Creating

excellent
secondary
schools
A guide for clients

Published in 2007 by the Commission for

Architecture and the Built Environment.
Graphic design: Duffy
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may
be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, copied
or transmitted without the prior written consent of
the publisher except that the material may be
photocopied for non-commercial purposes without
permission from the publisher. This document is
available in alternative formats on request from
the publisher.
ISBN 1846330173
CABE is the governments advisor on architecture,
urban design and public space. As a public body,
we encourage policymakers to create places that
work for people. We help local planners apply
national design policy and advise developers and
architects, persuading them to put peoples needs
first. We show public sector clients how to
commission buildings that meet the needs of their
users. And we seek to inspire the public to demand
more from their buildings and spaces. Advising,
influencing and inspiring, we work to create welldesigned, welcoming places.
CABE 1 Kemble Street London WC2B 4AN
T 020 7070 6700 F 020 7070 6777
E enquiries@cabe.org.uk www.cabe.org.uk
Cover image: Ifield Community College
Martin Charles

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Contents

Foreword

1 Introduction

2 Background to schools projects

28

3 Creating a vision and appraising the options

50

4 Developing the brief

68

5 Selecting the team to design and build

your school

86

6 Design development and construction

98

7 After completion

104

Appendices

112

Mossbourne Academy, London by Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners David Churchill

Foreword
We all have a
responsibility to ensure
that future generations
will appreciate new
schools for the
inspiration they bring

Building Schools for the Future, the governments 45 billion

investment programme, aims to rebuild or renew every secondary
school in the country by 2020. It is the biggest capital investment in
education for 50 years. But designing and building good secondary
schools is not easy. They are complex projects with a large numbers
of uses and a wide variety of users. And now that the government
rightly wants schools to provide learning not just for young people
but for the whole community, they will have even more.

Michele Turriani

Good design is therefore fundamental to the delivery

of such an ambitious programme. The whole school
environment has to work efficiently for all of its
users and this requires a skilful contribution from
contractors and engineers, as well as architects
and specialist designers.
I hope this guide will help to demystify the process and
encourage you to get involved in this opportunity to
transform secondary school buildings across England.
It is an endeavour on a scale that will only happen once
in our lifetimes. We all have a responsibility to ensure
that future generations will appreciate new schools for
the inspiration they bring to teachers and students and the improved quality
of life that they bring about.

John Sorrell CBE

Chair, CABE

1 Introduction

Alys Tomlinson

1.1 The importance

of good design
Around 60 per cent of
students and staff have
indicated that the quality
of building design
affected their choice
of university

Good design is about providing buildings and spaces that are fit for purpose
and built to last but also lift the spirits of everyone who uses them.
The benefits of good design are measurable. Research from the UK and
abroad has demonstrated the link between design quality and the delivery of
high-quality services. This link is particularly clear in the field of education.
Evidence shows that the design of schools can promote the performance of
pupils and a more creative approach to teaching and learning. A UK study of
pupil performance found that capital investment in school buildings had a
strong influence on staff morale, pupil motivation and effective learning time. 1
Studies on the relationship between pupil performance, achievement and
behaviour and the built environment have found that test scores in welldesigned buildings were up to 11 per cent higher than in poorly designed
buildings.2 Good design can help recruit and retain staff, cutting the costs
of staff turnover. And, in another education sector, around 60 per cent of
students and staff have indicated that the quality of building design affected
their choice of university.3
Good design makes public services easier to deliver and so improves
productivity. At one school, the redesign of the playgrounds and school hall
allowed supervisors to see the children easily in communal areas. This meant
it could reduce the number of lunchtime assistants from eight to five and
switch the resources it saved to direct educational expenditure. 4

1 PricewaterhouseCoopers, Research Report No

242, Building performance: an empirical
assessment of the relationship between schools
capital investment and pupil performance,
Department for Education and Skills (DfES),
London, 2000

Although well-designed environments can undoubtedly support successful

teaching and learning, no one would suggest that design alone can raise
educational achievement. However, poor design can be an obstacle to
raising educational standards above a certain level.

2 The value of good design, CABE, London, 2002

3 Design with distinction: the value of good
design in higher education, CABE,
London, 2005
4 PricewaterhouseCoopers, Research Report
No 242

1.2 CABE and the design

of schools
We have established
a schools design
assessment panel
a group of specialist
experts offering detailed
advice on school
building designed
through BSF

CABE aims to influence and inspire the people making decisions about the
built environment so that they choose good design. Our expert teams of
designers, architects and planners offer quality support to important building
projects including new schools right from the outset.
The UKs largest public building programme for more than half a century
is well under way. As part of this, the government is committed to rebuild
or refurbish every secondary school in the England through its 45 billion
Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.
But massive investment does not automatically mean a good legacy for
future generations. Creating great places for people to live, work and learn
is a difficult, complex process.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) funds CABE
to provide free support and guidance to all local authorities involved in BSF
to help them deliver schools that are well designed and function well and
that are a pleasure to use. The government has set up a specialist agency,
Partnerships for Schools (PfS) to deliver BSF, and CABE also works
closely with it.
CABE is supporting those involved in the BSF programme by:

advising local authorities on the procurement process

assessing school designs
training school leaders and client design advisors
offering guidance and research
reviewing designs put forward by bidders during the
competitive stage of BSF.

Through all of this work, we have acquired a wealth of knowledge about the
processes involved in school building projects.
To bolster our schools design advice, we have established a schools design
assessment panel a group of specialist experts offering detailed advice on
school building designed through BSF. All BSF projects from here on in will
go through this schools design review.
6

1.3 Ten points for a

well-designed school
1 A high-quality design that inspires users to learn.
2 A sustainable approach to design, construction and
environmental servicing.
3 Good use of the site, balancing the needs of pedestrians, cyclists and
cars and enhancing the schools presence in the community.
4 Buildings and grounds that are welcoming to both the school and the
community while providing adequate security.
5 Good organisation of spaces in plan and section, easily legible and
fully accessible.
6 Internal spaces that are well-proportioned, fit for purpose and meet the
needs of the curriculum.
7 Flexible design to allow for short-term changes of layout and use, and
for long-term expansion or contraction.
8 Good environmental conditions throughout including optimum levels
of natural light and ventilation for different activities.
9 Well-designed external spaces offering a variety of different settings
for leisure, learning and sport.
10 A simple palette of attractive materials, detailed carefully to be
durable and easily maintained and to age gracefully.
CABE has developed these points over time, drawing on our knowledge
of the school building design process. Checklists have an obvious value
but they do not in themselves lead to good design: good design is the result
of the successful synthesis of these key points.

Case study 1 exemplar designs

The exemplar designs

are not copyright:
therefore other
designers are free
to use the ideas

In 2003, the DCSF commissioned a

set of exemplar designs covering
a range of types and locations of
school. These designs five primary
schools, five secondary schools
and one all-through school were
created by 11 leading architecture,
landscape and engineering teams
not as templates, but as
springboards for developing
imaginative and sustainable
school buildings.
The intention of the exemplar
designs programme was to:
develop a shared vision of
schools of the future

Moxon Architects with Wilkinson Eyre Architects

Whitefield Fishponds Community School,

Bristol by Wilkinson Eyre Architects

create concepts and ideas for

well-designed schools push
forward the boundaries of
innovation and inspiration
support the delivery of BSF
encourage the construction
industry to develop new ways
of delivering school buildings.
Although the teams designed
buildings for real sites, the
proposals were not necessarily
intended to be built but to raise
aspirations, demonstrate what could
be done within normal cost limits,
and explore ideas and concepts
that could be used in future school

 Moxon Architects with Wilkinson Eyre Architects

Wilkinson Eyre Architects

building projects. Many of the

designs researched specialist
aspects of school design in detail,
such as flexibility and adaptability,
prefabrication and environmental
comfort. The designs were all
published in full, and are not
copyright: other designers are free
to use the ideas. The schemes are
illustrated in a DCSF schools for
the future publication1 and on
the DCSF website2.
Wilkinson Eyre Architects, one
of the practices that worked on the
exemplar designs, has subsequently
been appointed as the designer for
Bristol City Councils pathfinder
BSF project, as part of the Skanska
consortium. The first phase will
see the rebuilding of Brislington
Enterprise College, Hartcliffe
Engineering Community College,

Speedwell Technology College and

Whitefield Fishponds Community
School. The programme is funded
through central government PFI
credits worth 150.7million
together with some 9.5million of
the councils own funds, and there
will be ongoing consultation with
parents, students, staff and the
community as the project develops.
Whitefield Fishponds Community
School has strong links back to
Wilkinson Eyres original designs for
an innovative, modular kit of parts
developed for the DCSF exemplar
schools project. The design is based
on the concept of a learning
cluster, accommodating up to 300
students. At Whitefield, a series of
learning clusters are linked by an
internal street and complemented
by central facilities blocks.

The street becomes a social hub,

helping to maximise opportunities
for learning beyond the classroom.
It is enlivened by the sinuous forms
of the internal walls of the learning
clusters. The architectural
composition of the scheme
promotes both physically and
visually the schools policy of
inclusion, reinforcing the close
relationship between it and
the community.

1 See Appendix 2
2 www.dcsf.gov.uk
See tinyurl.com/yoqnkc

Case study 2 excellent design

in Herefordshire
We love the buildings
because theyre light
and airy and very
grown up. Its easy
to work here

The school
Whitecross High School is a
recently built secondary school in
Herefordshire that has been well
received by both the school
community and the architectural
press. The school and local authority
have been praised for their
sustainable approach and the
completion of the project on time
and to a challenging budget of
12 million through the private
finance initiative (PFI).

Year seven student

Whitecross High School,

Herefordshire
Client
Herefordshire Council
Architect Haverstock Associates
Contractor Stepnell Ltd

10

Morley von Sternberg

Project

The consultation
Consultation with pupils, staff and
governors gave the designers clear
direction on many issues. The
school community debated and
reached a consensus on what they
wanted for their school. Head
teacher Denise Strutt says: By
engaging young people and their
aspirations in the key decisions we
think we have got a better school
out of the process; one the students
feel proud to be part of.

 Morley von Sternberg

Sustainability
Orientation, construction, thermal
mass, insulation and air tightness
were all vital to our aim of a low
energy solution, according to the
architect, Haverstock Associates.
Aspects of sustainable design were
carefully researched and considered
by the designers, in consultation
with the school, right from the outset
of the project.
The school has solar shading above
the south-facing classroom windows
(see picture above). Direct sunlight
does not come into the room so

there is no need to pull-down blinds

and less need for artificial lighting.
Large expanses of the roof are
covered with sedum. This not only
helps to replace landscape and
habitat on what was formally a
greenfield site, but also improves
the insulation and life performance
of the roof as a whole.

Denise Strutt says everyone

is thrilled with the new building.
From day one the students
responded very positively to the
buildings. Their behaviour and
learning improved and we are
working even more effectively than
we have before. Students are really
alert in lessons because they have
good natural light and fresh air
pumped into the rooms.

Satisfied customers
The completed school has won the
approval of students and teachers
alike. We love the buildings
because theyre light and airy and
very grown up. Its easy to work
here, said one year seven student.

11

1.4 How to achieve

good design
CABE believes that clear processes should be followed by the local
authority and school to achieve a well-designed school:
a clear vision for how education will be delivered in the future in
the school
a client design advisor who can help schools to translate their vision
into a brief, and help them to challenge design proposals that fall short
of their aspirations and evaluate designs as an expert client
a well thought-through approach to sustainability in terms of both
the construction and the use of the building
the school must know what it wants in terms of functional
requirements and quality
a thorough brief developed in consultation with the school that sets out
these requirements and takes account of the need to provide flexibility
and adaptability for future patterns of learning and other uncertainties
a competitive process which encourages the use of high-quality
design teams
skilled designers who can engage in a constructive dialogue with the
public sector procurer, end users and the supply and manufacturing base
providers (builders and managers) who will deliver the building, rise to
the challenge of design and work well with their clients, engaging them in
the process
a programme that provides sufficient time for the designers to
achieve a good solution
a realistic and robust budget that is sufficient to build a school of
appropriate construction quality.

12

1.5 CABEs 2006

schools audit
A total of 124 new secondary schools were completed in the five years up
to 2006. CABE conducted an audit of the design quality of a sample of 52
of these and found considerable cause for concern. 5 Although there were
some excellent schools, half of the schools visited were assessed as poor
or mediocre.

There are not enough

schools being built
or designed that are
exemplary, inspiring,
innovative, or sufficiently
flexible

There was evidence that things were getting better towards the end of the
period covered by the survey. However, it was still clear that there are not
enough schools being built or designed that are exemplary, inspiring,
innovative, or sufficiently flexible to allow for a diversity of approaches to
education in the future.
With very few exceptions, schools performed badly on basic issues of
environmental sustainability. CABE advises local authorities to ensure that
the teams they contract to design their schools have a good track record of
designing buildings that function well in terms of environmental performance.
Sandhill View School, Sunderland Andrew Beard

5 Assessing secondary school design, CABE,

London, 2006

13

1.6 Educational
transformation
The government requires that the current investment in secondary schools
is not just about providing new buildings but is about acting as a catalyst for
educational transformation. The rebuilding programme is intended to support
its commitment to raising educational standards and levels of achievement
by pupils.
Whatever the funding source for the building project in a secondary school,
there is an obligation to take account of the various educational reforms
proposed by the government. The government reforms likely to have the
biggest impact on design are outlined below:
Every child matters

This is a new approach to the well-being of children and young people from
birth to age 19.6 It contains five outcomes that children and young people
have said are key to childhood and later life and that services for children
should work towards providing:

be healthy
stay safe
enjoy and achieve
make a positive contribution
achieve economic well-being.

This means that the organisations involved with providing services to

children from hospitals and schools to police and voluntary groups will
be teaming up in new ways, sharing information and working together to
protect children and young people from harm and help them achieve what
they want in life. Children and young people will have far more say about
issues that affect them as individuals and collectively, such as the design of
their school. Briefs for new schools should be written with these five
outcomes in mind.

6 See Every child matters, HM Treasury,

TSO, 2003, also available at
www.everychildmatters.gov.uk

14

Inclusion and
disability legislation

There is a direct link between disability and poor attainment in education.

Many disabled children underachieve and access to education is key
to their future independence, both financial and social. 7 Inclusion strategies
within schools should aim to ensure the full integration of all students,
regardless of their abilities, race, gender or religion.
The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) provides protection to disabled
people and defines disability as anyone with a physical, sensory or cognitive
impairment. It also includes those with mental health issues that have a
substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to perform day-today activities. This could be a member of staff, a parent, pupil, visitor or a
sportsperson using educational facilities.

7 There is a significant gap in the attainment

levels of disabled young people:
21 per cent of disabled people aged 1624
have no qualifications whatsoever, compared to
9 per cent of non-disabled people of the same
age an 11 per cent gap (Labour Force
Survey, autumn 2004).
8 Although clearly defined figures are hard to find,
evidence indicates that approximately 15-20
per cent of all pupils have some form of special
educational need (SEN) or disability at some
time. On average 3 per cent of all pupils have
statements of SEN and a higher percentage of
children with profound physical, health or
complex needs are surviving childbirth through
medical advances

Estimates suggest there are 700,000 children directly protected by the

DDA and 10 million adults.8 It has been recognised by government and
society that childrens education should be provided equally regardless
of gender, religion, racial ethnicity or physical or cognitive abilities. The
special needs and disability act (SENDA)9 requires that disabled children
will normally have their needs met within a mainstream school and that they
should be offered full access to a broad, balanced and relevant curriculum
throughout their school life. Access is required to all aspects of school life,
including social activities, both in school time and out of hours.
This may require different approaches to teaching and learning and may
involve more individual and group tuition, creating a need for a wide
variety of sizes of rooms. Because new mainstream schools are likely
to accommodate pupils with physical disabilities alongside other pupils,
there will inevitably be a need for specialist facilities and/or adaptations
to existing buildings.

9 Special Educational Needs and Disability Act,

2001

15

Extended schools

Secondary schools are major resources for local communities and the new
and refurbished facilities should be designed for shared community use
where appropriate. In line with the Every Child Matters initiative, every BSF
school will be an extended school, offering additional or dual use facilities
such as sports halls, libraries, nurseries, and ICT resources outside the
school day. BSF offers an excellent opportunity to integrate schools into
wider regeneration projects, re-establishing schools at the heart of
communities. The school needs to work with its local community and partner
agencies to determine what provision is required and how it might best be
delivered. There is a core offer of services (summarised below) which an
extended school must provide, but the government hopes that most schools
will go beyond this:
high-quality childcare available 8am 6pm all
year round
a varied programme of activities to be on offer, such
as homework clubs, sport etc
parenting support
swift and easy referral to a wide range of specialist
support services
providing wider community access to ICT, sports and
arts facilities, including adult learning. 10

Transforming education
for 14-19 year olds

10 See DfES, Designing Schools for Extended

Services, DFES, 2006

16

Schools will be working not only extended hours but with a much wider
client base. There needs to be separation not just at the end of the school
day into the evening but also during the day and for multi-agency working.
A major reform of secondary education is planned with a new entitlement
that will guarantee young people a choice of specialist diplomas alongside
the existing curriculum. Through this system young people will have
opportunities to learn in ways which motivate and engage them and, through
hard work, qualify them for success in life. There will be 14 specialist
diplomas and students will eventually be provided with access to all of them
within their local area. The specialist diplomas will be a mix of academic and
vocational study, covering areas such as construction and the built

environment, creative and media studies and engineering. Inevitably,

a certain amount of specialist accommodation will need to be provided.
The whole range will be available not just in one school but in linked
schools, so students may be required to travel between schools depending
on their specialism.
Workforce reform

Since September 2005 all teachers have been entitled to a guaranteed

minimum of 10 per cent of their timetabled teaching commitment for
planning, preparation and assessment time. This potentially has an impact
on the twin aims of raising standards and tackling teachers workloads.
With the changes in the workforce schools will now have to provide for a
much wider range of adults who will be supporting learning. It is no longer
just the teacher and the staffroom. For example, some schools are now
designed to have some spaces that are either shared with students or where
staff work across disciplines.
A large number of teaching assistants are being employed to work alongside
qualified teachers in the classroom and administrators are providing
additional support in the school office. All these issues will have a significant
impact on the accommodation requirements within schools.
The Campus, Weston-Super-Mare Andrew Beard

17

1.7 New patterns of learning

In the past, the primary objective of school building programmes was often
simply to replace old and crumbling buildings with new schools or to patch
up existing ones so that they kept warm and did not leak. Little consideration
was given to how education might change over the next 10, 20 or 30 years.
Patterns of learning, with standard classes of 30 and computers all locked
up in ICT suites, were rarely challenged. Briefs for new buildings, and hence
the accommodation provided, closely replicated what had gone before.
New patterns of teaching and learning are now being considered and
introduced. At the same time there is a very high level of investment in
secondary school buildings. This creates the opportunity for designs to
reflect these changes and accommodate new educational pedagogies.
There are three examples of important concepts that have implications for
school building programmes: personalised learning, schools within schools
and project learning.
Personalised learning
Learners get the chance to participate fully in their own education and
contribute to decisions about the supply and public value of education in
general. The government considers that there are five key aspects:
Assessment for learning (AfL).
Assessment for learning is the process of seeking and interpreting
evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the
students are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get
there. Assessment is supportive of learning and will take place at a time
and place to best suit the learner. It is moving away from the formal mass
end of year exam and towards taking the assessment appropriate to ability
and independent of age. This will require very flexible spaces and not
necessarily the big hall for exams.
Effective teaching and learning (including grouping and ICT).
Where the spaces needed will not be the 30-place classroom but be
flexible to allow individual, small group and large seminar groups. These
will be facilitated by unbroken access to ICT. Design will be looking at
flexible floor plans as well as fitting in classrooms with breakout.
Curriculum entitlement and choice
(see previous section on 14-19 curriculum).
18

 Organising the school (see previous section on workforce remodelling).

