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We pour love, time, energy and money into our homes. But do we do the same for our schools and classrooms? We should and must. Pupils spend more time in the classroom during the day than at home. A learning space that has had time and energy invested to reflect the visions and values of a school will be an environment where a child will thrive. And a new study proves that learning outcomes will improve too. Murray Hudson investigates.
The classroom connection Two years ago, Trumpington Park Primary School, in Cambridge, UK, was invited to participate in the Planning Learning Spaces in Practice (PLSiP) project; a new approach to learning space design which aligns physical learning environments with the school’s educational vision, supporting children’s personalized and independent learning. Headteacher Mel Shute and her staff were passionate about exploring the potential of “learning by enquiry”, believing it could have a significant impact on improving the learning outcomes of students. But how does a school translate its educational vision into the design of its learning spaces? How does a school ensure that its learning spaces match its ethos
and enable the successful delivery of its vision and values? Is it through pedagogy? Classroom layout? The choice of furniture, fixtures and equipment? All of the above? And most importantly, would this “hands-on” approach to creating their own learning environment produce quantifiably improved learning outcomes? Professor Peter Barrett, author of the Clever Classrooms report was on board to monitor the impact on the pupils, teachers and support staff in Year 4. A little bit of background In October 2019, Planning Learning Spaces was published as a guide for anyone involved in the planning and design of learning environments. With
