Download Albany Senior High School - Modern Learning Environment example

INNOVATIVE SCHOOL LEARNING SPACES (New)
School name:
Type:
2009 roll:
Principal:
Albany Senior High School
New secondary school
Years 11 – 13 secondary school
240
Barbara Cavanagh
New Schools funding
Designer: Roy Blok of Jazmax (Architects)
Builder:
Stanley Construction, Matamata; Greenstone Group (project managers)
Opening date: February 2009
Cost:
$7mill
What was the vision that guided your designer/architect on how teaching and
learning would happen at the new school? Who was involved in the development of
the vision and how did you do this?
New Zealand’s first senior state senior high school takes a new approach to teaching
and learning in years 11 to 13. Even though it is in temporary buildings while the
permanent campus is being built, the school is already living the vision developed by
its establishment board and its Albany community. The essence of the vision is:
nurture…inspire….empower. The full six page vision statement developed by the
establishment board of trustees revolves around these themes: the school as a
community of learning with the student at its centre; a school culture based on adult
relationships and social connectedness; a learning environment that uses a mix of
learning modes, spaces and approaches; interdisciplinary teaching teams and
projects/topics; commitment to developing the whole student within an ICT-rich
environment. The vision was developed from March to late June 2007 and drew on
the expertise of senior MOE officials, education researchers, principals of recently
built secondary schools, the Secondary Futures project, university academics; as well
as visits to six similar Australian schools.
What were you setting out to achieve in that vision, for example what were the
teaching practices (and learning styles?) that drove the design of the learning and
teaching areas?
Self-managing, student-centred, and inquiry/project based learning drove the design
of the big learning and teaching areas. “Inquiry learning is the foundation”, said
principal Barbara Cavanagh, “supported by learning dialogues”. She also said that
“teachers are teachers at Albany Senior”. Her experience with Te Kotahitanga led her
to believe that teachers, even in such an adult and student-centred learning
environment, must “retain power and expect respect”. Spaces were designed
therefore for both independent learning and formal teaching. This interwoven
pattern of teaching practices and learning styles is expressed in a detailed school
logo, as seen in photo Ashs3.
Which of the seven teaching practices set out in the NZ Curriculum are supported
by your learning environments?
Supportive learning environments: These are pivotal to the daily routines at ASHS, in
the large (360 sq ms) open-plan learning space where there are teachers in many
locations and in the regular provision of tutorials.
Encourage reflective thought and action: The school vision is very much based on this
theme and it is manifest too in the weekly timetable (see photo Ashs4) where there
is generous provision for inquiry and reflection by groups and individual students.
Enhance the relevance of new learning: Students are encouraged and empowered to
learn, inquire, and take action in the community; to follow a passion relevant to
them in their Wednesday whole-day Impact project.
Facilitate shared learning: Much of the learning is done in self-managing, sharing
groups. Note the mix of learning spaces, large and small, that groups have access to.
Make connections to prior learning and experience: These connections are
encouraged by staff, and can be developed in the Impact projects by inquiry learning
groups, following a particular personal interest e.g. in dance, coaching, robotics, and
working in primary schools.
Provide sufficient opportunities to learn: The three-period day is divided into 100
minute periods so that there is ample opportunity, and physical space, for teachers
and students to delve deep, inquire, reflect, and learn.
Inquire into the teaching-learning relationship: Barbara Cavanagh explained that
teacher professional inquiry and reflection is carried out every Wednesday morning
in co-operative professional learning involving all teachers.
What types of teaching and learning spaces have you included in your design (e.g.
flexible general classrooms or learning studios, open plan, flexible or multi-size
spaces, indoor/outdoor learning environments)? Whanau/ awhina/ learning streets
for shared learning and social interaction?
As the plans and photographs show, Albany Senior High has very large and flexible
open plan classrooms; breakout rooms for smaller groups for quiet work; and a
learning street through the centre which is often used by student groups as well as
for social interaction and learning.
What provisions have been made for independent or small group learning?
The school offers both time and space for independent and small group learning.
Wednesday is set aside for this with the Impact projects; the plans and photos as
noted above show multiple and varied spaces for learning.
How do your teaching and learning spaces differ from those in older, conventional
schools?
Even though the current campus will exist just through 2009 while the permanent
buildings emerge just a kilometre or so away, the basic forms and shapes of the
learning environments, and the teaching/learning approaches, will remain. The plans
for the new school illustrate how the new site, over five storeys, will include the
unconventional and very large open-plan rooms, the smaller group rooms, the
shared facilities and specialist rooms of the temporary school. This design approach
differs from regular secondary schools with their single cell classrooms and single cell
specialist rooms. Note in photo Ashs 11, how the specialist science teaching spaces
are in one large open plan laboratory, separated by wide practical work benches.