Beyond the classroom (see previous section on extended schools).
There are already examples of personalised learning in most UK schools.
Schools within schools

This is a practice that has been noticeably developed in the USA as a

response to the very big and unmanageable schools that had been created.
In the UK it has gathered some pace as it is being recognised that small
schools can be more easily managed, are preferred by students and parents
and usually achieve better results.
Schools within schools are effectively one school building containing many
smaller schools, so for example there might be 1000 pupils in one school
building, with 250 11-18 year olds in each of the four schools within that
school. Students are often taught according to ability rather than age.
There are different levels of organising a school within a school. One way
is to sub-divide the school into four or five small schools which operate
independently. There is some sharing of the more specialised facilities such
as sports and science and technology but that is all. Another way might be
to have the school divided by a pastoral or relationship separation, into four
school houses for example, but with little curriculum separation.

Project learning

Traditionally in secondary schools the curriculum has been delivered through

discrete subjects organised into departments or faculties. An alternative
approach is learning in a largely project-based structure where topics are
explored using a wide range of subjects. In the review of the key stage 3
curriculum, it is being recognised that teaching in discrete subjects to fixed
ages is very restrictive and does not sit well with true personalised learning.
Interdisciplinary learning through theme and topic allows students to learn
at their own pace and in their own way. Experience of this project-based
learning has existed for a long time. It is only now that the quality of
technology is allowing students and teachers to operate at a level of
sophistication not possible before. The big challenge is to review the
curriculum and give teachers the skills and confidence to deliver their
knowledge across subject and age boundaries.
19

Case study 3 personalised learning

in Sweden
The circulation areas are
multi-functional, with
private study areas for
group work and tutorials
and social areas

20

Andrew Beard

Enkping School, Sweden

Classroom and main circulation

Kunskapsskolan in Sweden is
a publicly funded, privately run
company that has 24 schools,
6,400 students and 600 employees
throughout Sweden. It was
established in 1999 by Anders
Hultin, who felt the state system
was failing individual learners and
wanted to establish schools based
on personalised learning. His
schools provide teaching and
learning tailored to individual
students in buildings comprising
flexible spaces that enhance the
physical and social learning
environment.

A total of 16 of the 24 schools

cater for secondary students aged
between 12 and 15. Each has about
400 students, in line with the usual
size of schools in Sweden.
Principles
Kunskapsskolan has a clear
educational concept based on five
principles, which form the basis of
its curriculum:
lifelong learning
international perspective
educated students
problem-solving skills
personal development.

The core subjects of maths,

Swedish, English and one other
modern language are organised on
a ladder-based system, divided into
32 levels. Students start at the
step on the ladder that is most
appropriate to their level, working
at their own pace and towards their
own goals.
Andrew Beard

Enkping School, Sweden

Private study area (above) and flexible spaces
for groups (below)

Other subjects are theme-based:

they are not learned independently
but in an integrated manner based
on learning through problem solving,
often containing an historical aspect
to create context and depth.
The underlying principle is that
students should have a programme
that suits their own preferred
learning style and individual
aptitudes. An analysis of each
student is carried out on entry
to determine their optimum
learning style.

Andrew Beard

Learning targets via pathways are

planned for the four years and
broken down into year, term, and
week. Each student meets their tutor
at the beginning of the week and a
learning plan with targets and goals
is agreed and recorded in the
students logbook. This will be a
mixture of formal teaching, group
tutorials, group work and personal
study, depending on what suits the
individual student.
While staff/student ratios are similar
to the UK at 1:20, more
unsupervised private study leads to
more opportunities for one-to-one
mentoring and small group tutorials.
Each student is responsible for their
learning progress, which they
monitor in their logbook.

The Kunskapsskolan buildings

Because of funding constraints,
all the schools operate out of
converted premises, which are often
former office or industrial buildings.
Following a similar open-plan pattern
without corridors, the circulation
areas are multi-functional,
containing private study booths
and tables for group work and
tutorials and social areas.
Classrooms are fully glazed and
open directly off these areas, as
does a lecture theatre that can be
used for teaching, assemblies or
performance. Dining areas are
also used for study and class
groups. In addition, there are small
glazed private study/tutorial rooms
with soundproofing from the
communal areas.
The result is a very flexible school
building that can be used in many
different ways; both teaching staff
and students occupy available parts
of the complex as required.
A specific response to the education
model based on personalised
learning, the form is very different
to most schools in the UK.
For further information see
www.kunskapsskolan.se

When students are engaged in

private study, they can take breaks
when they want, including the use
of a small caf.
21

1.8 Sustainable schools

When planning a new
or refurbished school,
sustainability and
education for sustainable
development need to
be planned for together

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are the primary cause of global warming
and buildings account for about half of them in the UK. The programme of
rebuilding and upgrading all secondary school buildings provides a unique
opportunity to improve this situation dramatically. Some local authorities are
already exploring the possibility of creating zero carbon schools.
However, sustainability is about much more than energy conservation and
CO2 emissions. It is about buildings that minimise waste, that avoid the
use of pollutants, that protect and enhance habitats for plants and wildlife
and that provide healthy environments in which to work. It is also about
having a school that is socially sustainable a school that meets the needs
of its community.
A sustainable school can also be a valuable learning resource. When
planning a new or refurbished school, sustainability and education for
sustainable development need to be planned for together. The school
building process in itself can be a valuable teaching resource. However,
the really successful sustainable schools are those where the completed
buildings and grounds can become a valuable curriculum resource, for
example by allowing students to monitor energy use and to experience
how biodiversity is changing.

The Academy of St Francis of Assisi, Kensington,

Liverpool. A school with many sustainability features.

22

Academy of St Francis of Assisi, by Capita Percy Thomas Martin Workman, Two Cool Photography

23

Case study 4 learning about

the environment
Special solar panels
on the roof of the main
block preheat the water
for hot water taps and
showers, keeping gas
bills low and saving
on fossil fuels and
greenhouse gas
emissions

The Academy of St Francis of Assisi

Anglican Diocese and Catholic
Archdiocese of Liverpool
Architect Capita Percy Thomas
Contractor Birse Build Ltd

24

The Christian ethos and its

environmental specialism shape
the curriculum that the school offers.
For example in year seven the
academy offers a curriculum based
on six environmental themes,
all of which will have significant
community content.
Martin Workman, Two Cool Photography

Project
Client

The Academy of St Francis of Assisi

is Liverpools first city academy.
It is a mixed 11-16 school and will
eventually cater for 900 children.
While having a strong Christian
ethos, it exists to serve children of all
faiths or none at all in some of
the most deprived areas of the city.

The academy is unique in its

environmental specialism and the
buildings have been designed to
reflect this. More than 10,000 cubic
metres of concrete have gone into
the construction of the academy,
rather than the traditional steel
framework. This material was
chosen because it has a high
thermal mass1: it will heat up quite
slowly, but will retain heat in winter,
meaning that it requires less fuel
to heat it up over its many years
of lifetime a big step towards
reducing global warming.

 Martin Workman, Two Cool Photography

The rear of the site is south facing

and the design of the academy uses
this to good effect. At the rear of the
main block is the solar atrium. This
is made out of a very strong
transparent plastic, ETFE, which is
stretched over a steel framework.
The whole area under the atrium is
bathed in light throughout the day.

The roofs of the year seven and

year eight blocks and those of
the sports hall/assembly hall are
covered in special materials that
will support the growth of plants,
and aid local biodiversity. The year
seven and year eight blocks are
covered in a special plant called
sedum. The outdoor classroom
area on the roof of the sports
hall/assembly hall will be covered
in several plant growing surfaces,
including crushed sandstone
(from the excavations on the site)
and crushed sea shells.

In the winter the atrium allows most

light and heat through, helping to
heat up the building. In the summer,
the outer reflective surface of the
ETFE reflects most of the light and
heat away, helping the buildings to
stay cool.

Academy of St Francis of Assisi

Solar atrium internal (above) and external (below)
views. Large north facing windows to classrooms
provide good daylighting without solar over-heating
or glare. Manually controlled louvres provide good
natural ventilation.

Martin Workman, Two Cool Photography

Martin Workman, Two Cool Photography

The roof of the admin/ICT block also

faces south. As a result it has arrays
of photovoltaic cells, also used on
communications satellites, as they
convert sunlight into electricity,
helping to reduce electricity bills
and save on fossil fuels and
greenhouse gas emissions. On a
sunny day they can produce about
3 per cent of the schools electricity.
Special solar panels on the roof of
the main block preheat the water for
hot water taps and showers, keeping
gas bills low and saving emissions.

The academy is helping to conserve

water by collecting rainwater that
falls on the roofs and grounds. This
is stored in a large blue plastic tank
buried underground. With minimal
treatment, its supply of grey water
will be used to flush toilets. The tank
holds 28,000 litres.

1 See also Case study 11 for an explanation

of thermal mass

25

1.9 Inclusion
Services should be
accessible and available
to disabled people in a
manner comparable to
able-bodied people

It is estimated that there are 700,000 children and 10 million adults with
disabilities. Each individual will have a disability (or more than one) which
could limit their ability to access the school, curriculum and the social
aspects of the school day.
An inclusive learning environment is one in which a school understands and
responds to individuals learning needs, aiming to ensure that they not only
take part in education but are actively and fully engaged in their learning.
Inclusion strategies within schools should provide for the full integration
of all students and the community. To ensure that this happens, the school
should endeavour to provide:

an individual learning programme

a curriculum which promotes progress in learning
effective teaching
counselling, guidance and initial assessment
opportunities for students to discuss and manage their own learning
support for learning
support for learners such as crche facilities
procedures for assessing, recording and accrediting achievements
learning materials and resources
technical aids and equipment
learning technology
trained staff
accessible physical surroundings, for example teaching rooms, sports
facilities, sanitary facilities, recreational facilities, library, etc.

It is true that planning for everyones needs is impossible and there is no

performance standard for the DDA that will guarantee protection. However,
there are many considerations regarding disabled childrens needs that can
be assessed and reasonable measures can be implemented to meet the
likely requirements of the DDA premises and operational policies alike.
It is important to grasp the intention of the Act: that the services should be
accessible and available to disabled people in a manner comparable to
able-bodied people.

26

Marlowe Academy, Ramsgate, by BDP David Barbour/BDP

27

2 Background to
schools projects

Alys Tomlinson

28

2.1 People involved in

school building projects
The provision of funding for a new or refurbished building will not guarantee
design excellence. High quality can only be achieved by having a competent
team who work well together on your project clients, stakeholders,
advisors, design team and contractors.
It may be tempting to try to simplify matters and involve fewer people, but
this can be a false economy because a poorer quality, less appropriate
building can result. There is significant evidence that design quality is
superior and satisfaction levels are higher where the full range of
stakeholders have been involved in a school design. 1
This is a brief introduction to the people most likely to be involved in a school
building project:
Clients the people who
commission the building

The local authority: For most schools, the local authority holds the project
budget and signs the contract for construction work. However, Diocesan
Boards of Education or trustees do this for voluntary-aided schools. Within
local authorities, childrens and young persons services will normally have
a buildings or premises team with experience of managing school building
projects, who will take responsibility for managing the project. They will be
responsible for liaison with DCSF (and Partnerships for Schools where
appropriate) throughout the project.
The school: The project will obviously impact on all members of the school
community from students, parents, teachers, governors, head teacher and
senior managers to support and admin staff, caretakers, cooks and cleaners.
All will have valuable insights into the requirements and aspirations for new
or refurbished buildings and their involvement will be valuable. Ideally there
should be one person who acts as the school representative and has
responsibility for communicating with all the other parties involved in the
project, attending meetings and feeding back to the school.

1 Being involved in school design, CABE,

London, 2004

29

Other stakeholders the people

who will use the building

The local community: In line with the governments aspirations for

extended schools at the heart of communities, it is important to think about
the needs of the future users of the building as well as those of the existing
users. Schools are often the most significant public building within a
neighbourhood and the majority are underused out of school hours. To be
able to maximise the schools potential users, it is important to find ways of
involving representatives of the local community from an early stage.
Community ownership of the project can also help significantly at crucial
stages, such as submission of the planning application and during
construction work.
Other service providers in extended schools: These are the services
that make up an extended school, and may include libraries, social and
health services, childcare, youth services, sports providers and other
public services.2

Client team advisors the

people who give advice to the
client on achieving successful
school buildings

Project manager: Responsible, on behalf of the client, for planning,

monitoring and controlling all aspects of the project from inception through
to completion. They coordinate, lead and motivate the project team, which
may include in-house staff as well as specialist consultants. Their role is to
achieve the project aims on time and to the specified quality, cost and
performance standards.
Technical advisor: Coordinates the technical aspects of BSF projects, and
possibly also on academies and one school pathfinders. Advises on all the
technical detail such as specifications and construction standards.

2 see www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/
extendedschools

30

A design champion
should be someone
in a senior role within
the client body who
takes responsibility
for ensuring design
excellence throughout
the development of
the project

Client design advisor: An architect skilled in designing education buildings

who advises the local authority and the school. They must not only be an
expert in school design but also be extremely competent at communicating
and working with stakeholders. The client design advisor provides high-level
knowledge and experience of the design and construction process. This
helps to ensure that they are adequately prepared and clear about their
requirements and can make the most of the opportunities that the school
building project presents.3
A client design advisor is appointed as an individual but will be expected
to have a wider team to assist them, both in terms of providing a range of
expertise and having the capacity within the team to work with many schools
at once if required. So that they can think and act independently, they should
not be appointed through the technical advisor.
The appointment of a client design advisor is mandatory in the BSF
programme. They will be appointed by the local authority to advise all the
schools (on average, 10) within that wave of funding.
Design champion: Ideally someone in a senior role within the client body
who takes responsibility for ensuring design excellence throughout the
development of the project. The design champion need not be an expert in
design, but should be able to influence policy at a high level. They may be a
local authority officer or an elected member who is sufficiently detached
from the project to take an objective view of design quality and who has
sufficient authority to intervene if they feel standards are in danger of falling.
They should be appointed when the project is first initiated.

3 Contact RIBA for a list of accredited client

design advisors

31

CABE enabler: 4 CABE assigns a built environment professional with

schools experience to each local authority working on BSF projects when
each wave of the programme is launched. It is funded by the DCSF to
provide free advice to the local authority up until the selection of the
preferred bidder for each scheme.
The key stages for CABEs involvement are:
helping to define a unique local project vision
advising on the appointment of expert project team
advisors, such as the client design advisor
advising on the benefits of design quality and value
for money
assessing options appraisals and feasibility studies
securing a shared stakeholder and local
authority brief
discussing evaluation methodologies and
selection criteria.
Education/SEN advisor: Member of the client project team who will take
responsibility for ensuring that all aspects of the proposals will contribute to
and support the educational vision, in terms of transformation, pedagogy,
raising standards, inclusion and so on. They may either be from the
childrens service or a consultant engaged by the council.

4 CABEs role is explained in more detail in

Building Schools for the Future: introducing
the CABE schools design quality programme,
CABE, 2007

32

Jo Richardson Community School,

Multi-purpose atrium spaces used for dining,
community events, etc.

Jo Richardson Community School by architecture plb Construction Photography

33

Case study 5 the client design

advisor in Greenwich
Having them as part
of our design group,
helping us to challenge
design presentations,
has been really valuable

The London Borough of Greenwich

appointed Ruth Butler, a partner at
David Morley Architects, as client
design advisor for its BSF project.
Greenwich adopted an alternative
procurement route under which the
five schools in the borough were
designed at the same time by
separate design teams.

Trish Dooley,
head teacher

Greenwich project manager Brian

Mohammed found the client design
advisor invaluable for:

Eltham Hill Technology College for Girls, Greenwich, by Hawkins Brown Hawkins Brown and Arup

Hawkins Brown and Arup

34

Making the schools intelligent

clients. Schools need to have
a clear vision of how they will
transform education within their
school and how the building and
the grounds will support that
transformation. The client design
advisor played a key role in
encouraging the schools out of their
comfort zone and getting them to
consider the strategic organisation
of the school (teaching, social,
pastoral care), how they could
use spaces creatively and not just
visualise an upgraded version
of their current school.

 Hawkins Brown and Arup

translating the local authoritys

procurement procedures into a
reality. Having them as part of our
design group, helping us to
challenge design presentations,
has been really valuable.
Brian Mohammed also identified
some of the qualities the client
design advisor possessed that were
of particular benefit to this wave of
BSF, and would be useful for other
authorities and schools:

Developing the education vision

into an output specification.
A high level of resources was
required at this stage and David
Morley Architects dedicated one
partner, two architects and one
assistant to work on the project.
Ruth Butler approached this by
asking the schools a series of
probing questions and sketching
adjacency diagrams, helping them
to visualise how things might work
in terms of organisation. The
advisors role is to help the schools
develop a clear idea of what they
want not to provide them with
solutions, which is the job of the
architects. Schools were asked to
think about what would happen in
particular types of space such as
corridors, outdoors, ICT rooms,
dining and social spaces.
Being a critical friend. The local
authority is responsible for the

delivery of the project on time and to

budget. The client design advisors
role, which is independent of the
delivery team in this project, means
they are in the unique position of
being a step back from the delivery
of the project. They play an
important role in making sure that
Greenwich and the schools are
achieving what they have set out to
do and do not stray from the brief.
The value added by the client design
advisor is unquestionable. The
CABE enabler who worked on this
project said that the performance
of the client design advisor has been
outstanding, particularly in bringing
the schools fully up to date, and
including them actively in the output
specification.
Trish Dooley, head teacher of
Thomas Tallis School, says:
I found them very useful in

An interpreter
putting peoples verbal ideas
down on paper visually in a way
which people can relate to
understanding all the sides to the
authoritys vision education, ICT,
corporate visions and making it
into something tangible
helping the architects get their
ideas across to the school and vice
versa. Your advisor needs to be able
to communicate complex design
ideas to lay people.
A shepherd
guiding the schools through the
maze and confusion of the process
A competent designer
they are responsible for challenging
the architects designs so they must
be experienced and competent
A politician
understanding different
stakeholders objectives and
dealing with this sensitively.

