Walthamstow School for Girls Design Philosophy

The Waltham Forest Output Specification clearly describes the high achievements, ethos and values of Walthamstow School for Girls along with its future needs and aspirations for the BSF programme. 
The Project scheme was developed through site visits and a series of design meetings attended by BY-UK, the School and LBWF representatives. On top of this the team also gained useful insights from a student consultation session involving some of the pupils from the school’s BSF student group and benefited immensely from the background work carried out by the group including their own ideas and proposals for the extension and refurbishment of their school.
It is believed that it is only through an open, consultative process that buildings may be designed to reflect stakeholder aspirations, meet functional and affordability requirements and facilitate and inspire successful transformation.
From the initial consultations and investigations some fundamental requirements and aspirations became clear:
the need for a sympathetic response to and enhancement of the both the listed buildings and their unique natural setting within a mature landscape.
• The need for new flexible and adaptable accommodation supported by the efficient use of the retained buildings, to meet current needs and to facilitate and encourage innovation in the future
• The need for clear legible and accessible circulation routes linking the whole school together without the need to move between buildings externally
• The need for new dining spaces to properly and safely accommodate the number of pupils dining as well as the desire for a variety of internal and external social spaces which may also used for informal dining.
• The need for a range of staff work and social spaces to support workforce reform and faculty restructuring
• The need to enhance curriculum and learning opportunities, building on the school’s Maths and ICT Specialism
• The need for new high quality specialist teaching accommodation, accessible to all
These points informed the designs for the extension and refurbishment of Walthamstow School for Girls. The following sections set out our approach and proposals in more detail.

1.2. Improvement of Educational Standards

Walthamstow School for Girls is a school with a strong and effective ethos that contributes enormously to the high standards achieved.  The Contractors proposals allowed it to grow and develop into a centre of excellence in Mathematics and ICT for the adult and student learning communities of the Walthamstow area.  The design has built upon these strong features and strong aspirations so that we may facilitate the continuing improvements in standards.  It was recognised that as the benefits of personalisation continue to emerge from research and as case studies from transformed schools provide increasing guidance, the school must have the flexibility and adaptability to respond whilst maintaining its reputation for reliability and quality
Examples of the approach in terms of building upon the current ethos include
• Excellent connection between the internal and external learning environments including the incorporation of the external theatre within the logic of the new building, the provision of a learning terrace to support Science and Technology and connectivity between music performance spaces and the external performance spaces
• High degree of student responsibility and trust as expressed through high quality dispersed dining and social areas and dispersed breakout learning spaces in all departments.
• Restricting the new building to two stories above ground level to preserve the presence of the traditional school and its recognised presence as a haven of learning in the local community
• The rationalisation of faculties to build upon the existing coherent subject structure and staff team approach to delivery and to extend the effectiveness of this through the integration of localised learning hubs, distributed ICT facilities and high quality new buildings and refurbished areas
• Recognising the important role of the learning resource area by bringing it front of house into a prime location with close proximity to English and languages
• Facilitating the development of multi-disciplinary maths by providing high quality resources for maths with close proximity to Technology and Science and well served by ICT facilities.
• Extending the current facilities for enhancing learning through the use of ICT by ensuring that all teaching spaces have internet connected electronic whiteboards and the capacity for wireless and wired use of laptop and other mobile devises in all learning areas without restricting the possible layouts required for varied teaching and learning styles.
• Maximising the ‘degrees of freedom’ and minimising the number of corridors and confined areas in recognition of the students perceptions of safety and security
• High value placed on inclusion from the positioning of disabled access lift and in-class provision.
Whilst recognising the current strengths the team had to ensure that the building could respond to developments in pedagogy and the recognition that such changes will need to take place gradually by staff learning to work in new ways and in new environments for learning. Many of the current examples of international best practice in raising achievement are based upon a more personalised approach to learning with greater range, greater choice and greater independence.  Such pedagogies require different skills and different environments from those best suited to more traditional teaching methods.  We have achieved this flexibility in a number of ways including
• Ensuring that all new classroom wings can have multiple layouts so that if for example, Science were to be delivered through a series of key presentations, laboratory investigations and research based learning then the building could be reconfigured to provide lecture theatres, labs, breakout areas and traditional classrooms through the movement of non structural acoustic walls.  The services, lighting and ventilation strategies for supplying these spaces ensure that future changes in configuration will work as well as the initial design.
• Providing ICT rooms around the LRC so that the whole suite of resources can be used for inquiry based learning as well as the more practical requirements of online tests and assessments.  The clustering of general classrooms and smaller rooms in this area further facilitates such adaptations
• Each Faculty area has a hub with the facility for laptop recharging and storage.  Such facilities allow each department to experiment with personalisation and independent learning methodologies within controlled areas which allow students the flexibility to use mobile ICT when needed and appropriate.  This concept can extend to larger groups, larger areas and more distributed spaces over time as staff confidence increases and curriculum methods are developed.
• High quality staff training provision initially based around a room in each of the existing schools that allows staff to begin their familiarisation.   This continual development is further supported through our partnering services offering and through our proposals for classroom observation technologies, exemplification of best practice and the implementation of IP integrated tools such as ‘Classwatch’
• The wireless environment which is provided for the entire site would support more dispersed models of laptop and PDA learning that fully utilise the excellent range of outside learning environments including the amphitheatre gardens and the social areas adjacent to dining.
• We are providing videoconference, casting, sharing and streaming tools that will allow collaboration and peer mentorship between primary and tertiary partners.  This supports the Mathematics specialism in that it can allow peer mentorship and peer training both of which can create significant improvements in mathematical ability
• Allowing the design and acoustic separation necessary to permit phased dining for year groups or subsets of students who find large numbers of students distressing
• The use of new technology to provide a mixed economy including ‘blade’ PCs, mobile devices and more traditional PCs.  Our strategy of looking towards the longer term evolution of the building provides a rationale for proposing the best solution for each area.  For example the use of blade in areas that is likely to change use with PCs needing to be flexible in their position without expensive air conditioning installation.
• The strategy ensures that at the heart of the school is a large flexible space with very considerable potential for future personalisation of learning.  The external grounds and music areas are served directly by this large area as well as performance, formal and informal dining.  The high bandwidth wireless coverage throughout the internal and external areas provide a mixture of study areas, display, performance and creative opportunities.  As part of the personalisation strategy this central resource can support a year group engaged in large scale project work requiring performance and presentation.
In summary, the design has provided a solution that reflects the aspiration for educational achievement through investment in high quality resources and environments for learning in the short term and effective , pedagogically led future developments that can respond to our growing understanding of the way the children learn within a technologically rich  knowledge economy.