![]() If you've read my book you may have jumped to this story of our Nottinghamshire school’s new ecc-build eco-project because there wasn’t room for a full account there. Others may be just browsing this site without reference to the book. For the latter group’s benefit, here are 10 paragraphs from the book to give the context (obviously book readers can skip these). Opening the Can When I entered my first headship in 1995, I’d inherited a failing school in all senses of the word and perhaps this explains why I got the job i.e. some of the interviewees pulled out in disdain and disbelief. However, being young (ish) and ambitious, it seemed an opportunity rather than a lost cause, so I grabbed it with both hands. The school had 250 Juniors (children 7-11 years) and was housed in ex-2nd World War army camp buildings at the centre of a run-down largely local authority housing estate. When the school opened in 1950, the conversion from military to educational use was meant to be a ‘temporary measure’, having been necessitated by a steep rise in the number of young families as the estate grew bigger after the war. This expansion continued and a new Infant School (for 3-6 year olds) was opened next door in the 1960s and expanded in the 1970s, but funding still wasn’t available for a replacement of the Junior School. Many people quirkily called it the ‘Camp School’ which caused some mirth from outsiders. After adaptation from Camp to School in terms of rooms and lay-out, the only other major ‘improvement’, which occurred sometime in the 1980s, was the addition of suspended ceilings. The inside walls were all painted a dull green colour as would befit an old-fashioned mental asylum and apart from a bare field for football, the rest of the grounds were tarmacked with no landscaping other than some sickly hedging on the perimeter. The heating system was the original coke-fired boiler which belched black smoke for much of the winter giving the site a Dickensian feel on foggy days. The behaviour of many of the children was poor, the curriculum uninspiring and many of the parents took pleasure in causing problems for teachers by supporting their rebellious charges rather than working with the school to improve matters. The older more experienced teachers were good at fending them off, but the younger teachers weren’t and they had the additional burden of being put with the most troublesome classes at the top of the school. All this was a great shame because looking at the history of the school, during most of its existence it was well regarded and the approaches to education i.e. good discipline, vigorous sport and exercise, traditional teaching of basic skills laced with arts and crafts activities, served the community well. The school’s staff had a sense of purpose which was generally supported by the populace. Unfortunately, the estate became more dysfunctional from the 1980s onwards due to the rise of unemployment and the continued influx of many traveller families. More ‘conventional’ people voted with their feet, thus the estate and school were labelled ‘sink’ (it had never been well regarded in the town in the first place). The Headteacher of 25 years was left high and dry in terms of continuing to deploy an ethos no longer fit for purpose. I was fortunate that most staff of all vintages were hankering for change. I was also fortunate because a newly appointed deputy had been acting head for a term before I arrived and had already implemented tactical Improvements, including introducing a revamped school uniform, new behaviour management procedures, better curriculum planning, more effective assessment measures and more appropriate PE/team games. The teachers were expected to run extra-curricular activities and all this added up to the school being on the right basic track (I suppose the only way was up!). Apart from continuing to implement short-term improvements through this change of ‘Tactics’, I was keen to develop a sustainability ethos and started to engage staff and governors about this. But where to start? I ‘sold’ the idea on the back of improving the curriculum, initially through the relatively straightforward action of getting the teachers to take their classes on day and residential field trips in the manner of Environmental Education discussed in previous chapters. These had ceased due to the poor behaviour of the children. I also encouraged teachers to include aspects of ESD within their lesson planning (this was before I discovered ‘frameworks’ for developing sustainability). In the end I found that actions spoke louder than words. My first act of sustainability was to get an aluminium can recycling bin installed in the entrance hall. This was in the days before local authorities recycled this sort of waste. Not an Earth-shattering move, but it set the tone for what was to follow. Of course, a single recycling bin doesn’t make a sustainable school. In addition to the bin, I drip fed information to the staff and children about aluminium i.e. it derives from bauxite ore which has to be mined and processed causing a lot of environmental damage. Only in later years did I find out that recycling aluminium cans is really Greenwash because when doing so about 5-10% of the can is lost, therefore additional ore is needed to top this up. This means that it’s dubious to use aluminium for any product. However, at the time this modest act got the attention of staff and children and they started to dutifully bring in their cans. The entrance hall smelt of stale beer, but this was a price worth paying. A company took them away and we earned a bit of income which pleased the Budget Manager. People also noticed an aspect of my lifestyle which also revealed my sustainability tendencies: I cycled to work. This was in contrast to my predecessor who arrived in his Jaguar. To cut a longer story short (see the book), we gained a reputation for innovation in the sphere of sustainability and hence were well placed to develop an ambitious project to replace our army camp buildings on the back of continued lobbying of the local authority. Eventually were we rose up their list of priorities. Opportunity Knocks But before this an opportunity arose for doing some in-depth thinking and planning in anticipation of this. Through one of my sustainability networks (and I genuinely forget which one), I heard that the Nottingham University School of the Built Environment were looking for a school to collaborate with their final year architect students. Their project was to design a new school building. The students needed to consult stakeholders on what they wanted and this was a pivotal part of the design process. From this over a period of 6 weeks we had visits from 27 students, working in pairs or threes, who worked with groups of children, staff and governors on a detailed consultation. People were encouraged to do sketches and to help make models as well as discuss what their ideal school building would look like. The resulting work was presented to the community and was part of the official assessments done by the university. Unsurprisingly, due to our extensive ESD curriculum, there were lots of ideas and requests for ‘Eco- features’. This chimed well with the students because their faculty had an international reputation for innovation in this area. In the end we had 10 detailed eco-building designs, including their grounds. Apart from the project generally being a very interesting experience for all, it also provided a wide range of curriculum enrichment experiences for the children. The additional benefit was that it showed children the job of an architect. Our children were mainly from very disadvantaged backgrounds and unlikely to have ever come across this profession with their families or community. It also provided positive female role models because over half the students were women which was a good counter to quite a lot of patriarchy and misogyny in the community. Career aspirations were low and particularly so for girls, many of whom had children very early i.e. sometimes from the age of 13 or 14 onwards. I once did a survey of all Year 6 children (10/11year olds), asking them ‘what they wanted to be when they grew up’. There was a predominant response of ‘Footballer’ for boys and ‘Hairdresser’ for girls. This is hardly surprising as 98% of their parents had received no Further or Higher education. So, this campus-based project delivered many positive outcomes and further galvanised my efforts to lobby for an actual building. The following year, LA money became available for this and an architect was appointed. Once again, we were fortunate because this person had close ties with Nottingham University and was in sympathy with our eco-ambitions. She also had extensive international experience which meant that innovation was in her blood. Before putting pen to paper- or should I say producing a Computerised Aided Design (CAD), she got ‘down and dirty’ with the stakeholders in a similar manner to the Nottingham University students. This extended to colour schemes and the type of carpets etc. In summary, the main stakeholders wanted the following. Teachers: flexible work-spaces for whole class sessions and small group work, lots of natural light and plenty of storage space, use of natural materials, calm colour schemes, display space, library and a relaxing staffroom away from the main turmoil of the school. Children: variety of colour schemes, nice toilets, quiet areas, library, variety of play areas and surfaces (not just for football!), solar panels, wind turbines, shelter from the rain and a pond. Staff visited various local new-builds and some further afield. One excursion included a visit to the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Wales which show-cases innovative buildings and building methods as well being a centre for permaculture (research and implementation) and running a wide variety of sustainability courses (see https://www.cat.org.uk/). From all this we became armed with ideas and found that many of them resonated with the architect. One important example was that we wanted the new build to be a ‘Learning Building’, rather than just a ‘Building of Learning’. By this I mean that the children and parents would understand first-hand how the building operated along sustainable lines. An example of this is shown below, whereby the heating boiler illustrates a ‘Circular Economy’. This information sign was displayed in a large form for all to see. To set out my stall I developed a ‘Build Charter’ for the build project. It had a direct lineage to the school ethos and the ESD knowledge we’d accumulated over the years and from the University project. It put down various sustainability lines in the sand, whereby solutions had to be found rather than fudged. For example, we were told the timber frame option wasn’t feasible because it cost too much and was technically impossible. We challenged this, found a local company that could make it and as described below procured extra funding. Although the building company and the local authority found us challenging, ultimately, they gave us tremendous support and gained much kudos from the project. The Charter shown below was used in subsequent projects and showed that not only was an ‘eco-approach’ more ethical, in many respects it was also more economical due to the cut in waste. I was most fortunate that the main architect of the project also shared my values and aspirations. Without her support, I would’ve been out-gunned by more conservative influences. It wasn’t just about replacing old for new, but old for innovative sustainability. Build Charter The charter for the building has four main aspects; namely: A ‘LEARNING BUILDING’ AS WELL AS A ‘BUILDING OF LEARNING’ i.e. the way the building operates will help the school to teach EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY, linked to the school's plan to open an ‘ECO-CENTRE’ which will help the community to avoid fuel poverty and which will be open for local schools to explore aspects of sustainable life-styles and linking this approach to the National Curriculum. It was also linked to the school's desire to achieve ‘ECO-SCHOOL’ GREEN FLAG STATUS (the top accreditation). The building should be constructed in such a way as TO MINIMISE ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE. This will be achieved by having regard to the school Energy Policy (see separate document) and adhering to the principles listed below: PROCUREMENT OF MATERIALS ( internal and external, involving individual or bulk items) Procuring materials from a sustainable or renewable source.