35

The design team the people

who design the building

Architect: Has overall responsibility for the design and coordinates the input
from the other members of the design team.
Landscape architect: Responsible for designing all the external areas,
including the detailed design and specification of all outdoor sport facilities,
playgrounds, courtyards and planted areas. Develops, with the architect, an
integrated approach to the use of the whole site, and a scheme where the
detailed design of the external areas has a strong relationship with the
building and its internal spaces.
Buildings services engineer: Responsible for all heating, ventilation and
electrical systems in the building. Helps to ensure that the environmental
conditions in the building are good and can have a significant impact on the
sustainability of the building.
Structural engineer: Designs and checks all the structural aspects of
a building, such as foundations, steel or concrete frame, retaining walls.
Quantity surveyor/cost consultant: Reports on and manages the cost
of the project within the design team.
Acoustic engineer: Helps to design and check the acoustic properties in
classrooms, social areas, and performance and music rooms so that they
are appropriate for their intended use.
Design team project manager: May be employed by the client in addition
to the other disciplines in the team to co-ordinate their work. Role is to
help ensure that the project runs smoothly, and is completed on time and
within budget.

5 Construction (design and management)

regulations 2007. See
www.hse.gov.uk/construction/cdm.htm

36

Construction design and management coordinator (formerly the

planning supervisor): By law 5 they must be appointed by the client of any
construction programme lasting more than 30 days (or 500 person/working
days). Their role is to ensure cooperation within the design team so that they
give proper attention to minimising health and safety risks to construction
workers during the building and maintenance processes.

Regulations were introduced because accidents on construction sites

currently represent 25 per cent of all workplace fatalities in Britain.
Access consultant or champion: Ensures that the building is fully
accessible for all. An access champion should be skilled in consultation
and negotiation, technical areas, legal and contractual obligations. It is
essential that they understand the processes and principles applied to
the design and construction of education buildings and their grounds.
The champion on smaller less complex schemes might be drawn from the
client or architectural team but where larger, more complex works are being
undertaken consideration should be made to employing an independent
access consultant directly.
Contractors the people the
client signs the contract with

The contracts: In a traditionally procured project (see section 2.4 on

different types of procurement) the client will normally sign the contract
direct with a building contractor, which will construct the school, generally
using a wide range of sub-contractors.
In BSF the contract is signed with a consortium of separate companies
which includes the building contractor who constructs the building. The
contract will be a very complex document specifying all the requirements
for building works for the initial sample schools (schools which will be
designed during the competitive period), the arrangements for negotiating a
number of further construction projects as finance is made available and the
requirements for facilities management of any PFI school, normally for a
period of 25 years.
The building contractor team: The individuals within the building
contractor that the school will have contact with are the site agent or project
manager, who manages all work on site, and the contract manager, who
takes responsibility for the project in the contractors office.

37

2.2 Funding programmes

and project structures
Secondary school building projects are likely to be funded through one
of several different routes.
Strategic funding

Approximately 43 per cent of the governments capital allocation for school

buildings is being channelled through strategic funding, of which the vast
majority is in the BSF programme.

Secondary school funding

14%

Strategic
funding

43%

Devolved funding
Targeted
capital funding

43%

(i) Building Schools for the Future (BSF)

The BSF programme aims to rebuild or renew every
secondary school in the country that has not already
recently been rebuilt, by 2020. Over 15 annual waves of
funding, schools will be rebuilt or remodelled in groups
within all or parts of local authorities, usually within a
partnership arrangement known as a local education
partnership (LEP).
An LEP is a public-private partnership between a local
authority, Partnership for Schools and a private sector
partner. Its role is to ensure that BSF money is used
efficiently and effectively to improve local authorities
secondary school estates.
The exact scope of services to be provided by each
LEP will be decided by the local authority but in
general it will:

work with the authority and other local stakeholders to develop strategic
investment plans for secondary education for the area
act as the single point of procurement and service provider ranging from
design, construction, project management and maintenance to
ICT services
integrate and manage a diverse range of supply chain sub-contractors
ranging from building contractors and facilities management services
providers to ICT suppliers
enable delivery of projects through a mix of procurement routes both
private finance initiative (PFI) and conventionally funded
38

Northampton Academy by Feilden Clegg Bradley Architects Amos Goldreich

deliver new and remodelled school buildings

maintain the new and remodelled schools including facilities
management and ICT under a long-term partnership agreement.
Under the LEP model, ownership and responsibility for all aspects of local
education (including the spending) remains with local authorities. 6
At the same time, individual schools may be renewed by being academies
or one school pathfinders as discussed below.
BSF is not just a building programme; it is a long-term programme of
investment and change aimed at transforming educational standards for
secondary age students by providing 21st century learning environments.
It encourages links with primary schools and opportunities for life-long
learning, as well as other joined-up funding for extended school facilities
[as discussed below].
The programme is the primary source of capital funding for secondary
schools, including special schools and academies where they are within
an early BSF wave. It is administered by Partnerships for Schools (PfS)
on behalf of DCSF.

6 Funding guidance for BSF projects,

downloadable from www.pfs.gov.uk

A notional funding formula of 50 per cent new build, 35 per cent

refurbishment and 15 per cent minor works is used for BSF. The 50:35:15
formula is applied to all projects within a wave. Authorities will be able to
agree locally how much of their new build allocation they can concentrate in
all-new schools and how much they will want to spread to existing schools.
In considering which schools will receive new build accommodation and to
what extent, the authoritys strategy will be guided by what provides both
the greatest improvement in educational outcomes and also the best value
for money (on a whole-life cost basis) when compared with options for
other schools in the area. For example, merging and rebuilding two small
schools as a larger one with new accommodation might cost the same as
remodelling them separately but might be equally beneficial educationally.
In this way authorities can increase the percentage of new build in their
local programme.
39

(ii) Academies are new schools (sometimes established by the closure

of an existing school) that are set up by sponsors from business, faith or
voluntary groups working with partners from the local community. Most are
in areas of deprivation and many involve new school buildings. Each school
has a sponsor who provides support and is involved in the governing body.
The academies programme is now administered by Partnerships for
Schools on behalf of the DCSF and the projects are funded by grant
aid from the government.
(iii) One school pathfinders are projects that are funded by BSF capital
and are aimed at those local authorities not due to start the full BSF
programme until waves 10 to 15 (the last waves to receive funding).
One school pathfinder funding gives these local authorities the chance to
test out now how they will approach educational transformation in their area.
Devolved funding

There are two types of devolved funding:

Modernisation funding is allocated to all local authorities and is intended
to help raise educational standards by investing in the priorities for new
building work identified by the childrens service in its asset management
plan. It is allocated to local authorities using a formula that is partly
targeted to building need and partly to pupil numbers.
Devolved formula capital provides direct funding to schools to help
support capital needs for their buildings. It is allocated using a simple
formula based on pupil numbers. Schools are encouraged to plan their
investment over a number of years and can carry forward funds over
three years to allow them to tackle large projects. In 2007/08, a typical
secondary school will receive 113,000 a year. For PFI projects with
full facilities management, this funding is withdrawn in the year following
contract signature but is reinstated at the 60 per cent level in the
third year.

40

Targeted capital funding

This is allocated in a competitive bidding process on a two-year cycle.

It is intended to fill the gaps between the BSF formulaic allocations to
local authorities and schools. Funding is awarded to projects that are
considered to address specified goals best. For 2006-08 these goals
include science and design and technology projects, special educational
needs or the extended schools/community use agenda. These criteria may
change in future.

Other funding

In addition to these specific forms of funding, local authorities can use

their general capital allocation (known as the single capital pot) on school
buildings projects. There are smaller allocations available for local authorities
experiencing exceptional pressure for additional school places and for
improvements to provide disability access in schools. In addition, local
authorities can join their projects up with funding from other sources such
as Sport England or regeneration agencies. 7
Andrew Beard

Chaucer School
A project funded through modernisation funding

7 Note that some of these funders (eg Sport

England and the Arts Council) have their own
requirements in terms design standards, such
as for access and inclusion.

41

2.3 Funding allocations

and budgets
An inadequate budget
for a building is very
likely to result in
reduced design quality

The DCSF has different methods of allocating funds, depending on

the programme, but they are all based on the same principle. This is a
calculation of the funding needed to build a school with a specified number
of pupil places, plus an addition for professional fees, VAT (if applicable)
and any abnormals extra costs that are a consequence of particular site
factors or constraints. Abnormals can include items such as poor ground
requiring complex foundations or additional costs arising from local planning
requirements, for instance to use natural stone in a conservation area.
For refurbishment projects, funds tend to be allocated on the basis
of a more detailed estimate of the cost of the necessary works for a
particular school.
The calculation of the basic allowance for a school on a specified site is
based on the recommended floor area in Building bulletin 98 (see section
4.5). A cost per square metre rate is then applied, which takes into account
the area of the country where the school is located, and the time of
construction. These rates are taken from an analysis of actual project costs,
with projected inflation rates added on.
An inadequate budget for a building is very likely to result in reduced
design quality. Many of the poorly designed schools included in the CABE
audit (see 1.5) suffered from inadequate budgets, which were often a
consequence of failing to calculate all the likely abnormal costs in advance
of an application for funds. If unexpected abnormals come to light mid-way
through the design process, it is very likely that savings will have to be
found. These imposed savings frequently lead to reductions in design quality
such as quality of materials or provision of daylighting rather than a reduction
in essential space allocations. It is therefore essential that all abnormal costs
are fully identified and carefully calculated in advance.
For more detailed information on funding for BSF projects see the PfS
publication Funding guidance for BSF projects.8

8 Available at www.p4s.org.uk

42

2.4 Different types

of procurement
Procurement can be defined as the method used to select a building
contractor and agree a price for the work and deliver the project. In reality
there are a very large number of variants, but most of them can be grouped
into a small number of generic types some of which can have several
names. The main three are:
Traditional

The client appoints a design team to fully develop the design.

Contractors then tender for the building work and submit a lump-sum
price for the whole project.
This is suitable for projects where there is time to complete detailed
design before tendering.
An advantage is that the client has full control over all aspects of
the design.
A disadvantage is that the price risk remains with the client. Examples
could include the unforeseen cost of additional work, such as in the
foundations, or the correction of errors in the specification or drawings.

Design and build

The client appoints a design team to produce designs (these designs are
generally not fully developed).
A contractor is then appointed to work out the construction detail of the
design and to build it.
The contract is normally for a fixed price where the contractor carries the
risk of unforeseen items.
The advantages are that it can be faster and cheaper, with lower cost risk.
A disadvantage is that the process can result in the client losing control
of much of the quality. Once the contractor is appointed, there is no
longer a direct relationship between the client and the designers.

Partnering

The client advertises for a project team consisting of the design team and
the building contractor and their supply chain (all their sub-contractors
and component suppliers). Together with the client they produce the
optimum scheme in terms of design, cost and programme. The client
normally selects them at an early stage based on their perceived
suitability, experience and commercial competitiveness.

43

 The price is normally determined by some degree of negotiation, and the

loss of competition can be more than compensated for by the high degree
of co-operation between all parties, as well as the opportunity to start
work on site more quickly.
In design terms, partnering allows the design team to explore design
options early on with the contractor, and investigate innovative design
and construction ideas.
A disadvantage is that, because there is limited or no financial
competition between contractors to win the job, the price may be
less competitive.
The private finance initiative (PFI) is a complex form of procurement
in which design and build is combined under a single contract with the
provision of funding and the responsibility to look after the premises
(facilities management) over a long period, typically 25 years. PFI also
requires the private sector bidder to provide finance for the project up front,
which is repaid by the public sector client through a fixed monthly charge
agreed under the contract. This payment can be reduced if the premises are
not looked after to agreed standards. Importantly, no payments whatsoever
are made to the PFI company until the premises have reached successful
service commencement (availability for occupation of the buildings).
This has resulted in a track record of more projects opening on time
compared to other forms of procurement. However, quality can also
suffer from this process.
The contractor appoints the design team at the outset of the tendering
process. The limited amount of time available at this stage means the
dialogue between the client and design team prior to contract signature is
generally more limited than other procurement routes. From the design
angle, the points made above about advantages and disadvantages of
design and build apply, but the inclusion of facilities management should
theoretically make the contractor much more conscious of whole-life costs.

44

BSF programmes generally include a mixture of PFI and design and build.
PFI funding will usually cover schools with 100 per cent new building and
the larger number of schools with refurbishment and some new build will
be covered by design and build contracts.
Oriel High, Crawley by Feilden Clegg Bradley Architects Andrew Beard

More PFI projects have

opened on time than
other forms of
procurement, but
quality can suffer

Oriel High, Crawley, West Sussex. A school

built using private finance initiative funding.

45

2.5 Project programmes:

allowing time for design
Design teams need programmes that allow time to produce high-quality,
creative work. However, there is often pressure to reduce design time. For
example, pressure can be applied to ensure that the completion date does
not extend by a whole term because it is much easier to arrange the move
from old to new buildings during the school holidays. However, the dangers
of inadequate design periods can be serious, expensive and long lasting.
These are just a few of the possible consequences:
Failure to test all the possible design options could result in a less cost
effective solution being adopted.
Some of the more complex aspects of school design, such as
sustainability, may not be properly explored.
If a design is not sufficiently developed you may not get robust cost
estimates, which may result in having to make compromises later in the
programme to compensate.
Insufficient client and stakeholder consultation could result in
fundamental design problems becoming apparent once the building
is occupied.
Design errors may require changes to be made during construction,
resulting in much higher costs for their resolution.
Delay to the construction caused by designs not being sufficiently
developed means that any of the benefits of rushing earlier stages
are lost.

46

2.6 Project management

within the school
It is worthwhile
considering the
secondment of a senior
member of the school
staff into a project
management role

Any major building project for an existing school will need substantial input
from the school staff, both at the early option appraisal and feasibility stages
and at the detailed design and construction stages. The workload will
become so great at times that it will be very difficult for staff to undertake
these roles in addition to their other responsibilities. If they do become
unable to fulfil their role properly, this can lead to design problems or errors,
delays and additional costs.
It is therefore worthwhile considering the secondment of a senior member
of the school staff into a project management role for the duration of the
project. This person needs to have the authority to make decisions quickly,
and also needs to be able to communicate well with, and have the
confidence of, all other members of staff.
In some projects this role has been played by one of the deputy heads of
a secondary school, who has worked between half and full time on the
project. It is clear that this has contributed to the success of schemes very
significantly, both in terms of their design quality and the smooth running of
the project. The extra cost involved will often be more than balanced out by
avoiding extra building costs later in the project. However, where the school
does not have the finance available to cover it, then the issue needs to be
resolved with the local authority at an early stage.

47

Case study 6 creating capacity

at Bedminster Down
The project has become
widely known for its
innovative and costeffective solution on
what was an extremely
challenging site

Head teacher Marius Frank was

determined that the school would
manage the PFI process rather than
have PFI done to it. He designated
deputy head Dick Hibdige as the
schools project manager and he
was released for about 50 per cent
of his time to focus on the project.
Prior to the tendering stage, a
detailed reference project was
worked up with the support of
Batterham and Matthews Architects
(Bath). Outline planning permission

48

Bedminster Down
Bristol City Council
NVB Architects
HGB UK Ltd

Dick Hibdige

Project
Client
Architect
Contractor

was successfully achieved. This

reference project provided the
platform from which NVB Architects
developed a colourful and
functionality-driven educational
shopping mall which has become
widely known for its innovative
and extremely cost-effective
solution on what was an extremely
challenging site.
Hibdige chaired and worked with a
project steering group, consisting
of a cross section of staff and

 Dick Hibdige

governors, throughout the process.

There was continuing dialogue from
the development of the vision,
evolution of the design concept and
criteria, work with bidders,
evaluation of tendered bids and
subsequent detailed work with
the preferred bidder through
to financial close. This group
continued to monitor the
construction process through to
final delivery of the new building.

Bedminster Down, main street (above)

and external view (below)

During the construction phase,

a unique partnership developed
between Hibdige and Tony
Richards (construction team
manager). This interface extended
to subcontractors with and through
the construction manager and

facilitated the delivery of a quality

building on time, within budget
and virtually snag free.

Andrew Beard

Throughout the design and

delivery stages, staff and students
were actively involved, where
appropriate, in detailed
development. All areas had a
significant input from key staff with
management responsibilities for
those areas. This was not restricted
to curriculum areas; administration,
library, reprographics, and catering
staff also made significant
contributions throughout. Students
provided pivotal inputs through
workshops with staff and/or
architects particularly in the
development of the design
solutions for toilets, science
laboratories and dining area and
in the extensive use of colour
throughout the building.
The whole process developed an
ethos, prior to occupation, which
resulted in a design solution that is
valued by all and, in addition, has
a very significant civic presence
within the community.

49

3 Creating a vision and

appraising the options

Alys Tomlinson

50

3.1 BSF the local

authority vision
BSF provides local
authorities with the
opportunity to think
strategically about
the way education
is delivered within
their area

Before starting any project that represents a major investment in school

buildings, it is essential to establish some clear objectives that are shared
by all the stakeholders. Articulating these objectives in an agreed document
is an excellent way to start. You can return to the objectives at various stages
to ensure the direction in which the project is developing remains on course.
This is vital as it can be easy to get carried away by the excitement of a
new school building and to become attached to particular features of the
project that may be appealing in their own right but contribute little to the
original objectives.
Through the BSF programme, all the schools within a local authority will be
rebuilt or refurbished. This provides local authorities with the opportunity
to think strategically about the way education is delivered within their area.
The degree to which they will transform education will depend on how
radical their vision is.
Preliminary thinking should centre on:
how to transform education
the sorts of buildings and spaces that will be required to enable or
support this transformation.
Thinking about these ideas simultaneously can be beneficial. In 2005,
Kent County Council put together an exemplary document (see box overleaf)
before its BSF project kicked off. It hopes to stimulate further dialogue and
debate both in Kent and elsewhere about how learning will take place in the
future and how building designs will need to alter to accommodate new
technologies and changes in teaching and learning styles.
Under BSF, each local authority must produce a document called the
strategy for change once its wave has kicked off. This sets out its vision
of the way education will be delivered. See Appendix 4 on page 130 for a
BSF process diagram for further advice on what schools need to be doing
at each stage of the process.