What can teachers do that they would find difficult to do in older, conventional
schools?
Teachers at Albany Senior share, collaborate and team teach in “learning
communities” made up of mathematics, science and English teachers. This approach
is encouraged and enabled by their shared work rooms and their working in very
large open plan rooms with mobile white boards and very flexible furnishing
arrangements. The whole staff except the principal and the counsellor also provide
tutorials to give students the interview, communication, and administrative skills
necessary for their Impact projects e.g. the principal’s personal assistant provides
tutorials on letter writing and telephone skills, the school business manager tutors in
budgeting. The adult-based relationships encouraged by the open/sharing school
spaces enable this approach.
Provision for teachers decentralised work areas e.g. are they ‘eyes on the street’
available to students?
Teachers are typically about the school, often informally, at all times. They have
work areas opening off the open plan classrooms and off the central concourse so
they are very accessible.
How will your new facilities accommodate teaching and learning in curriculum areas
such as technology? physical education? the arts? Does this vary from the traditional
school approach?
The temporary school has conventional spaces for physical education and the arts
but students frequently use community facilities too. Science, as noted above, is
learnt in open-plan style laboratories and the library has the conventional mix of
book and computer information sources. The permanent school will have food
technology and cafeteria facilities side by side, specialist spaces for performance,
dance, media, art and design.
What provision has been made for teachers’ professional learning, collaboration and
cooperation?
As already noted, teachers teach, learn, collaborate and cooperate in shared open
spaces and meet for professional reflection and learning as a team, every week.
Did you have MOE goals in mind e.g. engaging families and communities and how is
that reflected in the approach to the school’s design?
The temporary facilities do not reflect a strong commitment to engaging families and
communities (the permanent school will), but the teaching and learning practices
certainly do. The regular Learning Dialogues involve individual students and teachers
(including the principal) reporting back on their learning, assessment, and artefacts
they have created, to audiences of their peers and parents. The Impact projects
ensure student engagement with the community and its learning resources.
What provision have you made for e-learning in the new environments?
As the photos show, there is generous provision of computers and wireless internet
access throughout the learning space.
What special or unique features and/or learning benefits have the buildings
provided?
The special and unique features, leading to learning benefits at Albany Senior High
include the central learning street for adult/student interaction, the flexible 360 sq
ms learning/teaching spaces, the small group meeting rooms, the computerseverywhere provision, the collaborative and accessible teacher offices including the
very open and accessible shared senior management area.
Have the new environments led to changes in teaching practice and/or student
learning and the success that you planned for?
Barbara Cavanagh believes the new environments have set up the conditions in
which the vision of the school can be achieved and the design approach is carrying
through into the permanent facilities under construction, including the open plan
and the inquiry-based adult-relationship-style teaching practice.
Have there been any unforeseen benefits/outcomes?
Barbara Cavanagh has noted “no raised voices” as an unforeseen outcome of the
school’s design, and the fact that, when surveyed, the students placed the highest
value on “our relationships with teachers”.
Do you have an ongoing school plan for learning environments? What’s the next
step?
As above, the ongoing development of the new Albany Senior High School is very
much based on the success of the temporary buildings and their layout.
What features of what you’ve achieved with these learning spaces would you
recommend to other schools?
Large scale open-plan with multi-disciplinary teacher teams; the learning street
linking all teaching and learning spaces; the flexible teaching equipment; and the
availability of smaller quiet meeting rooms, are all recommended.
Was there any specific consideration given to the internal environment of the spaces
such as acoustics, daylight, artificial light, ventilation and heating? What did you set
out to achieve and are you happy with the results?
The short-term facility has proven to be a light, bright, airy environment. Carpet
throughout the big spaces has kept them quiet and the central concourse/learning
street has supplied light and ventilation to every area.
ISLA Captions for Albany Senior High School
The floor plan of a school built for one year while its permanent home is constructed a
kilometre or two away. All the learning places and offices open off a wide central
concourse.
The gymnasium is open and light like the other spaces.
Teachers share offices, just as they share teaching spaces…..
Meanwhile work goes on at the permanent site: same style of facilities, but multistoreyed, for the same style of teaching and learning.
This is how the permanent learning spaces will look: large scale open plan, access to
small group rooms, all along wide concourses.
The same pattern will apply to the permanent library: open plan but plenty of
accommodation for self-managing groups….
...and the staff will have shared spaces again: senior management in the lower left;
admin in lower right.
On the new site, the food technology laboratory and school cafeteria will be side by
side. The principal proposes to hold morning staff meetings in the cafeteria.