ICT throughout the development process, and collaborating with artists and designers, teachers will be able to both develop their functional and technical skills, and improve their aspirations for the usage of the new systems. Blue-sky thinking will be encouraged and activity will be innovative - aiming to go way beyond the basic capabilities of the available systems.
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Attainment: by working with artists / designers / architects in residence on specific features of the new design and build, pupils will be able to develop creative approaches to curriculum subjects. For example by working on sculpture and outdoor furniture for the school grounds, pupils can work towards targets for art, design, technology, geography, citizenship and science subjects.
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Profile: several schools were the result of sporadic and inconsistent bouts of build and redevelopment previously. This led to confused routes into and around the school grounds and the main reception. Building Schools, with the support of the above 3 partners, could help raise the profile of the school by developing clear pathfinding designs, and presenting a more cohesive, professional exterior view from main roads. The exercise could be extended to raising the profile of pupils achievements by for example, developing cohesively branded school websites, or creating a professional gallery for pupils and partners work in the main entrance.