51

Case study 7 Kent: a BSF template

Schools will transcend

traditional barriers
between institutions
by providing innovative
and flexible approaches
to learning

Even before its BSF project kicked

off, Kent County Council identified
the need to rethink and reassess
the perceptions of what a school is,
how it is used, how it is designed,
how learners learn and how
school buildings relate to the
wider community and physical
environment. It initiated a dialogue
between architects, officers, schools
and the community in 2005 and its
BSF template publication records
the exchange of ideas and principles
that emerged.
Examples of the ideas and principles
that they have adopted in the
template include:

These diagrams illustrate an all-age school for

1,320 pupils aged four to 16 years in which young
people are grouped in six clusters or centres, with a
full range of supporting facilities. Between clusters
will be gardens or outdoor rooms.
Trevor Horne Architects

52

Vision into reality

In the future schools will need to
be learning organisations that are
integrated into the community. They
will transcend traditional barriers

between institutions by providing

innovative and flexible approaches
to learning. The learning environment
should meet the needs of all learners
in terms of academic, vocational,
social and recreational activities.
Principles
A number of principles relating
to the schools pedagogies
are proposed:
flexibility in curriculum delivery,
based on personalising learning,
supported by appropriate
technologies and quality
learning environments
knowledge alliances:
encouraging collaboration and
co-operation between participating
institutions, developing learning
networks across organisations

% Waking hours

% Waking hours

Leisure

90
80
70
60
50
40
30

100
90

Andrew Wright Associates

100

Non-vocational (leisure)

80
70

Education and learning

60
50

Educational
years

40

Employment

30

20

20

10

10

Educational
years

c
Non-vocational
(retirement)
e

Employment

0
Birth

10

20

30

40

1840 1880
Daily life pattern

Birth

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

2000
Indicative daily life pattern

Changing life patterns associated with increasing life expectancy and the development of new lifestyles
allow us more time to devote to education, leisure and culture.

community engagement
and participation for all.
Tomorrows classroom
Young people spend 75 per cent
of their time at key stages three and
four in general or specialist teaching
areas that have changed little since
the early part of the 20th century.
The move towards autonomous
learning, driven largely by
technology, enables a more
personalised form of learning in
which young people take control
of their learning programme.

Trevor Horne Architects

co-location of key services,

in an environment where learners
are encouraged to study what
is important

The school day

The new school template proposes
a series of clusters, in which teams
of teachers work cooperatively in
complementary curriculum areas.
It also addresses the teachers
day, a design proposal for an allage school and a primary school,
clusters for learning, the learning
community and community
involvement.

Knowledge alliances: encouraging collaboration and

co-operation between participating institutions,
developing learning networks across organisations.

53

3.2 The individual

school vision
To transform any large
organisations structure
and ethos, a significant
amount of time is
needed for consultation,
strategic planning,
developing and
implementing the
change

If you want your school to be successful in its transformational journey, you

need to involve all of the workforce and students and parents in the process.
To transform any large organisations structure and ethos, a significant
amount of time is needed for consultation, strategic planning, developing
and implementing the change management process. Ideally this should
happen a long time before the school will be designed. In BSF it should be
at least two years before the funding becomes available, to allow the school
and local authority time to develop the education vision. In doing so, a school
needs to involve the staff, governors, students and parents in a consultation
process to ensure that the majority of stakeholders are supportive of the
changes. The vision has to be translated into a change management
programme for educational pedagogy and the overall school organisation
of staffing, curriculum and student grouping.
The school educational vision then needs to be turned into an output
specification for design, ICT and furniture, fittings and equipment. A thorough
visioning and change management process for transformation will also
ensure that the output specification gives accurate and clear guidance to
the BSF bid teams, so that the client will then be able to choose between
stronger bid proposals.
The objectives for an individual school vision should be relatively strategic
and high level, rather than specific proposals that may not turn out to be the
optimum way of achieving the original aims. Objectives might include:
creating a non-institutional environment which is flexible and can embrace
the use of new technologies and learning styles
creating a building that is an exemplar of sustainable design, which can
be used as a tool for teaching the principles of environmental
conservation to pupils
enabling all of the educational, personal and social needs of the pupils,
staff and community to be met in a safe, secure, welcoming, inclusive
and delightful environment.

54

Whitecross High School Morley von Sternberg

55

Case study 8 developing the

vision in Avon
Staff concentrated on
developing the vision
by keeping away from
discussion of design and
buildings until very late
in the day when ideas
about learning had been
properly explored

Writhlington business and

enterprise specialist school was
selected as a BSF one-school
pathfinder. A very successful school
operating in poor accommodation,
the school and local authority were
looking for an effective way to
develop the school vision that
would involve as many stakeholders
as possible.
The local authority contracted
education advisor Key Educational
Associates (KEA), to help the school
develop its vision and to involve as
many stakeholders as possible.

Writhlington Business and

Enterprise Specialist School
Client
Bath and North East Somerset
Architect Aedas Architects Ltd
Contractor Not confirmed

Aedas Architects Ltd.

Project

Writhlington School proposed building

56

Because of unusual time

constraints, the visioning process
was completed in a matter of weeks,
starting with initial meetings with the
school and the local authority to set
the programme and agree protocols.
Each of the stakeholder meetings
was held independently and all
ideas were captured and recorded
to be fed into a central pool.
Questionnaires were also completed
which indicated the level of
understanding and involvement
with the process and with BSF
as a concept.

 Writhlington School

Writhlington School existing building

Parent and other stakeholder

meetings were facilitated by a small
team from KEA working with an
architect facilitator who was able to
set the scene with what is possible
in design by drawing on visual
images of existing new builds.
The staff, again facilitated by a KEA
team, spent a whole day developing
their ideas, working in randomly
selected and subject-based groups.
They concentrated on developing
the vision by keeping away from
discussion of design and buildings
until very late in the day when ideas
about learning, personalised
learning and interdisciplinary
learning had been properly explored.

could deliver it in a half-day session.

Again the focus was on learning and
not on buildings. Students were
encouraged to explore the ways and
the environments in which they were
best able to learn and work. These
ideas were then developed into the
sort of workplace they would like
to have.
When all the stakeholder data had
been collected and collated it was
returned to the school. A small
group from the school then
formulated the vision with the
assistance of the KEA team as a
critical friend. The same architect
who had provided the initial stimulus
then critiqued the document.

This process when completed was

very much the schools own vision
and written in a way that was easily
accessible to the school, the local
authority and the bidders.
This solution proved to be very cost
effective. Maximum stakeholder
involvement had been achieved at
minimum cost. Because all staff
and students were involved instead
of a sample, the school retained
ownership of its own vision and had
not handed it over to a third party.

A programme for the whole student

body was developed so that tutors

57

Case study 9 the use of feasibility

studies in Tower Hamlets
The feasibility study
work is not intended
to be prescriptive
bidders will be
encouraged to come
up with their own
inovative solutions
but it does provide a
valuable benchmark

The Tower Hamlets BSF project

comprises over 20 schools and
Cube Design was appointed as
client design advisor to do feasibility
studies for all of them. From this
comprehensive overview of the
whole project, four schools were
selected to be part of the first wave.
The architect produced option
appraisals and detailed feasibility
studies for these to obtain reliable
cost estimates for the outline
business case (process diagram
see Appendix 4 page 130). These
estimates formed the bid for funding
in the outline business case, and
therefore it was vital that the figures
were robust and, if approved,
provided adequate funding to carry
out high-quality projects with
excellent design standards.
Cube Design Ltd

Cube Design Ltd

Control option

58

Option appraisal A

The diagrams below show some

of the option appraisals for one
of the sites, looking at alternative
combinations of refurbishment,
remodelling and new build. The
option of new build was not
possible on this site because
of the absence of any suitable
decant accommodation or an
alternative site.
The work involved looking at a
number of detailed issues to
ensure that the cost estimates
made provision for a number
of exceptional items of work.
These included consideration of:
physical constraints and
opportunities for each of the sites

 detailed surveys of the building

fabric, including looking for
problems such as concrete cancer
planning and heritage constraints
(outline planning consent was
obtained for the final scheme to
provide certainty on these issues)
analysis of the circulation routes
within the school before and after
improvements
phasing and the possible
decanting strategies for the site,
including analysis of temporary
accommodation, play areas, social
areas and also main hall spaces
assessment of existing building
capacity, overall area of each of the
buildings, consideration of massing
and form
suitability of the solution for
curriculum delivery

the potential for flexibility and

future adaptability.
These studies and the various
options were discussed at length
with the staff and governors of the
schools, and considered alongside
their vision. Significantly, the cost
per square metre of floor area for
this refurbishment was estimated
to be three or four times more
expensive than the DCSF baseline
figure. So had all this detailed work,
carried out to demonstrate the
funding required to construct the
works to a good standard not taken
place, the project might have
proceeded with an inadequate
budget. This could have resulted
in undesirable compromises over
quality or even an unviable project.

them understand the project more

quickly and to avoid them wasting
time looking at the same issues
again. The feasibility study work is
not intended to be prescriptive
bidders will be encouraged to come
up with their own innovative
solutions but it does provide a
valuable benchmark against which
options can be tested. It also
provides confidence to the council
that an acceptable solution is
available within the budget.

The feasibility work, including details

of all the options considered, will be
provided to all the bidders at the
competitive dialogue stage to help

Cube Design Ltd

Cube Design Ltd

Option appraisal B

Option appraisal C

59

3.5 Important issues

to consider early on

Adaptability and flexibility

School design has changed very little over the last century. Most schools
built over that period comprise a series of classrooms and other basic
spaces linked by corridors. However, rapid changes in technology and the
potential it creates for personalised learning make the requirements for the
schools of the future less clear. There can be no certainty about group sizes
for teaching or about the need for private study areas or the extent of remote
working from home or other locations. School buildings therefore need to
be adaptable.

Andrew Beard

Making a building highly flexible for example, with large numbers of

moveable walls is generally very expensive and can only be justified where
the changes are likely to be frequent and essential. There is little point in
putting in a large, sliding, soundproof partition if it is only going to be moved
once a year. On the other hand, it is wise to avoid structural systems, such
as having load-bearing cross walls between classrooms, which make it
difficult and expensive to move walls and change room sizes at a later date.
A timber, concrete or steel framed building will generally be much more
adaptable in the future.
The folding classroom screen at Bishops Park
College enables the creation of different sized
teaching spaces.

So it is important to determine how much short-term flexibility is required

at the stage of preparing the brief. Where it is considered necessary to
have accommodation that can regularly be changed to create different sized
spaces, perhaps to allow a particular educational pedagogy, then highquality, moveable partitions may be appropriate. But in other situations it
may be possible to provide rapid adaptability by simply dividing up a large
space with office-style free-standing screens.
Scope for alterations in the longer term can be created by using lightweight
partitions, such as steel framed walls or demountable, office-style partitions
that can be removed or repositioned in a few days, perhaps during the
school holidays.1 It is worth noting that, although moving the partitions may
be fairly straightforward, changes to lighting and power circuits, switch
positions and mechanical ventilation, can make these alterations much more
expensive unless they have been planned for at the initial design stage.

60

Sustainability

Sustainability needs to be considered very early in the development of a

school building project, whether it is new build or refurbishment. Some of
the fundamental decisions made early on, such as orientation of the building
or landscaping, can have a major impact.
Here are some points worth considering early on: 2
passive design (natural ventilation and daylight)
using building materials from renewable or low impact sources
using materials with low embodied energy for example, aluminium
from non-recycled sources uses 126 times more energy to produce
than timber
minimising the use of fossil fuels by maximising insulation, by providing
access to recycled water and by utilising energy from renewable sources
such as solar energy, biomass or wind turbines
reducing wastage of material it is possible to avoid wastage on site,
to use recycled materials, and to consider the refurbishment of
existing buildings
reducing transport movement of materials during construction
considering the buildings and grounds as a teaching resource providing
facilities for measuring energy consumption, and encouraging biodiversity
with landscaping and green roofs.
Many of these are not add-ons they must be a fundamental part of the
design approach. Some have financial implications and may impact on
the whole-life costing. The budget must be adequate if all the clients
sustainability ambitions are to be achieved. It is therefore essential that
the approach to sustainability issues is confirmed at the outset.

1 But note the effect this may have on thermal

mass see 4.5
2 See DfES, Design of Sustainable Schools:
Case Studies, The Stationery Office, 2006

61

Refurbishment projects
Andy Hendry

Parliament Hill School, Camden

The refurbishment of this Victorian classroom has
created a high-quality learning environment with
good daylighting.
Architect: Haverstock Associates.

Construction work taking place in or close to an operational school presents

some real challenges. Building is almost always a noisy process and it
can be dirty, dusty and dangerous. It often brings large numbers of the
contractors staff and operatives into the school site and even into the
buildings, together with many other subcontractors and visitors. Bulky
building materials will need to be delivered in large vehicles and then stored.
Building sites often attract vandals and thieves and therefore security is
paramount. In addition, to compound all these issues, a major building
project can last up to two years, or more when there are several phases.
There are, regrettably, instances where building projects at schools have
caused so much disturbance that there have been increased behaviour
problems and falls in pupil achievement levels. However, this is not inevitable
and there are other projects where careful planning and an excellent
relationship between the school and the building contractor have turned
the potential problems into a positive experience.
The following points should be taken into account, particularly in
refurbishment and remodelling projects, to minimise the risk of problems:
Plan ahead and programme realistically. When working in
operational schools, it is very important to plan the project very carefully,
even at the feasibility stage. It may be necessary to carry out work in
several phases, to empty part of the building at various times and to
provide temporary decant accommodation. All these moves take time,
absorb school staff time, and are expensive. Therefore pre-planning is
vital to ensure viability of the process as well as the design. Noisy
building work may need to be put on hold at times, for example during the
main examination weeks.
Make the most of the school holidays. They provide a good
opportunity to carry out particularly disruptive work but this requires
detailed pre-planning to ensure that the maximum amount of work is
carried out during that time. Delays can have disastrous knock-on effects
so allow time for unforeseen extra work.

62

 Kilian OSullivan

Conduct thorough surveys. This is particularly

important for refurbishment projects, as unforeseen
items can lead to serious delays and extra costs. It
may be necessary to plan for (and provide a budget
for) destructive testing, when walls, floors or roofs
are opened up and reinstated to see the full extent
of construction problems.

Charter School, Southwark, London

Recladding the 1960s block has given the school a
completely new visual image, as well as improving
the quality of the internal rooms.
Architect: Penoyre & Prasad.

Prepare a detailed budget. Costs can be almost

limitless on refurbishment projects, depending on
how much work is carried out, and the standard of
finish required. It is therefore worth working out a detailed cost plan
identifying priorities and cost limits for different elements. If the budget
is limited, rather than trying to spread the funds thinly across the whole
building, you might want to concentrate on certain areas of the building
which are in the worst condition, perhaps rebuilding them completely so
that they will last for up to 50 years. The remaining funds could be used
to refurbish other areas of the building to give them a more limited life
of 10-15 years, for example.
Allow for contingencies. It is vital to allow realistic contingency sums
in the cost plan on refurbishment projects. Cost consultants will certainly
advise this but, when costs are constrained, it is tempting to take risks
and reduce them. This approach to budgets can be very short-sighted,
and in reality reductions to the amount of building work made at the
planning stage will give significantly larger savings than if they are made
whilst work is in progress.
Pick a good contractor. The choice of building contractor is always
important and is even more so on refurbishment projects. A good
contractor, with high-calibre staff and a good understanding of the issues
involved in running a school, is likely to manage the process far better,
resulting in fewer problems arising. Where the contractor has not already
been appointed as part of an LEP, there should be a meticulous selection
process, involving interviews, visits to other projects and references from
other schools.
63

 Ensure decisions can be made quickly. As described in section 2.6,

having capacity within a school to manage a building project can have
a significant effect on design quality and user satisfaction. The need
for a school liaison or project manager can be particularly crucial in
refurbishment projects. Far more planning will be needed and extensive
liaison will be required between school and contractors during building
works. No matter how much pre-planning has taken place, as works on
site proceed, many decisions will need to be taken quickly to respond to
unforeseen issues. If you do not make decisions quickly, you will incur
further considerable delays that will result in additional costs and possibly
added disruption to the school.
Landscape

Andrew Beard

Peacehaven Community School,

East Sussex. Architect: architecture plb.

3 For more information see DfES, Schools

for the future: Designing school grounds,
The Stationery Office, 2006

64

Schools can play a significant role in delivering the Every child matters
outcomes, providing safe and stimulating environments where children
and young people can learn, explore, play and grow,
regardless of their educational needs. The quality of
the school landscape is as important in achieving this
as that of the buildings. Schools normally have extensive
grounds and outdoor learning and physical education
are an important part of school life. The outdoor
classroom is an important learning tool, creating
opportunities for all areas of the curriculum. External
areas are important for students socialising and the
quality of the landscape design impacts on the
biodiversity in a neighbourhood. In addition, the
servicing needs of the school parking, deliveries,
waste storage need to be carefully thought through
and properly designed. A whole site approach is
essential to the design of schools.3
One of the most limiting and challenging factors for inclusion is likely to
be the existing physical environment and topography of the site. A number
of aspects need to be taken into consideration, such as the existing and
required levels, gradients, roadways, approach and operational issues.

