About Teacher Support Network

Teacher Support Network provide practical, emotional and financial support to teachers throughout the
UK. Their team of qualified coaches, advisers and counsellors run a free confidential support service over
the phone and online, which is available to any training, serving or retired teacher at any time, every day
of the year. Previously known as the Teachers’ Benevolent Fund, they also provide financial support to
teachers in need.
Just another brick in the wall?

Whitecross High School & Specialist College,

David Trood, Hellerup, Copenhagen Haverstock Associates David Trood, Hellerup, Copenhagen

About BCSE
The British Council for School Environments is a membership organisation made up of schools, local
authorities, construction companies, architects and all those involved in and concerned about the design
of excellent learning environments.

This new organisation is a forum for the exchange of good practice, research, dialogue and advocacy,
supporting organisations from across the private and public sectors to understand each other’s needs.
The members range from global leaders in construction and design to primary and secondary schools.

How schools could benefit from

better building investment
If you would like further information on the material in this document please contact:

Kevin Armstrong Beth Gladstone

Policy & External Relations Officer Head of External Relations
Teacher Support Network British Council for School Environments
kevin.armstrong@teachersupport.info beth@bcse.uk.net
020 7554 5235 020 7785 6286

Larmenier & Sacred Heart Primary School, Threeways School Bath,
Studio E Architects A3 Architects
In 2007, Teacher Support Network and the British Council for School Environments (BCSE) conducted a
joint survey of 530 teachers on school buildings.
• Just 12% said that their building provided an effective learning environment.
• A resounding 87% believed that school environments influence pupil behaviour.
• 60% said that their school didn’t have an adjustable environment to support curriculum delivery.
The survey clearly demonstrated that poor facilities can have a damaging impact on the performance
and wellbeing of pupils and school staff. Poor acoustics can hamper communication and affect teachers’
confidence, for example, whilst poor temperature control can affect concentration, damaging teaching
and learning alike.
Investment in school buildings has increased significantly in recent years. School annual capital spending
is already above £6 billion and is set to rise to over £8 billion by 2010-11, but it is vital that every penny
is spent wisely.
In June 2008, Teacher Support Network and BCSE hosted a roundtable meeting with key stakeholders
involved in the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. The attendees - including architects,
teaching unions and the DCSF – identified a number of problems that need to be addressed.
Problems on the supply side - architects and sources of support
Westminster Academy,
Allford Hall Monaghan Morris
BSF architects said that the demands during the procurement process were too great and that they felt
rushed into producing less ambitious, poorer-quality designs without adequate consultation with schools.
One said that he felt “bruised by the process” and that at one point he even had to design seven schools
in just 14 weeks.
The architects also said that they had found that some teachers’ ideas lacked vision; focusing on how
to improve their existing building rather than imagining the ideal. Both architects and teachers found it
difficult to envisage and plan for new ways of teaching and learning. One contributor said: “unless you
get quality engagement, you’ll never get a quality end product.”
Architects also argued that BSF’s aims were potentially unrealistic, given the information and funds
available. They said that it was impossible to design a learning environment that could accommodate
the likely changes over a 25-year period, such as a heating system that could accommodate decades of
climate change.
Lastly, it was also argued that schools were failing to coordinate their design with nearby facilities and
use other sources of funding in order to make their new building as beneficial as possible to the school
and surrounding area.
Problems on the client side - teachers, pupils and the wider
community
Representatives from trade unions and other teaching groups pointed out that the everyday pressures
on teachers are already immense. Teacher Support Network noted that an alarming number of teachers
contact them for help with workload-related problems. Therefore, the wellbeing and effectiveness of
teachers – particularly headteachers – would suffer without extra support to meet BSF’s demands. Any
lack of engagement or enthusiasm from headteachers would also reduce opportunities for involvement
by other staff and the wider school community.
Teachers were unlikely to offer a design vision for the school because they had little or no experience
of similar projects and few opportunities to learn from the experiences of others.
Despite the courses run to support them by the National College
“U
for School Leadership, teachers with or without experience felt
that they still lacked the information needed to make the right nless you get
long-term design decisions for their school. As a result, architects quality engagement,
said that teachers invariably ask for ‘flexibility’ as an underlying
you’ll never get a quality
design feature. This, combined with the general lack of quality
consultation, meant that new buildings risk lacking personalisation, end product.”
identity, purpose or an overall sense of community ownership and
pride.
Attendees were concerned that the above factors would deter some schools with poor facilities from
even choosing to participate in BSF.
Kingsmead School, White Designs
How to help schools through better building investment
These problems must be alleviated so that BSF has the best chance to benefit teachers and pupils in
need. We would like to see:
• Far greater interaction between architects and teachers throughout the process and action
to ensure that architects are not overburdened. The procurement process must give greater
consideration to the aggregate workload and costs of bidders. Further reduction of the sample
schemes and more time for the design stage are options that should be considered.
• A named individual in each procurement process responsible for ensuring that teachers are fully
engaged and supported from beginning to end. To allow this, teachers should also be given support
to free up time for active involvement in the process.
These recommendations could play a key role in ensuring that the remaining stages of BSF are as
successful as they need to be.