We specified a timber framed building rather than steel which showed carbon capture in the wood and also this lighter structure meant that the concrete slab it sat on was much thinner, thus bringing down its carbon footprint substantially (see book for more information on ‘Embodied Carbon). People queried the longevity of a timber framed building, but I pointed out that if maintained properly, they had lives as long as brick and stone equivalents. We actually had some brickwork in the form of a low-level plinth which skirted the whole building, preventing the woodwork being in touch with the ground. We sourced recycled bricks for this, once again bearing in mind the high carbon footprint of new bricks. All the carpets were sourced from a company which used recycled materials. Even the soft-playground areas came from recycled sources, in this case old training shoes. Frequent site visits showed the children the build process and they felt very grown up going around in special hard-hats and reflective jackets. They also felt real ‘ownership’ of the building and the experiential learning was second to none. The building had solar powered hot water system, rainwater fed toilets and was heated by a wood- pellet boiler which was extended to the other buildings on the site. It was also orientated so that it received solar radiation following ‘Passivhause’ principles. Part of the roof was covered in Sedum to encourage bio-diversity, particularly pollinating insects. It connected to the new Sports/Arts building and for the first time our much-maligned community had a school ‘fit for purpose’. More research revealed that the wood pellets were due to come from Poland which somewhat defeated the object due to the carbon footprint of transport. We therefore sourced them from a site about 50 miles away. A new pond was created by reusing the housing of a redundant oil tank used for the old Infant School heating system which we hooked up to new building. NB Wood pellet systems are problematic on large boilers because they have the tendency to jam the system if not of a particular consistency. They are also less eco than one might think because of the carbon associated with their production and transportation. With hindsight I would’ve chosen a different system. At one point it was doubtful whether our ambitious design could be delivered at all due to cost over- runs. This was alleviated by challenging the main contractor on some of the projected costs and also by raising additional funding. Once again, our reputation for innovation helped our cause. A national business, with a local headquarters promised to put up a substantial sum if the LA matched it and this duly happened. I was also able to put in more funding by projecting the future savings on energy and borrowing this from the LA. We also found more cost-savings by reusing the temporary road for delivery lorries as hard-core for the new playground and also utilising one of our spaces as a site office rather than the builders needing to install one themselves. Another substantial help came from the contractor’s Site Manager. He was totally in tune with our aims and went above and beyond to make things happen. He was also instrumental in facilitating site visits by the children. The building ended up winning a regional award for innovative design from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and was highly commended at the national finals. Decamped But what of the army camp buildings? The original intention was to demolish them once the new building was complete. However, other opportunities arose for retaining them. One was that because we decided to take over our school catering, it made sense to keep the large kitchen and adjoining hall which was based in the old block. This was made possible when a refurbishment grant was obtained. It also meant that we now had an additional hall which helped our PE provision and also gave us extra space for community use. The redundant classrooms were also utilised, including for a community shop, science lab, meeting spaces, multi-sensory room and offices for a local network of schools’ special need coordinator. There was also another intriguing reason for keeping them and came in the form of an ambitious project to highlight their historic relevance which I describe in the book. This provided a disadvantaged community with reason to celebrate their locality as much as any other place with a story of national significance. Campus Creativity
Regarding the new build, I can’t stress enough the importance of having the knowledge and professional kudos that enabled me to negotiate as an equal in this alien world of architects, LA procurement processes, quantity surveyors and builders. I don’t say this for self-aggrandisement, but to show that UK school leaders have more freedom than they might think and that having a strong ethos (in my case a Sustainability ethos), is the bedrock of this. Although new builds always encourage new thinking, I feel that school leaders should never just accept their fate in terms of the campus they inherit or be brow-beaten into accepting formulaic plans for new campus developments. In fact, they shouldn’t be fatalistic about anything! Even in the most difficult circumstances (and I’ve endured years of these!) there are ways of enhancing the learning experience by altering the physical and associated psychological ambience of the school. For instance, the dreary green walls of the camp school were replaced with more vibrant ones. We had no budget to do this, so relied upon paint donations and such was the goodwill, some of the staff painted the walls themselves. Hi-tec solutions are to be welcomed, but the human dimension is always be crucial factor.
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Who am I?I'm Dr David Dixon, a former primary head, now author and trainer. I am originally from Lincolnshire but now live in Northumberland. The Blogs |
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