Schools are multi-functional places which utilise the whole of their site
and will require access to all services provided by them. The inclusion
requirements will influence the position and siting of the building/s and
should be considered early in the process incorporating agreement on the
principles of levels and locations of key functions. This should take into
account not only arrival, departure, parking and drop-off but also access on
to and across the site, to and between other buildings and functions such
as sports pitches and play areas.
Roger Smith

Caroline Chisholm, Northampton

Architect: BDP

65

3.6 Learning from the

experience of other schools
The most effective decisions are based on thorough knowledge. To know
what is achievable, you need to understand what others have been able to
achieve. Although each project has unique features, best practice examples
can act as an inspiration, as well as providing benchmarks to check how well
you are doing. Even looking at the less successful aspects of projects can
provide valuable lessons of potential pitfalls and it is useful to know what
you do not want.
The rapid increase in investment in school buildings has created a large pool
of recently constructed projects to learn from. However, it has also created
a surge in interest from people wanting to visit these schools and random
visits which are unstructured and unfocused can waste valuable time. So
you need to think carefully about how to get the most out of visiting other
projects, in your role as client or stakeholder. Here are some suggestions:
Research examples first. There are many sources of information, such
as the CABE digital library,4 DCSF schools for the future books, and the
public architecture website.5 There are further references to books and
journals in Appendix 2 on page 119. It is worth looking beyond Britain
some very innovative schools have been built in Scandinavia and
Australia, for example.
Think about which aspects of school design you want to
investigate further. Does your school vision involve an innovative
educational pedagogy and are there examples that are particularly
relevant to this? Are you interested in alternatives to a conventional dining
hall for providing school meals?

4 See www.cabe.org.uk/casestudies
5 See education base at
www.publicarchitecture.co.uk

66

Plan your visit carefully so that you get the most out of it. The timing
of visits is crucial. Visits early on at vision stage can raise aspirations and
open stakeholders eyes to new innovations in school design and new
patterns of learning which they think may work with their school. Visits
at briefing stage should be more structured around looking at specific
elements of schools, such as approaches to circulation, or toilets. Try to
get plans in advance so that you understand the building better when you

Your local architecture

centre may be able to
help organise and
facilitate visits

get there. Prepare questions you want to ask, and record the answers.
Write up notes of what you have seen and take photographs of interesting
details as well as general views (but do not take photographs that include
students without permission). Talk to the users of the building and get
their views on what works, what they like about it, and what processes
they went through during the design and construction. A great way to
structure the visit is to take a range of stakeholders on a visit and ask
them to think about the DQI statements while they are going around.
This will help to encourage people to look at the building in more detail
and it will prepare them for when they need to go through the DQI
statements at briefing stage.
Take your design team with you if they have already been
appointed. It will help them understand your aspirations more clearly,
they may be able to point out interesting technical details and it will give
you a common reference for future discussions.
Report back to other people in the school and other stakeholders.
This could be in the form of an illustrated report or a presentation and is
another useful way of promoting debate about schools, design and the
impact on education.
Seek help with your visits. Your local architecture centre may be able
to help organise and facilitate visits. You can find out who they are by
contacting the Architecture Centre Network.6
Consider visiting buildings other than schools. You may be able
to get useful ideas or get inspiration from other types of buildings and
spaces. For example, you could look at different toilet designs in other
public buildings, look at multi-purpose performance spaces in community
buildings, or look at learning resource centres in art galleries, colleges
or universities.

6 See www.architecturenetwork.net

67

4 Developing the brief

Alys Tomlinson

68

4.1 How briefs secure

design excellence
A high-quality brief is
one of the tasks that
the client can never give
away to someone else to
produce on their behalf

A high-quality brief is the vehicle by which clients achieve good

communication with the rest of the project team and it forms the foundation
of a successful design. It is one of the tasks that the client can never give
away to someone else to produce on their behalf.
The brief should build on the outcomes of the feasibility studies and option
appraisals. It will also be informed by the cost estimates produced by the
quantity surveyor ensuring the brief is realistic and financially viable.
However, it should not be too prescriptive, nor fix the form of the building.
Rather it should provide a clear framework that allows the design teams to
achieve, or even exceed, the clients needs and aspirations. A good brief can
also be an evolving document, reaching greater levels of completeness and
detail as needed.
So how do you go about preparing a good brief?
School visits will help stakeholders understand what they want and
dont want for their school in terms of design and it will help them develop
their vision. Talking to teachers at the school, ideally including the head
teacher, will enable them to find out about the development of the design
from vision to brief and from brief to completed building.
Design quality indicator for schools (DQIfS) can help schools reach
decisions about what level of quality they aspire to (see section 4.6).
They can be used to identify the stakeholders priorities in the design of
the new school and then help them to reach a consensus about their
requirements.
Design festivals for schools look at the design of buildings in general
and might include visits to interesting new buildings within their locality.
The outcomes can then inform the building project for their school.1
A design workshop, perhaps an intensive day for a wide variety of
stakeholders, looking at the issues facing the school, can help in learning
from good practice elsewhere and developing a vision for the new or
refurbished school.

1 See Goddard, T, Creating an Excellent Brief,

Century 21 Schools Magazine, Edition 1,
Nov 2005

69

4.2 Detailed brief

development
Once the vision is established, the client should produce a written document
that explains exactly how the school will operate in the future and what
the various parts of the building need to provide to allow this to happen.
The document should include the following information to assist the
preparation of the brief:
a description of a typical day in the life of the school
at the moment and how it will change with the
transformation agenda
the organisational structure of the school, including
management, departments, pastoral support
and so on
the ethos and values of the school
activities to be accommodated within the school,
including out of hours community uses and the type
of accommodation they require
the frequency of the different activities the usage
levels of the different types of accommodation
required adjacencies between different activities,
departments etc
arrangements for community access and the required
security levels
ways in which the school might change in the near
future to account for new and different pedagogical
systems, pastoral organisation and teaching methods.
All this information is extremely useful to the designers of the school and
should therefore be included in the detailed brief as background information.

70

4.3 The detailed

accommodation schedule
Producing a detailed
accommodation
schedule is complex
and will require
expertise including
curriculum analysis

Once all these issues have been established, the next stage of writing the
brief is to produce a detailed accommodation schedule (spreadsheet listing
all the spaces required). This is a complex job, and will require someone with
expertise in the subject, including an understanding of curriculum analysis.
For a larger project where a client design advisor has been appointed, this
person is ideal for carrying out the task. Where there is no client design
advisor, someone from the childrens service development or property team
may be suitable, or an in-house architect with experience of schools.
This schedule will list exactly the number of rooms required and their
minimum sizes. Further information about individual rooms is listed in what
are usually called room data sheets. The schedule will add up to an overall
target area for the building to ensure that cost limits are not exceeded, and
this is likely to be based on Building bulletin 98 (BB98), which contains
guidance on briefing and area guidelines. 2
BB98 gives recommended minimum areas for a variety of spaces, including
general classrooms and specialist teaching spaces. Minimum total floor
areas are recommended for different categories of space for any secondary
school, based on their age range and pupil numbers. 3 The DCSF suggests
that a well-designed school can be created within the total of these overall
areas, plus a further float to allow for the specialism or individual
requirements of each school. However, additional space will be needed
for activities such as extended school services during the school day.
These area guidelines are used by the DCSF to calculate budgets for
schools; therefore, if the brief requires total areas above these guidelines
without an increase in the budget, there is a risk that undesirable reductions
in the quality of construction or finishes will be needed to make
compensatory savings.

2 Building Bulletin 98: Briefing guide for

Secondary School Projects, DfES, available at:
tinyurl.com/2h6ccb
3 The guidelines apply only to mainstream
schools, and not schools for children with
special educational needs.

71

It is important to appreciate that these areas are guidance rather than rules.
Local authorities and schools may wish to deviate from the traditional
schedule of rooms, but still work within these overall recommendations
for the number and types of teaching spaces where they have different
pedagogies. It is the job of the architect and the rest of the design team to
create a building that will cater for all the required activities in rooms and
spaces that are well designed for their needs. A good team will use their skill
and imagination to come up with an elegant design solution that satisfies all
the functional requirements and at the same time is an inspiring piece of
architecture. If this results in exceeding the DCSF guideline area, but can be
achieved within the cost limits and without compromising build quality, then
this is quite acceptable. However, this should not become a justification for
wasting areas in the planning of the building, nor for creating spaces that
cannot be put to beneficial use.
The following is a checklist of some of the important information that should
be included in the detailed brief or output specification:
special equipment and fittings
finishes and furnishing
access and security requirements, including any
provisions for special needs
dining arrangements and kitchens
exam facilities which should not be assumed
to be in the sports hall
social and circulation spaces
toilets and washing facilities
provision for community and out of hours use
sustainability targets and whole life costs
requirements for flexibility and future adaptability.

72

4.4 Involving stakeholders

in brief development
Stakeholders need
to be kept informed
about the impact of
their involvement

The key to involving stakeholders successfully in the design and building

process is to structure their input in a realistic and effective way.
They need to be:
involved at the right time
prepared so that they can participate in a
meaningful way
given appropriate issues on which to comment
or provide an input
kept informed about the impact of their involvement.
Failing to do any of these can lead to disillusionment and even hostility to
the project.
Whitecross High School Morley von Sternberg

73

Case study 10 building the student

perspective into design in Bradford
The students have done
a super job. I dont think
we could have done it
any better. In fact I think
we would probably have
done it less well

Buttershaw High School

Bradford LA
Architecture plb
Educo consortium

Buttershaw High School

An architect explains his thinking to the student
design evaluation group (right)
A student group at the design festival develops
ideas for external social spaces (below)
Allan Jarvis

74

confident that the perspective

offered by the young people would
be grounded and focused.
Before the formal procurement
process began, the citys three
schools were offered the
opportunity to collaborate with
School Works in a DfES-sponsored
demonstration project to harness
the student perspective. A two-day
design festival in a local art gallery
included students participating in
Allan Jarvis

Project
Client
Architect
Contractor

One of the great strengths of

Bradfords approach to BSF was
the close involvement of its students
from the start. It was one of the
imperatives for the schools that
students should have a voice in
developing ideas for the new
learning environments. While
there were fears that students
expectations would be raised to
unrealistic levels and that only
impossible ideas would result,
the authority and schools were

workshop sessions dealing with

a wide range of design issues
including how to:
give students a sense of
ownership of their schools
make the schools environmentally
friendly
address issues of space, light and
colour
design out bullying
create stimulating learning
spaces both indoors and
outdoors.
Allan Jarvis

Buttershaw High School

Model of the proposed school by Bradfords
selected bidder (above)
A year 11 pupil explains her ideas for an outdoor
learning space to an architect (below)

An eclectic team of facilitators was

assembled, including architects,
a broadcaster, an educational
psychologist, drama teacher,
learning mentor, deputy head,
performance specialist and an
assistant head with responsibility
for inclusion. They worked with a
cross section of students in terms
of age, ability and background to
produce a report.
A wide-ranging staff group from the
same three schools gathered to
hear the report and give an adult
perspective on it. Their view was
summed up by Buttershaws head
of science: The students have done
a super job. I dont think we could
have done it any better. In fact I think
we would probably have done it
less well.

Allan Jarvis

The report from the student

workshops was hugely influential in
shaping the output specification.
The descriptions of acoustic
performance were taken directly
from the students suggestions.
The storage strategy was greatly
influenced by students criticisms
of clutter in classrooms. And, in
trying to define how corridors should
be designed, students talked about
rounded corners to improve
sightlines and suggested that
corridors might taper from a wide
entry point to ease congestion.

The next stage offered the schools

a direct relationship with Bradfords
three shortlisted bidders. The bidders
developed an extensive programme
of consultation with the student
body. Buttershaw High School
decided it wanted a single group of
students to participate in work with
all three bid teams. It hoped this
would help to focus thinking as the
process unfolded and that students
would be able to assess and
respond to a range of different
design solutions.
The student design evaluation
group was hand picked from
students of every year group who
had expressed an interest in design.
In each case, members were asked
to seek the views of their own forms
and others in their year group via the
year councils. Discussion in form
groups took place in tutorial time,
so that, when meeting the bid
teams, members of the group were
focused and well informed on a
range of student perspectives.

75

4.5 DCSF building

bulletins and guidance
There is a considerable amount of design advice available that can help you
to write a brief. The design team of the DCSF has produced guidance on
many aspects of school building design. These wide-ranging publications
(see Appendix 2 on page 119 for a full list) usually come in one of the
following formats:
design guidance for all types of school, including building bulletins
covering most subject areas in secondary schools and schools for the
future books. Both contain very valuable advice based on many years
of schools design experience and up-to-date case studies
design standards within schools covering areas such as environmental
considerations and acoustics and linked to legislation such as the
building regulations. These are usually set out in other building bulletins,
which are technical documents with useful detailed information about
designing schools.

Horseshoe seating arrangement at Jo Richardson

Community School

They are all based on extensive research in the UK and sometimes

overseas and cover a wide range of issues. They can be an excellent
starting point for making decisions about the content of the brief.

Construction Photography

Local authorities and schools should note that this

design guidance is not mandatory and does not relieve
them from the need to consider many important
decisions about a building project.
This is demonstrated well by an issue like the size of a
general classroom. Building bulletin 98: Briefing guide
for secondary school projects recommends that a floor
area of between 56 and 63 square metres should be
provided for a standard classroom of up to 30 pupils.
There are good reasons for not going below the
recommended minimum, in terms of being able to
accommodate 30 young people, plus a teacher,
teaching assistant, disabled pupil/s and associated
support worker/s as well as the space to accommodate

76

DCSF building bulletins

can be an excellent
starting point for making
decisions about the
content of the brief

a wheelchair user/s in a large motorised chair. However, one local authority

in London was able to source extra funding for classrooms to be larger
(at least 75 square metres), so that all students could sit in a single
horseshoe arrangement (see photograph) and has found that this improves
achievement. Another school might have a high level of inclusion of pupils
with disabilities and therefore might decide to provide additional space
for several wheelchairs in one large classroom in each department.
Schools should assess the likely pupil demographics to establish the
numbers of disabled pupils and their relative disabilities and allow for the
appropriate levels of space, equipment and future flexibility for alterations
as user changes dictate.
Design of sustainable schools DfES

77

Case study 11 creating

a comfortable environment
During the summer the
building fabric cools
down at night and acts
as a cooling surface
during the day

78

Kingsley High School

London Borough of Harrow
Nicholas Hare Architects
Carillion

Kingsley High School by Nicholas Hare Architects Andrew Beard

Project
Client
Architect
Contractor

Kingsley High School, London

Borough of Harrow, is a secondary
school for children with special
educational needs and was
constructed under a PFI scheme
with Investors in the Community and
Carillion in 2006. The teaching
spaces are light and airy, with
generous windows opening on to
protected outdoor areas. The
landscaping has been carefully
designed to give varied sensory
experiences as it matures.

The building has been designed to

make the greatest possible use of
passive ventilation as well as natural
lighting. It has been constructed
with heavy materials, including brick
external walls, which contribute to
thermal stability and give good
acoustic separation between rooms.
The use of heavy materials in this
way is often described as creating
thermal mass.

 Tim Crocker

Nicholas Hare

Diagram to show natural daytime convection

Thermal mass has been created by

using heavy construction materials,
including a concrete roof formed
from precast planks. The building
fabric temperature lags behind the
air temperature, so that during the
summer the building fabric cools
down at night and acts as a cooling
surface during the day. The process
can be enhanced by night time
cooling ventilation, in which some
of the windows are used to create
a flow of air that tracks across the
underside of the roof slabs.

Because the surface of the concrete

planks is exposed, to aid absorption
or dissipation of heat, there could be
a problem with a rather reverberant
(echoey) acoustic. This has
been overcome by using special
light fittings with a sound
absorbent casing.

Typical classroom showing monopitch sloping roof,

with concrete surface exposed internally, and
suspended light fittings with acoustically
absorbent casings
Andrew Beard

The monopitch roofs are ideal for

achieving passive cross-ventilation
in the classrooms. On windy days,
the pressure differential between
the two sets of windows drives
ventilation across the rooms. On
still days, the difference in height
between the windows creates a
stack effect, generating convection
within the room and thus ventilation.

Cross-ventilation for the ground

floor special curriculum classrooms
is provided by ventilation chimneys
that lead to louvres between the
first-floor north-facing windows.
An added benefit of using passive
systems is that they are low tech
and easily understood and controlled.

The double height entrance hall has good

daylighting, and provides a welcoming arrival to
the school.

79

4.6 Design quality indicator

for schools (DQIfS)

Online page from DQIfS

CIC

Design quality should be discussed, specified, evaluated and checked at

various stages throughout the design and procurement process. This will
relate to things that can be scientifically measured, such as the level of
daylight in a classroom, or to more subjective aspects such as the
attractiveness of the building or how it makes you feel. At the outset of the
project there are many factors to be considered and many individual views
to be taken into account not least the views and
aspirations of the school community. Once established,
these objectives will become reference points during
the competitive tendering process. Ultimately, they
should be used to test the success of the building once
it is occupied and in use (as part of a post-occupancy
evaluation see section 7.3).
DQIfS is a tool consisting of 111 statements under
three headings: functionality, building quality and use.
The statements cover many of the critical issues in the
design of a school and the process involves a group
of stakeholders working through each statement in turn
and giving it a weighting. The scores are then processed
to provide both individual and combined objectives for
different aspects of the design, together with views on
their relative priorities.
The DQI for schools is mandatory in BSF.

DQI statements

The experience of doing a DQI enables a conversation between

stakeholders about design and the design process, can help communicate
and share values and will clarify design strengths and weaknesses and
identify opportunities for improvement.
The tool is designed for use at three stages in the school building project:
Stage 1 Briefing
A trained DQI facilitator (see case study 12) will chair a workshop where the
stakeholders will weight each of the DQI statements according to how they

80

The experience of
doing a DQI enables
a conversation between
stakeholders about
design and the design
process

want their school to be designed and what they want it to feel like. This will
form part of the brief for the school.
Stage 2 Mid-design
At this stage a DQI can be used to check how the design is progressing
and to evaluate the proposal against the original aspirations.
Stage 3 Occupation
Carried out after completion and a period in use; at this stage DQI
can inform the client and the design team about how well the building
is performing.
A range of stakeholders representing the wider views of the school will
use the tool. It is therefore important that they are adequately prepared
for stage 1 by going on visits to other buildings, so that they understand
the implications of each of the statements and have a good understanding
of what the school wants in terms of design quality.
CIC/PfS

Functionality

Impact

Access
Space
Uses

The school in
its community
Within the school
Form and materials
Character and
innovation

Design quality indicator

for schools: three
factors working
together

Build quality
Performance
Engineering Services
Construction

81

Case study 12 using DQI for schools

The DQI process is not

about finding the right
answers or producing
standard solutions.
It is a useful tool that
allows schools to
discover what is
important to them

Schools in the London Borough of

Waltham Forest plan to use the DQI
for schools as part of the authoritys
99 million BSF programme from
the inception stage through to
preferred bidder. At the time of
writing, the DQI had been used
at stages one and two.
The first three sample schools were
part of the process to select a
preferred bidder. Each had quite
different characteristics:
Walthamstow School for Girls
has a listed historic building at the
heart of the school grounds and
unusual landscape features and is
to be extended and refurbished.

82

CIC

People using DQI online

Kelmscott School is next to a

large leisure centre and currently
suffers from a lack of visibility from
the street. It is also to be refurbished
and extended.
Warwick Boys and Aveling Park
Schools will be brought together to
form a new school on a former
industrial site as a completely new
project. The new site is also slightly
removed from the main road and is
adjacent to a railway line.
The first DQI session (held
separately with each school)
introduced the concepts of
fundamental, added value and

excellent and was led by a

trained facilitator.

The DQIs can then be set up to

communicate these special qualities
to bidding teams. Later on they can
be used to assess the success of
the project for example after
completion and occupation and
after a settling-in period.
The terms
Fundamental the things that
are essential to allow the school
to function properly. The technical
advisors should be responsible
for delivering them.
Added value areas beyond
the basic that enhance the
school and allow it to fulfil its
particular vision the things
that are especially important
to the school.
Excellent things that may not
necessarily be achieved but
would really help the school
perform to a high level.

Although the three schools at

Waltham Forest had much in
common at the fundamental level,
they were defined by the aspects of
their project that they thought would
bring added value or could be
excellent.

Using the DQI process made

possible a reliable comparison
of quite complex information as
presented by the three bidders and
allowed all those taking part in the
selection process to understand the
difference between the qualities of
the three bids.
CIC

The most important lesson learned

during these first sessions was that
each school is different. The DQI
process is not about finding the
right answers or producing
standard solutions for schools. It is
a useful tool that allows schools to
discover what is important to them
and decide what will be special
about their school in the future.

These terms help people to prioritise

and emphasise what is particularly
critical to the success of the school.

Once the DQIs had been

customised during the initial
sessions, they were used halfway
through the bidding process to
assess how successful each of the
bidders had been in responding
to them.
A DQI day was set up, with each
bidder presenting their scheme to
each school at different times.
The bidders were asked to take
the added value and excellent DQIs
and explain how successfully their
scheme addressed each one. This
allowed all members of the audience
to understand how well the bidders
complied, how much effort they
were making, and whether they
seemed genuinely interested4.

People using DQI online

1 Aspects regarded by the school as fundamental

were considered non-negotiable. They were
therefore not discussed but checked by officers
and client design advisors in a separate exercise

83

4.7 Establishing
sustainability objectives
Andrew Beard

The CABE schools design audit found that recently built school buildings
performed very poorly in terms of sustainability. Many basic issues of energy
performance had been overlooked, including the potential to minimise
requirements for mechanical ventilation by use of passive ventilation
approaches and to reduce electricity use for lighting by ensuring natural light
within the buildings. These are fundamental aspects of school design and
need to be considered at brief stage.

Bicycle storage at Rye Hills School, Redcar

BREEAM (Building Research Establishment environmental assessment

method) is a tool for measuring the sustainability of a design. 4 It is a
comprehensive methodology that assesses the environmental impact of a
schools design and construction. The standard is intended to guarantee
a minimum level of environmental performance for school building designs
without specifying particular solutions. A design scores points for meeting
various sustainability criteria. The DCSF requires that all new schools and
refurbishment projects register for a BREEAM assessment if the total
project costs are above a threshold. 5 Registered schools are expected
to achieve a minimum BREEAM rating of very good. Partnerships for
Schools (PfS) is responsible for ensuring that BSF schools comply with
these standards.
BREEAM assesses the performance of buildings in:

4 The guidelines apply only to mainstream

schools, and not schools for children with
special educational needs.
5 See www.breeam.org

84

management: overall management policy, commissioning site

management and procedural issues
energy use: operational energy and carbon dioxide (CO2) issues
health and well-being: indoor and external issues affecting health
and well-being
pollution: air and water pollution issues
transport: transport-related CO2 and location-related factors
land use: greenfield and brownfield sites
ecology: ecological value conservation and enhancement of the site
materials: environmental implication of building materials, including
life-cycle impacts
water: consumption and water efficiency.

Credits are given against each of these points and then weighted to give
a single overall score. The building is then rated on a scale of pass, good,
very good, or excellent.
If the building is to be used as an environmental learning tool, then it will
also be very helpful to identify in the brief specific activities that have been
planned. For example, electronic display panels for electricity generation
from photovoltaic panels or windmills, or for water collections from rainwater,
can be used for teaching a variety of topics and making pupils conscious
of their environmental impact.
CABE

Landscaping at The Academy of St Francis

of Assisi

85

5 Selecting the team to

design and build your school

Alys Tomlinson

86

5.1 Different methods for

different procurement routes
The choice of the team is possibly the decision that has the greatest impact
on design quality. Integrated working of clients, designers and contractors
is essential for the successful delivery of an inspirational design.The method
of appointing the design team varies according to the type of procurement
involved, as does the stage at which appointment takes place.
Traditional procurement

In traditionally procured projects, the architect and the rest of the design
team can be appointed at the beginning and can work on the project for its
whole life from feasibility study right through to completion. There are several
ways the client can begin the process of selecting the design team:
contact RIBA client services, which will provide a list of suitable
architectural practices and draw up a short-list of designers that have
worked successfully on similar projects 1
prepare your own short-list, by contacting schools or local authorities that
carried out projects that you like, and finding out who the designers were
run an architectural competition the RIBA competitions office can
organise this for you.2
Once you have prepared a shortlist, it is worth researching all the practices
carefully, including requesting brochures, visiting their completed projects,
meeting the people involved and talking to previous clients.

BSF

1 See find an architect at www.architecture.com

2 See competitions page at www.riba.org

BSF projects are much more complex. The design team, building contractor,
facilities managers and the ICT provider will all come as one consortium.
The design team are normally subcontractors of the building contractor and
they will be appointed before the submission of an expression of interest.
Each bidder may have more than one architectural practice so that they have
the range of skills and the capacity to design all the schools for that local
authority. Sample schools will have to work with each of the three competing
teams until the preferred LEP partner has been selected at the end of the
initial competition stage.
For the post-LEP schools in a BSF project, the design team(s) will already
have been appointed by the private sector partner in the LEP but there may be
an opportunity to select an architect from a panel retained by the contractor.
87

5.2 BSF getting the design

message across
In a BSF project, as explained above, the bidding contractors or consortia
appoint the design team. So if the local authority makes it clear that design
is high on the agenda, these contractors will be encouraged to pick highcalibre designers. They are likely to select a design team soon after seeing
the advertisement in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU), prior
to submitting their expression of interest. It is therefore important to get the
message across as early as possible.

88

Hellerup Skole by Arkitema Hellerup Skole

Hellerup Skole, Copenhagen

Innovative school design in Denmark

5.3 Shortlisting
You should obtain
a short statement
from the practice on,
say, their approach to
school design and their
proposed method
of working

Whatever type of procurement is used, the process of evaluating different

design teams will be similar and a range of relevant information is required.
The indicators below are all useful and together can be analysed to create
a rounded view. All of these criteria can be scored separately to provide an
overall figure, if necessary:
details of the practice, including size, the office from which the work will
be done and CVs of individuals that would work on the project(s)
examples of previous projects, both in the education sector and other
building types, to demonstrate the ability to achieve design excellence,
with information on the client, dates, services provided, contract value and
procurement route (the practice may have provided only part of the overall
design service)
details of design awards received and dates
names of previous clients who will give references a telephone
call to the clients project manager and/or school can reveal a lot
of useful information
a short statement from the practice on, say, their approach to school
design and their proposed method of working.

89

5.4 Evaluating proposals,

bids or submissions
It is important that
evaluations are carried
out by experts who have
a lot of experience of
school design as well
as by stakeholders
and users

The need to review designs can occur at several points during the design
process. At one end of the spectrum the review may be an informal one after
the design team has produced its initial sketch design. At the other extreme,
in BSF projects it is necessary to carry out formal reviews of designs from
competing bidders and to give scores for each, to inform the selection of the
preferred bidder for the LEP.
It is important that evaluations are carried out by experts who have a lot of
experience of school design as well as by stakeholders and users. However,
similar techniques can be used in most situations, possibly with some
modification to suit the particular circumstances. The following factors
are worth considering:
Schools design assessment panel. This has been established by
CABE to help local authorities evaluate the design quality of projects,
support bidders in meeting brief requirements and refining their proposals
and ensure that design quality remains consistently high for all BSF
schools. The panel is drawn from a pool of around 30 expert advisors from
Englands architectural and built environment community and each panel
includes specialist schools experts.
Checklists. These can operate in a similar way to a DQI, identifying a
whole series of design issues against which comments can be organised.
The 10 subheadings of DQI can be a useful way of organising the criteria.
Different people can use the checklist to review a design independently
or they can review it as a group. The group review can be very useful,
since it encourages different stakeholders to discuss their views on
designs, and form a well-reasoned response. The CABE 10 key points
for a well-designed school (see 1.3) is a useful checklist for evaluating
any design proposals.
BREEAM. The evaluation process and scoring (described in 4.7) needs
to be carried out by trained BREEAM assessors.

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 DQI for schools. If stakeholders are using this, then at the mid-design
stage they should check the designs against their original aspirations.
Scenario testing. This is a very useful way of checking that a design will
function well in many different circumstances. For example, what happens
when a pupil has an accident in a science laboratory? Where will they be
taken, how will they get there, are there any obstacles along the route?
Or what happens at lunch times on a rainy day? Where will all the pupils
congregate? Will they obstruct pupils queuing for lunch? Will they disturb
any children studying or taking exams? How many (disabled) people are
arriving and by what means: walking, cycle, bus, minibus, taxi or car?
And so on.3
It should be noted that both DQI and BREEAM require facilitation and the
host organisations for both systems (the Construction Industry Council and
Building Research Establishment) operate a list of facilitators. 4
Different evaluation processes for design apply in BSF before and after the
formation of the LEP. Before LEP (for sample schools):
stakeholders review designs against DQI for schools
at the mid-design stage
a trained BREEAM assessor will review the designs
at the end of the design period
the local authority uses a scoring matrix to evaluate
designs at the end of the design period
CABEs schools design assessment panel will review
the designs against the 10 key points for a welldesigned school (see 1.3) and their own set of criteria.

3 See the Mace exemplar design proposals

at tinyurl.com/3bnslk

It is important to appreciate that in BSF projects design is one of many

different factors that need to be taken into account when selecting a partner
to form a LEP. These include crucial factors such as legal and financial
proposals, ICT provision and facilities management arrangements.

4 See www.tinyurl.com/2robm4
and www.breeam.org

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However, there is a strong case for establishing a minimum design quality

threshold to ensure that very high scores for other factors do not outweigh
design and result in a bidder with poor or mediocre designs being appointed.
After LEP (for remaining schools):
Stakeholders review designs against DQI for schools
at the mid-design stage
A trained BREEAM assessor reviews the designs at
the end of the design period
CABEs school design assessment panel may 5
review the designs against the 10 key points for
a well-designed school (see page 7).
Another aspect of design review evaluation is to check the financial viability
of proposals. The project quantity surveyor or cost consultant will do this in a
conventionally procured project. An independent quantity surveyor working
for the client would check this aspect for a competitive bid in BSF.
The amount of time needed for a thorough evaluation of design proposals
should not be underestimated. If a large number of stakeholders are involved
in a large, complex scheme, it may take a few weeks to collect together all
the views and combine them into a report with useful feedback to hand to
the design team.

5 Schools design assessment panel will not be

reviewing all post-LEP schools but will select a
representative sample across all BSF projects

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5.5 Involving stakeholders

during evaluation
There can be
advantages in bringing
the stakeholders
together to evaluate
all the school designs
at the same time

Where several schools are being designed as part of a larger project such
as BSF, there can be advantages in bringing the stakeholders together to
evaluate all the school designs at the same time. Although this is inevitably
more time consuming, it does have the advantage that the group get to see
a number of different designs and can learn from these and the views of
other stakeholders. In addition, where a group of designs by a consortium
have to be selected, it encourages the group to consider the quality of all
the designs together, rather than just that of their own school, thus helping
to achieve a consensus view (see case study 12 on page 82).
Marlowe Academy, Ramsgate David Barbour/BDP

93

5.6 Maintaining
design standards
All the bidders should
be required to reach
a standard that is not
just acceptable but is
excellent, since in the
final stages of the
selection process
factors other than
design may become
crucial

In competitive processes, such as the initial stages of BSF when bidders are
asked to design sample schemes, it is vital that the competition is continued
until a high standard of design has been achieved. All the bidders should
be required to reach a standard that is not just acceptable but is excellent,
since in the final stages of the selection process factors other than design
may become crucial in the decision (for example, the affordability of the bid).
A design quality threshold should also be established, below which a
bidders proposals would be disqualified. This mechanism can help to
prevent bidders with unsatisfactory design proposals being selected as
preferred bidders.
The design of the sample schemes needs to be of the highest possible
standards for several reasons:
These projects will act as a benchmark of quality throughout the rest of
the BSF project, after the setting up of the LEP. The schools designed
and built after the formation of the LEP will be the product of negotiations
between the school and the consortium and it will be much easier to
demand high standards in this non-competitive situation if the precedent
set by the sample schemes demonstrates excellent design quality.
After selection of the preferred bidder, the influence of the design team
within the consortium will significantly diminish. During the competitive
phase, the contractor relies heavily on the design team to produce
imaginative designs that will give its bid the edge over other bidders.
During this phase, the design team themselves have a degree of power
and can argue strongly for high design quality. Once the competition has
ended, power shifts and there is a tendency for the building contractors
within the consortium to press for economies and reductions in standards.
Whilst some of these changes may be a welcome design development
helping to achieve improved value for money and quicker construction
there is a danger that design quality can be compromised during the
process. For this reason, it is essential that the designs are of an exceptional
standard at preferred bidder stage, since it is likely that any improvements
after this stage will only be offered at significant additional cost.

94

There is normally an extended period of negotiations with bidders between

the submission of bids and the announcement of preferred bidder. This has
been formalised in the European Unions competitive dialogue process for
procurement6. This is an opportunity for the client to secure improvements
in the initial bid designs, through a continuation of the negotiations and
dialogue between the design team, schools and other key stakeholders.
The design teams need to get detailed feedback on the initial evaluation
of the bid designs and this is normally coordinated by the client design
advisor through a series of clarification questions submitted simultaneously
to each bidder. For this process to be most effective, and the greatest
design improvements to be achieved, the schools will need to examine
proposals very carefully and thoroughly and document their comments
clearly and quickly. This process can be time consuming but potentially
has substantial benefits in terms of the eventual design quality achieved.
Peacehaven Community School by architecture plb Andrew Beard

Peacehaven Community School

Vigilance by schools throughout the negotiation
stages will help to secure high quality buildings

6 See PfS Guidance Note on How to Conduct

a Competitive Dialogue Procedure, available
at www.p4s.org.uk/guidance.htm

95

5.7 Checking and testing

the role of advisors
It is the job of the
client design advisor
and technical advisor to
check all this information
and identify any
anomalies or issues
of concern

When bids are submitted in a competition, such as the initial phase of a

BSF project, they will be accompanied by large quantities of very detailed
information, often in the form of technical specifications and diagrams.
This is crucial information and it can have a significant impact on the design
quality of the final buildings. It should demonstrate that the proposed
buildings comply with all the requirements of the output specification
but it should never be assumed that they will. Bids are put together at
great speed and mistakes can be made. Sometimes bidders decide to
aim for a lower standard to improve the affordability of their proposals.
It is the job of the client design advisor and technical advisor to check all this
information and identify any anomalies or issues of concern. Areas where
problems frequently arise are:
the provision of adequate ventilation to teaching spaces
adequate daylighting for the full depth of rooms
acoustic performance of large spaces such as halls or circulation areas.

96

Marlowe Academy, Ramsgate David Barbour/BDP

97

6 Design development
and construction

Alys Tomlinson

98

6.1 The importance of

getting the detail right
If you put effort into
getting the detail as well
as the basic design right,
the building is likely to
be far more successful

The basic design the plans, elevations and sections showing how all the
spaces work has been agreed. Why not relax and leave the experts to sort
everything else out?
Bad idea: as with any complex building project, the devil is in the detail.
All three components of design quality functionality, build quality and
impact are significantly influenced by the detailed design. If you put effort
into getting the detail as well as the basic design right, the building is likely
to be far more successful.
School buildings are used intensively every day. Large numbers of students
and staff are constantly circulating around the buildings and classrooms.
The level of use is much greater than for offices and the level of activity is
more like an airport. The buildings will inevitably receive very heavy wear
and tear and the quality of finishes must take account of this. Two of the
most common problem areas in newly built schools are door ironmongery
and toilet fittings. Typically, ironmongery represents one per cent of the
building cost but accounts for 80 per cent of the post-occupancy defects
and complaints. Wall, floor and ceiling finishes are another important area;
they need to be durable, attractive and easy to maintain. It is vital that their
selection is both appropriate and fit for purpose.
Once the design has been agreed, the design team will start to develop
the design in much more detail and start preparation of the final design
and production information. As the structure is designed in detail, some
of the dimensions may be adjusted. Materials and building components will
all be selected. The engineers will design the electrical and mechanical
services in detail and the visual impact of this can be very significant if not
managed carefully through the design development process. Fitted and loose
furniture and equipment will all be designed or selected from manufacturers
standard ranges. The position of the furniture and equipment together with
numerous fittings such as lighting, power and data outlets, radiator positions,
controls and alarms will all be identified. Once construction work has started
on site, it will be difficult, time consuming and expensive to change any
of these items.

99

It is therefore essential that schools and other key stakeholders are

involved in a regular dialogue with the design team throughout the design
development period. It is also vital that the design development and review
process keeps ahead of the phases of construction. There are a number of
simple strategies that can be adopted to make this stage of the work run
smoothly and, whatever methods are selected, they need to be decided
upon early, and communicated clearly to everyone involved in the project:
Have a single point of contact a school representative within
the school through which all communications with the design team
are channelled.
At the outset, agree a timetable for decisions about different matters
to enable the school representative to plan consultation with teachers,
administrative staff, laboratory technicians, and so on. The design team
should be able to work this out in advance from its own work programmes.
Keep a careful record of all decisions requested, and the answers provided.
Make sure that the school representative is involved in the regular design
team meetings so that they are fully aware of design progress and
decisions that may be needed in the future.
Adopt a formal sign-off procedure by the school representative for
detailed drawings, schedules, specifications etc.
If the school representative is in doubt about anything, they should ask!
They should not feel intimidated by technical terms or jargon. Ask to have
questions fully explained and the implications of any choices fully
described to you. Ask to see samples of proposed materials and fittings.
The client design advisor should be able to help with the interpretation
of technical information where necessary.
Establish mechanisms within the school for consulting with different.
stakeholders about issues that may affect their particular area of the
school. Involve school students in decisions that impact on them.
This will engender a much stronger sense of ownership and is likely to
foster greater respect for the new building (see case study 6
Bedminster Down School).

100

Throughout this process it is important not to make undesirable

compromises. Hard decisions will doubtless be needed but ensure that
the detailed design does not compromise your original vision and design
concept in any way. The client design advisor should help you with this.
The time and effort required in being involved in the detailed design can be
considerable and at times it may seem very onerous and rather uninteresting.
However, this is time very well spent and the benefits of increased user
satisfaction, and understanding of why design choices have been made,
will make it all worthwhile.
Andrew Beard

Innovative design for toilets at Bedminster Down

developed in close consultation with students.

101

6.2 Importance of
contractual documentation
Various forms of design and build contract are now a common feature of
building projects because of the certainty they provide in terms of price and
completion date. design and build contracts are a feature of both PFI and
non-PFI procurement in BSF.
Under design and build, the building contract contains the detailed design
drawings, specifications and any particular details that the client and
design team consider necessary to guarantee the quality of the final project.
The essential fact to be aware of is that if something isnt included in the
contract, then providing it may incur additional costs. If the contract does
not state that the walls are to be plastered, then the building contractor can
choose to leave the walls with an ordinary painted blockwork finish. If it does
not require electrical and other wiring to be concealed, it can be distributed
in exposed trunking (metal tubes fixed on the surface of the wall or ceiling).
These issues can all have significant visual and operational implications for
your school.
Whatever the form of procurement, it is essential that schools are aware
of the level of detail included in the contract documentation and what it
all means. The client design advisor is well qualified to check and explain all
this to the school and other client stakeholders. Where the detailed internal
design is an essential aspect of achieving high design quality, then the client
should ensure that detailed drawings have been included in the contract.
For example, it is worthwhile having a drawing showing the floor plan,
the elevations of all the walls and the ceiling plan for typical classrooms,
indicating how wiring is concealed, how sockets are provided, where white
boards and display boards and cupboards are located, or whether any
of these are moveable, and so on. This will help to establish the design
standards for detailing that are required throughout the school.

102

6.3 BSF maintaining

quality after selection
It is essential that
the local authority and
the school maintain
vigilance throughout
all stages of the
negotiations

In BSF, after the selection of the preferred bidder there is a period of

negotiations prior to finalising all the design detail in the contract. Similarly,
after the formation of the LEP, detailed designs will be negotiated with
the consortium. There is a risk that the contractor may try to reduce the
quality of their original proposals, perhaps to reduce its costs or to make
the construction process more straightforward. Or there may be other
unforeseen circumstances that require the local authority to seek reductions
in costs, for example to improve affordability or to compensate for increased
finance costs.
In these circumstances, it is essential that the local authority and the school
maintain vigilance throughout all stages of the negotiations. The following
points should help to ensure that negative effects on design quality are
minimised during these negotiations:
Request regular reports from the client design advisor on progress and
any design changes throughout the negotiation period.
Establish in advance which are the most important features of the
design the ones that are the highest priorities and non-negotiable.
This can ensure that the integrity of the original design is maintained.
Ask for a breakdown of costs when reductions are being considered,
and request alternatives so that any changes can be weighed up against
each other, enabling those that save the most money with the least impact
on the design to be selected.

103

7 After completion

Alys Tomlinson

104

7.1 User manuals

and training
Training should be
provided when the
buildings are first
occupied and simple
user manuals should
be provided for all
new staff

Modern schools are complex buildings containing a variety of sophisticated

components and engineering systems. These cannot be expected to operate
smoothly without regular maintenance and adjustment. Some of them will be
the responsibility of the building managers and caretakers either from the
school or an external facilities company but others will undoubtedly require
input from school staff and sometimes from students. For the building
systems to operate effectively and efficiently, everyone needs to receive
training on how to use them.
The building contractor is obliged to provide user manuals that explain how
to operate buildings safely so that the construction design and management
coordinator (see section 4) can produce a health and safety file for the
building owner. In addition, the contractor should provide user manuals
detailing all the materials that have been used, the maintenance they require,
the equipment that has been installed and how it operates and so on.
Generally, this will be specialist, technical information.
In many buildings, there will also be manual systems that require control
directly by the users. For example, the effective operation of natural
ventilation systems in classrooms may require an understanding by the
teachers of the controls and the optimum settings to use during different
seasons. Training should be provided when the buildings are first occupied
and simple user manuals should be provided for all new staff.
Evacuation of disabled people and the management of specific equipment
such as loop systems will require training and ongoing maintenance.
There might also be the need for agreed maintenance contracts to ensure
continual access to some equipment and times for servicing that do not
interfere with the running of the school.

105

7.2 Monitoring costs and

sustainability outputs
In an era of devolved school budgets it is important that you keep the cost
of running your premises to a realistic minimum so that you can maximise the
resources available for teaching and learning.
Although it is to be hoped that your school buildings will have been planned
to be as sustainable as possible during operation, optimum economy will
depend on effective control systems for heating, ventilation and lighting, and
effective resource management within the school. Careful monitoring of
energy and other running costs is therefore essential if all these issues are
to be well managed.
Some sustainability features will depend on awareness of all the buildings
users. This can be achieved by educating all users of the building in
conservation principles and explaining how sustainability can be maximised.
Electronic panels and display material can be used to communicate energy
consumption information to them. All this information can be incorporated
into teaching material and practical work in a variety of subjects.
Without careful monitoring and raised awareness of the issues, the potential
of a well-designed, sustainable building is unlikely to be fully achieved. For
these aspects of a school design to be successfully achieved, all users of
the building and its grounds need to feel a sense of responsibility.

1 Pegg, I, Cripps, A, Kolokotroni, M, 2007,

Post-occupancy performance of five
low-energy schools in the UK, AshRAE
transactions, Long Beach, June 2007

106

A recent study1 of five low-energy schools in the UK showed that predicted

CO2 savings have not been consistently achieved. Although heating energy
consumption for these buildings was successfully reduced, electrical energy
consumption was much greater than in the schools they replaced. Obvious
causes are an increase in the use of IT in schools and more stringent
internal air quality standards. Less obvious causes are a lack of building
management training for more technically complex intelligent buildings,
new ways of using the buildings and control strategies that default to
equipment and lights being ON rather than OFF. The study calls for
more post-occupancy evaluation to ensure that genuine low-energy
buildings are produced.

7.3 Post-occupancy
evaluation
Evaluations need to
be conducted carefully
and thoroughly if they
are to provide robust and
comprehensive results...
it may cost up to
10,000 per school

Carrying out a detailed analysis of how a new or refurbished building is

performing after it has been in use for at least a full academic year can be
a very valuable exercise. Post-occupancy evaluation can:
inform future developments if the school is part of a larger BSF project,
lessons from successes and any problems can help to increase the quality
of later designs
assess the extent to which a new building is supporting the schools
educational transformation agenda and identify where barriers remain
inform subsequent changes to improve the environment in the school
and help to distinguish which issues are to do with the spaces and which
are about how the spaces are managed
differentiate in a systematic way the reaction of all the different users and
stakeholders to the new building and thus identify how well different
groups are catered for.
Evaluations need to be conducted carefully and thoroughly if they are to
provide robust and comprehensive results. They therefore require significant
resources, both in terms of the time of school users and money to pay
researchers to undertake the work, analyse and report it fully. It may cost
up to 10,000 per school.
The process of conducting an evaluation may involve:
questionnaires to teachers, staff, pupils, parents and community users
they should be simple and highlight what works well, and what works
less well
analysis of questionnaires and identification of key issues
a series of focused workshops or discussions on the key issues to identify
the cause of problems and gather ideas on solutions
communication to the whole school community on outcomes
repetition at regular intervals say every one or two years.

107

It may be a good idea to hold separate workshops for different groups as

they could each have different views about successes and concerns. For
example, groups could be held for each year group of pupils, for teaching
and for non-teaching staff, and so on. Sessions should balance positives
with negatives and should celebrate what is good about the school and the
new or improved buildings.
An alternative method is to use the DQI for schools (see section 4.6), which
is designed for use after occupation of a building as well as at briefing and
mid-design stages. This tool can also be used by different groups of
stakeholders and analysed separately, as well as to provide an overall,
combined view. The results of a post-occupation DQI for schools can be
compared with the results at the briefing and mid-design stages to provide
an assessment of how well the building has performed against the
original objectives.
Design quality method

Another evaluation tool for completed schools was developed by the

Building Research Establishment (BRE) in 2002 to assess the design
quality of new schools for the Audit Commission.2 BREs premise in
developing the design quality method was that an experienced team of
construction professionals could assess operating buildings against
objective performance measures.
The method originated from applying a balanced scorecard approach to
post-occupancy evaluation to measure the whole performance of buildings.
It relies on user opinion, professional judgement and scientific measurement
where possible (for example, lighting levels, air quality and acoustics).
The surveys are visual and non-intrusive, allowing economic valuation of
large portfolios of buildings. Moderation of the results against the experience
of a large pool of BRE experts reduces the subjective nature judgements to
make as objective a process as possible.

2 See Cook, M, The design quality manual,

Blackwell Publishing, 2007

108

Bristol City Academy by Feilden Clegg Bradley Simon Doling

109

Case study 13 the School Works

post-occupancy evaluation
Where users felt they
had been fully involved
they were happier with
the finished building

Although post-occupancy evaluation

is often used for commercial
buildings and on schools abroad,
there are few examples of it being
used for recently built schools in
the UK. However, School Works
conducted a pilot exercise on 11
schools for the DfES in 2004.
The pilot developed a simple
methodology and demonstrated the
value of the process in identifying
some common successes and
failures in school design at the
time. Important lessons included:
Bristol City Academy by Feilden Clegg Bradley Simon Doling

110

Briefing: The briefing process

and the involvement of school users
in it are critical to the success of the
building project. Where users felt
they had been fully involved, they
were happier with the finished
building.
Environment: Ventilation and
temperature were raised as
important issues in all of the pilot
schools. Often users felt spaces
were too hot or too cold and they
could not always regulate their
own environment.

Bristol City Academy Simon Doling

Lighting: Users wanted natural

light but this had not always been
provided to the extent they would
have liked. In some cases internal
offices and teaching spaces had
no natural light at all.
Corridors and circulation
spaces: Too often there were pinch
points in circulation which caused
problems for user flow around the
building. These resulted from
corridors which were too narrow,
loss of area through cut-outs in
corridors and walkways, narrow
stairways and inadequate signage.

Security: CCTV, both inside and

outside the school, was often
popular with pupils and adults.
It was seen to promote a safe
environment and reduce cases
of crime and vandalism.

External spaces: These were

generally poor in the pilot schools
with little effective landscaping, little
shelter for wet play and too little
designated spaces for quiet and
active breaks.

Social spaces: Staff rooms were

often badly located in the school,
making them inaccessible to parts
of the school community. Careful
thought needs to be given to the
location of staff social spaces and
their purpose. Pupil social spaces
worked well where they had been
planned into the design and allowed
pupils to sit and relax with friends
(often from different years).

Learning spaces: Generally,

learning spaces had a positive
response. However, provision of
adequate storage, acoustics and
environmental issues were seen
as problem areas.

Dining areas: These were often

a problem in the pilot schools,
either being too small or difficult
to manage. They often worked best
where pupils could spill out and eat
in more flexible areas either inside
or outside the school.

Toilets: Large toilets were seen

to provide spaces for bullying.
However, management seemed to
be the most important issue. If they
were not clean, were vandalised or
were dark and poorly ventilated,
pupils would not use them.

Bristol City Academy Simon Doling

Fixtures and fittings: Too often

floor finishes were not durable
enough, chairs were uncomfortable
and door furniture was not robust.

Entrances: Most of the pilot

schools were seen as welcoming to
users. However, signage both to and
around the school was highlighted
as less satisfactory in a number of
the pilots.

111

Appendices

112

Appendix 1 glossary

General glossary of terms

Abnormals
Extra costs that are a consequence of particular site or location factors.
Accommodation schedule
Document that outlines the number of rooms, their optimum or minimum
sizes, and any special internal requirements.
Adjacencies
The relationship of rooms or departments to each other within a building.
Brief (outline or detailed)
The outline brief is an initial description of the clients goals and
requirements. The detailed brief is a development of this with input from
users and the design team.
CABE enabler
Enablers are built environment professionals, normally architects, who are
allocated by CABE to provide client side advice to public sector projects.
Client design advisor (for a schools project)
Architect skilled in designing education buildings. They are responsible for
advising the local authority and the school stakeholders on all design issues.
Consortium/consortia
In PPP/PFI the teams bidding for the contract are known as the consortia.
They normally consist of funders, facilities management and construction
companies. Design teams are subcontractors to the construction companies.
Building contractor
The team that constructs the building.
Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF),
formerly Department for Education and Skills Government department
responsible for education.
Design and build
Procurement route where the building contractor is partly or entirely
responsible for design development and for construction.
113

Design champion
Senior member of client organisation who advocates good design.
Design team
Responsible for designing the building. Usually led by the architects, the
team also includes landscape architects, structural and service engineers
and quantity surveyors/cost consultants.
Design quality indicator for schools (DQIfS)
A process for evaluating the design quality of school buildings from the
inception of the project through the design stages and once the building
is complete.
Detailed design
The last stage in design development.
Exemplar designs
Designs developed by 11 leading architectural practices for the DCSF.
The designs are intended to develop a shared vision of what are schools
for the future.
Furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E)
All of the tables, chairs, technical items and machinery required to run
the school.
Information and communication technology (ICT)
Computers, white boards and software used for learning and processing
information in a school.
Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU)
Publication where contract notices for procuring projects over a certain
value must be advertised.
Options appraisal
Examining alternative strategic design options at the beginning of a project
by looking at the relative merits of new build, remodelling, refurbishment or
a combination of these.

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Private finance initiative (PFI)

Procurement route that requires a private sector consortium to raise money
to fund the project, carry out construction and manage the building, typically
for 25 years.
Procurement
Process of selecting the contractor who offers the most favourable offer
for the delivery of goods or services.
Public private partnership (PPP)
Procurement methods where the up-front costs of the project are met
by the private sector and the public sector client pays back a mortgage
over an agreed period.
Project manager
The person who has responsibility for organising a project and coordinating
the work of others to secure the achievement of the project objectives.
Technical advisor
Coordinates the technical aspects of projects.
Tender
A proposal, with costs, to enter into a contract to undertake a defined piece
of work.
Traditional contract
Design and construction teams are chosen separately and engaged
independently by the client. The design is worked up first by the design
team and used by the contractors to price their construction cost.
Whole-life cost
The full cost of a building over its life, usually taken as 25 to 30 years.
This includes all capital, running, replacement and maintenance costs.
Public Private Partnerships Programme (4ps)
An organisation providing advice to (and funded by) local government
on public/private partnerships. Provides support to local authorities for
the BSF programme, through its expert client programme.
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Building Schools for the Future

glossary of terms

Building Schools for the Future (BSF)

Government investment programme to rebuild or renew every secondary
school in England over a 10-15 year period.
Competitive dialogue
A procurement process using on-going negotiations to secure bids for
complex contracts such as BSF.
Expression of interest (EOI)
Submissions by consortia who wish to be short-listed to tender for a
BSF project.
Invitation to negotiate (ITN)
The document issued to short-listed bidders which details all the
requirements for a project.
Invitation to participate in the dialogue (ITPD)
The document which invites participants who have pre-qualified to
participate in a competitive dialogue.
Invitation to continue dialogue (ITCD)
Bidders will be short-listed to continue dialogue with the authority, based
on their responses to the ITPD.
Invitation to submit final tenders (ITSFT)
The document which invites remaining participants to submit final tenders
once the dialogue phase has been concluded.
Local education partnership (LEP)
A delivery mechanism developed specifically for BSF which allows local
authorities to procure all the requirements of their local BSF projects
through a single long-term partnership with a private sector partner and
PfS in a joint venture company called a local education partnership.

116

One school pathfinders (OSP)

Single school project funded by BSF capital, aimed at those local authorities
not due to start the full BSF programme until waves 10 to 15
Outline business case (OBC)
Document which sets out in detail the scope, costs, affordability, risks,
procurement route and timetable of the project.
Output specification
A detailed description of the functions that the new accommodation must
be capable of performing.
Partnerships for schools (PfS)
Non-departmental public body set up to deliver Building Schools for
the Future.
Pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ)
Sent to bidders expressing an interest in the project advertised in the
Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). It obtains information about
potential bidders capacity and ability to deliver the project.
Preferred bidder
The consortia which win the bid and which will, subject to the satisfactory
conclusion of negotiations, form part of the LEP.
Special purpose vehicle (SPV)
The company that will be established by the LEP to operate and manage
individual tranches of the BSF project.
Strategy for change
The document which sets out what is to be done and how it will be done,
in terms of transforming education and the school estate simultaneously
within the authority.

117

Wave
Funding for BSF is being introduced in phases, or waves. Each wave
provides funding for approximately 12 local authorities. Each local authority
will receive funding for approximately 10 schools in each wave.
Sample schools
In BSF a local authority will choose (usually) two or three schools as
samples which the bidders must design in the competitive stage, and which
become the first projects to carried out by the LEP.
Non-sample schools
The school projects that are designed and constructed following
negotiations after the establishment of the LEP.

118

Appendix 2 guidance

Design

Picturing school design

A visual guide to secondary school buildings and their surroundings using
the design quality indicator for schools. The CD presentation and booklet
show some of the common pitfalls in school design and shows some
suggested solutions.
www.cabe.org.uk/publications
Better public building
Provides the arguments and the evidence that good design makes places
work better. It offers practical advice for creating new public building that is
value for money, sustainable and a source of civic pride. And it sets out the
steps that public bodies need to follow if they are to ensure that all those
who use public services benefit from good design.
www.cabe.org.uk/publications
21st century schools: learning environments of the future
Publication that explores the relationship between the physical school
environment and the teaching that it contains. It draws together the
arguments around the need for change within the sector and identifies some
of the issues driving such change.
www.cabe.org.uk/publications
Building bulletins
BB101: Ventilation of school buildings
BB98: Briefing guide for secondary school projects
BB95: Schools for the future
BB94: Inclusive school design
BB93: Acoustic design of schools (web only)
BB92: Modern foreign languages accommodation
BB88: Fume cupboards in school
BB87: Guidelines for environmental design in school (revised 2003)
BB81: Design and technology accommodation in secondary schools:
a design guide (revised 2004)
BB80: Science accommodation in secondary schools: a design guide
(revised 2004)

119

BB77:

Designing for pupils with special educational needs and special

schools 2005
BB71: The outdoor classroom
Download from www.tinyurl.com/ypb005
Schools for the future publications
Transforming schools: an inspirational guide to remodelling
secondary schools
Classrooms of the future
Design of sustainable schools: case studies
Designing schools for extended services
Exemplar designs: concepts and ideas
Inspirational design for PE and sport sciences
Learning environments for pupil referral units
Schools for the future: designing school grounds
Available free from Prolog call 0845 60 222 60 or available to purchase
from The Stationery Office 0870 600 5522
BSF
Introduction to Building Schools for the Future
Jointly published by 4ps and PfS, April 2007. Frequently asked questions
and answers about BSF projects, and the implications for school governors.
www.4ps.gov.uk
Building Schools for the Future: the client design advisor
This publication explains the requirement for, role and appointment of
experienced architects as client design advisors within the BSF programme.
www.cabe.org.uk/publications

120

Building Schools for the Future: introducing the CABE schools design
quality programme
An introduction to CABEs new schools design quality programme, which is
supporting the 45 billion BSF initiative.
www.cabe.org.uk/publications
Guidance notes on BSF are available to download from the Partnerships for
Schools website.
www.pfs.gov.uk

Consultation

Being involved in school design

A guide for school communities, local authorities, funders and design and
construction teams to being involved in the school building process.
Its 10 case studies provide examples of efficient involvement across a
range of school building projects.
www.cabe.org.uk/publications
Joinedupdesignforschools the Sorrell Foundation
Reviews several British school design projects in which students and
designers co-operated to create improved facilities in classrooms,
restrooms, cafeterias, and lockers.
www.thesorrellfoundation.com
AZ sketchbook for school build and design
A visual guide in cartoon format illustrating the key areas that must be
considered when renovating or building a school. The drawings are
organised in chapters according to school room or space type, design issue,
or amenity. The purpose of the publication is to help students and others
participate in the school design process.
www.school-works.org/publications.asp
The learning environments campaign prospectus
Learning in the UKs schools is evolving fast, but the environments where
that learning happens are essentially the same as they were 100 years ago.
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Change is long overdue and this prospectus points the way to making
it happen.
www.designcouncil.org.uk
The school Id like: children and young peoples reflections on an
education for the 21st century
In 2001 The Guardian newspaper launched a competition called
The school Id like in which young people were asked to imagine their
ideal school. This book presents material drawn from the competition
and is illustrated by childrens essays, stories, poems, designs, pictures,
photographs, and plans.
Catherine Burke and Ian Grosvenor, RoutledgeFalmer,
www.routledgefalmer.com
Other useful publications

Assessing secondary school design quality

Report on CABEs audit into the design quality of half the schools built
between 2000 and 2005.
www.cabe.org.uk/publications
2020 vision report of the teaching and learning in 2020
review group
This report presents a vision for personalising teaching and learning. It draws
upon a wide range of evidence and practice, and makes recommendations
about what changes to the school system should be considered in order to
make its vision of what schools will look like in 2020 a reality.
www.dcsf.gov.uk
Learning by design England
Learning by design London
Two publications showcasing newly designed exemplar schools in England
and London.
www.londonopenhouse.org
Sustainable schools getting it right
Discussion paper intended about sustainability in our schools.
www.bcse.uk.net

122

Global learning environments summit ideas book

This book gives a flavour of the first global learning environments summit
where over thirty expert speakers from the UK and across the world gave
presentations on what makes a quality learning environment.
www.bcse.uk.net
Design and construction of sustainable schools lessons from
schools buildings in Norway and Germany
Commissioned by the Scottish Executive, Gaia Architects led a tour of
educationalists and architects to visit school buildings in Germany and
Norway. These books, in two volumes, document the tour and the
discussions on how and if the lessons could be transferred to Scotland.
www.scotland.gov.uk
Developing school buildings: a guide for governors and client groups
www.riba.org
Tools and teaching resources
for schools

Which places work

This is a website which has been developed for pupils in secondary
education at key stage 3 and 4 to use in class to discuss design quality and
what it means. It is based on the DQI for schools and can be used online by
pupils to discuss the design quality of a building they are in. It is principally
aimed at schools undergoing a rebuilding programme and teachers of
the construction and the built environment GCSE syllabus. But it is also
valuable for teachers of design and technology, art and design and
geography and citizenship.
www.whichplaceswork.org.uk
How places work: teachers guide
How places work is CABEs programme of facilitated visits to buildings
and spaces for secondary schools designed to inspire young people to
learn about the built environment through first-hand experience. This
guide offers teachers advice and ideas for making visits stimulating
and informative.
www.cabe.org.uk/publications

123

Government strategies

Every child matters

www.everychildmatters.gov.uk
Childrens Act 2004
www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/strategy/guidance
Childrens Fund
www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/strategy/childrensfund
Youth matters
www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/youth
Extended schools
www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/ete/extendedschools
www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/extendedschools
Academies
Schools sponsored by business faith or voluntary groups
www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/academies
Play strategy
The Childrens Play Council is a national voluntary organisation under the
aegis of the National Childrens Bureau promoting childrens right to play.
Contracted by the Department of Culture Media and Sport to carry out
research, develop policy and good practice
www.ncb.org.uk/cpc

124

Appendix 3 useful
organisations and websites
Architecture Centre Network (ACN)
A network of Architecture and Built Environment Centres (ABECs)
throughout the country who work with communities, public, professions and
the government to explore and interpret the historic and contemporary built
environment through compelling, innovative programmes of education,
exhibition, empowerment and advice.
www.architecturecentre.net
Bog Standard
A campaign organised by Education and Resources for Improving Childhood
Continence (ERIC) to promote better toilets for pupils in schools in the UK.
www.bog-standard.org
British Council for School Environments (BCSE)
Membership organisation made up of local authorities, schools, construction
companies, architects and others involved in, and concerned about, the
design and build process in the education sector.
www.bcse.uk.net
British Research Establishment environmental assessment method
(BREEAM)
Method of assessing the performance of buildings in the following areas
management, energy use, health and well-being, pollution, transport, land
use, materials, and water.
www.breeam.org
Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE)
The governments advisor on architecture, urban design and public
space. The DCSF funds CABEs enabling team to provide free advice to
all local authorities in the BSF programme. The CABE website has case
studies of new buildings, publications and information on built environment
education projects.
www.cabe.org.uk

125

Construction Industry Council (CIC)

Representative forum for the professional bodies, research organisations
and specialist business associations in the construction industry. CIC has a
register of trained facilitators who have achieved a level of competency with
the DQI, and can provide advice on choosing a facilitator.
www.cic.org.uk
ConstructionSkills
An organisation which works with construction employers, training
providers and government to tackle the skills and productivity needs of
the construction industry in the UK. It has produced a booklet called
Being involved in school construction, supported by the Construction
Skills regional education teams, to help schools make the most of
construction projects.
www.citb-constructionskills.co.uk
Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF),
formerly Department for Education and Skills
Information on government policy and key design guidance for
school buildings.
www.dcsf.gov.uk
www.teachernet.gov.uk
DQI for schools
A process for evaluating the design quality of school buildings from the
inception of the project through the design stages and once the building is
complete. It can be used by everyone involved the development process to
contribute to improving the quality of our schools.
www.dqi.org.uk/schools
Groundwork UK
Aims to build sustainable communities through joint environmental action.
Groundwork Southwark focuses on the development of school grounds and
provides curriculum support materials.
www.groundwork.org.uk

126

National College of School Leadership (NCSL)

The National College for School Leaderships BSF programme aims to
support school leaders in developing their vision for future learning and
managing the change. It is aimed at providing timely support for school
leaders to develop the unique skill set required to inform and strategically
lead transformation enabled through the BSF capital investment.
www.ncsl.org.uk
Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
Its mission is to advance architecture by demonstrating benefit to society
and promoting excellence in the profession. RIBA client services is a free
service that provides long lists of architects (including those experienced as
client design advisors) for clients.
www.riba.net
www.architecture.com
Learning through Landscapes
Charity promoting effective use of school grounds. It produces school
grounds toolkits and provides free advice to schools through the DCSFfunded school grounds of the future programme.
www.ltl.org.uk
Participation Works
Participation Works is run by the Carnegie young people initiative and
provides advice on involving young people in decision-making processes.
www.participationworks.org.uk
Ultralab
Learning technology research centre based at Anglia Polytechnic University.
www.ultralab.net
Partnerships for Schools (PfS)
PfS is responsible for delivering the BSF programme.
www.partnershipsforschools.org.uk

127

The Sorrell Foundation

An initiative created in 2000 which explores how good design can
improve quality of life in schools by listening to the consumers of education,
the pupils.
www.thesorrellfoundation.com
Sport England
Sport England is committed to creating an active nation through sport.
As part of its work to sustain and increase participation in sport and active
recreation, it invests in a range of projects across the country. It administers
the Sports Lottery Fund through its regional offices.
www.sportengland.org
School Works
An independent, non-profit making organisation that believes that it is
possible to use existing resources differently to create beautiful places
designed to raise educational achievement and support lifelong learning in
local communities. Their work is focused on the particular issues faced by
secondary schools.
www.school-works.org
4ps
Local governments project delivery specialist body. 4ps is funded by
DCSF to support BSF authorities through its expert client programme.
www.4ps.gov.uk
Magazines

Century 21 schools
Bi-monthly best practice magazine on new schools and the
processes involved.
www.century21schools.co.uk
School building
Bi-monthly magazine featuring best practice case studies of new schools
and other educational buildings.
www.schoolbuilding.co.uk

128

Building schools journal

Bi-monthly magazine with feature articles and case studies, focussing
on BSF in particular.
bsj@exposurevents.co.uk
360
CABEs tri-annual magazine explores built environment education across
England. Including reviews of projects, resources, events, funding, the
latest built environment education news and a pullout ready to use
education resource.
www.cabe.org.uk
Websites

www.bsf.gov.uk The official website of Building Schools for the Future

programme.
www.bsf-culture.co.uk This website shows the success of combining BSF
with the promotion of culture and sport in schools. Focused on Yorkshire and
Humber, there are some interesting case studies that offer top design tips as
well as news of upcoming events and advice on securing funding for projects.
www.teachernet.gov.uk/sustainableschools The DCSF sustainable
schools website is designed to support schools on their journey to
sustainability, introducing the principles of sustainable development
and offering guidance on how to embed these principles into the heart
of school life.
www.designshare.com A comprehensive website that offers useful
information on everything to do with designing schools. It is packed with
inspirational case studies and has a very useful directory. It also offers an
international dimension.
www.edfacilities.org National Clearinghouse for Education Facilities
Provides information on planning, designing, funding, building, improving,
and maintaining safe, healthy, high performance schools. Although this
website is from the United States, it has useful case studies, research on
education facilities and lists of international design guidance.
129

Appendix 4 BSF
competition process
Preparation
Stage

Strategy for change

Outline business case

Description

In partnership with schools and other delivery partners, local authorities set
out the plans and aspirations for delivering greater diversity of provision,
choice and access in their secondary education schools. It should
combine the educational vision with strategic asset planning and outline
the costs, risks and expected outcomes of the project.

Summarises the scope of the whole project and goes into more detail
about the sample schemes being put to the market for procurement.

It is submitted in two parts:

More detailed information about the phasing and prioritising of schools

and the level of investment (new builds or refurbishments).

Sets out the cost, scope, affordability, risks, procurement route and
timetable.

Part 1: Challenges and objectives

This is the what is to be done part and contains:
Table/chart of existing schools
Strategic overview of provision and proposals for change
Impact on schools and further education estate.
Part 2: Details and delivery
This is the how it will be done part and ties together local education
and estate strategies thus encouraging the local authority to focus
simultaneously on the two principal elements of the BSF programme.

Key decisions
made

Strategy for transforming education within the authority.

Which schools will be refurbished and which will be rebuilt. Budgets

for projects determined.
Stakeholders from each sample school will use the design quality
indicator for schools (DQIfS) to establish some standards for design
that the bidders designs will later be measured against.

What the
schools need
to do to
ensure high
design quality

Engage with stakeholders and the wider school community to develop a

vision for the school. Begin process of learning about school design
issues and developing design aspirations. Participate in appointment
of client design advisor.

Contribute to feasibility studies and option appraisals preparation and

advise on which is the most appropriate for the school. Establish and
document design aspirations for the school. Contribute to the output
specification to ensure it reflects the schools aspirations and
requirements. Establish design standards for the school using DQIfS
and BREEAM.

What help is
available for
schools

Organisations such as School Works and local architecture centres

may be able to arrange design festivals, workshops and school visits.

More school visits may be required to look at more specific elements

of design.

The National College of School Leadershipss BSF leadership programme

supports school leaders in developing their vision for future learning and
managing change. It aims to provide timely support for school leaders to
develop the skill set to inform and strategically lead transformation enabled
through the BSF capital investment. Five school leaders from each school
in the local authority wave will receive five days of training in three stages.

The client design advisor will help develop the output specification and
schedule of accommodation.

130

Trained facilitors will help to establish design standards for DQIfS

and BREEAM.

This table shows the standard formal process undertaken by a local authority to choose a partner from the private
sector to design and construct all the schools in their locality under BSF. A small number of sample schools in
each authority are used by the competing teams to demonstrate the abilities needed to deliver and possibly
maintain the new and refurbished buildings. This table is relevant only to schools in this small sample.

Procurement
Advertising the project
in OJEU

Selecting a longlist
of bidders

Designing solutions

Selecting a
preferred bidder

Stage 1: Issue OJEU. Notice

is posted in the Official Journal
of the European Union (OJEU)
which advertises the project to
potential bidders. This may be
written up simultaneously while
the outline business case is
being developed, but it cannot
go out until the OBC has been
approved.

Stage 3: Evaluation of PQQs

and selection of longlist. LA
draws up longlist of bidders,
based on the information
provided in the PQQ and they
will be invited to tender for the
work. This is called an
invitation to participate in
dialogue (ITPD).

Stage 5: The dialogue phase. The aim of the dialogue phase is

to identify and define the means best suited to satisfying [the
contracting authoritys] needs. It gives the authority and school the
opportunity to talk around solutions, develop ideas and explore
options as part of the tender process. All aspects of the project
can be discussed in meetings, formal presentations, written bid
type phases, development of design, formal clarification and
negotiations of solutions and contract terms. This phase should
therefore continue until the local authority is satisfied, at which
point they will conclude the dialogue.

Stage 7: Submission and

evaluation of final tenders.
Final tenders are assessed on
the basis of the award criteria
stated in the OJEU notice.
CABEs school design
assessment panel reviews
the sample schemes that the
bidders have designed and
advises the local authority on the
design quality of the schools.

Stage 2: Return of
expressions of interest/prequalification questionnaires
(PQQ). Bidders expressing an
interest in the project
advertised in the OJEU are
issued with a pre-qualification
questionnaire that will obtain
information about the potential
bidders technical capacity and
ability, economic and financial
standing to deliver the project.
Clarification of criteria for
evaluating the final bids.

Stage 4: Invitation to
participate in the dialogue
(ITPD). The ITPD contains
questions which provide
potential bidders with the
opportunity to present their
case for being selected for the
shortlist. The shortlist is
selected based on the bidders
responses to those questions.
Shortlisted bidders are invited
to continue dialogue (ITCD).

Longlist of bidders drawn up,

then shortlist.

Mid-way through the dialogue phase the sample schools, with the
help of the client design advisor, will assess the designs against their
aspirations as set out in the design quality indicators for schools
(DQIfS) at briefing stage. By evaluating designs mid-way through the
dialogue phase and providing detailed feedback, the bidders will be
given a chance to respond to any suggestions for improvement
made by the schools during the rest of the dialogue phase.
Stage 6: Call for final tenders. Remaining bidders are invited to
submit their final tenders based on the solution(s) identified during
the dialogue phase.

Design solutions developed by designers in consultation with the

schools.

Stage 8: Appointment of
preferred bidder. Once the
preferred bidder has been
selected, the designs come
before the CABE panel again to
check that design quality is not
compromised once the preferred
bidder has been appointed.

Final bids assessed and

preferred bidder selected.

Schools refer back to the DQIfS to see if they are getting what
they asked for.

Participate in bidders briefing

day and articulate aspirations
for design excellence.

Comment on quality of
design teams in potential
shortlisted consortia.

Participate in dialogue with bidders design teams to ensure schools

aspirations and requirements are being properly interpreted. Midway through the dialogue phase, each sample school, with the help
of the client design advisor, will evaluate the bidders designs for
their school using the DQIfS. Detailed feedback should be
provided to the bidders following this evaluation.

Contribute to the evaluation

of proposals. Test bidders
proposals against the schools
original vision/design aspirations.
Feedback on experiences with
different design teams.

The client design advisor will help to facilitate the discussions

between schools and bidders.

131

Acknowledgements
Many people and organisations have contributed to
this guide and we are grateful to them all. It has been
written by Andrew Beard (Andrew Beard Architect Ltd)
with Lucy Harbor and Jo Wilson (CABE). Thanks also
to Chris Bissell (DCSF), Ruth Butler (David Morley
Architects), Trish Dooley (headteacher, Thomas Tallis
school), Marius Frank (headteacher, Bedminster Down),
Dick Hibdige (construction advisor, Bristol City Council),
Allan Jarvis (deputy headteacher, Buttershaw High
School), Jane Lock-Smith (Cube-Design Ltd), Martin
Lipson (4Ps), Steve McElroy (vice principal, the
Academy of St Francis of Assisi), Brian Mohammed
(project manager, Greenwich), Robin Nicholson
(Edward Cullinan Architects), Steven Pidwill (Shepheard
Epstein Hunter), Denise Strutt (headteacher, Whitecross
High School), Mary Webster (Key Educational
Associates) and Beech Williamson (PfS). Other CABE
staff who contributed to the publication were Julian
Blake, Katherine Heaton, Mairi Johnson, Nicola Rizzo
and Matt Thom.

132

Every secondary school in England

will be rebuilt or renewed by 2020
in the biggest capital investment in
education for 50 years. But how do you
ensure that your new school is as well
designed as possible? Will it be able
to cope with changes in teaching and
learning methods? How do you make
sure staff, students and the wider
community have a say? And whats
the best way to deal with architects,
contractors and consultants? This
guide from CABE, the governments
advisor on architecture, takes you
through the whole process and tells
you what you need to know about
achieving design excellence for your
new school.

ISBN 1-84633-017-3