Learning Places Scotland Conference 2024: Insights

Learning Places Scotland Conference 2024 session summaries

Day One

Empowering Your Learners

The title was the gist of this engaging keynote address from Apple, and while the video clips used in the presentation were very US-centric, the insights into the partnership with schools and local authorities was very enlightening. Mindful of too much screen time, enabling young children to be technology literate at an early age will allow them to make the best use of the tools available. What became clear during the presentation is that there is inequality in provision of technology – in one council, P6 students get their own Chromebooks; in another there is a shared computer classroom; ten councils are allocating the higher level of funding to provide technology companions for students compared with 22 that are not.

Equipped For Learning: Making Digital Make a Difference

One of the highlights of the conference was hearing first hand from students of their experience, in this case students from Beeslack High School (we’ve been providing Interior Design and FF&E Consultancy). The presentation led by the local authority discussed how iPads and Chromebooks have been integrated into learning and teaching since 2021, giving students an additional resource for exploring subjects further. And as a bonus, the familiarisation with technology prepares young people for the future world of work.

EDI, Young People & Robots – Building the Future of Stem Education

The tagline for this talk was “Inclusive learning environments that allow every young person to go pro in STEM”. We heard from private and public sector bodies including the Glasgow Science Centre and the Digital Team from Hearts FC. With 1.2 million STEM roles in the UK, this is an important sector, but females only make up 24%. Increasing opportunities for STEM learning and teaching at an early age needs to celebrate diversity, with real-world STEM projects requiring a broad spectrum of problem solving skills and being able to think differently. The lived experience part of this session came from an award-winning and infectiously enthusiastic group of students from Edinburgh who shared their passion for Robotics.

Post Occupation Evaluation

This Campfire session (the fire being on a large monitor) was led by Aberdeenshire Council who are conducting extensive research into creating briefs for new schools, surveying teachers, school management and students. The results of these surveys were quite different across the six schools discussed, with information gained from these surveys being fed back into continually revised briefs. The discussion touched upon opportunities for greater standardisation, sharing information across councils, and how to deal with the realities of shrinking budgets – what do you remove from the schedule of accommodation?

Meet the LEIP Team

For the uninitiated, the acronym LEIP stands for Learning Estate Investment Programme, and is driven by the Scottish Futures Trust – who ran this session. A key question was aimed at local authorities – how do they want to spend the money available from LEIP? The challenge being that there is significantly less money available now, and how is this prioritised? In the background of such questions are evolving demographics and how to deal with changes in school rolls, with closures often being challenged locally by the public. The example given was Aberdeen, where there are 174 primary schools, but the estimated demand is actually only for 150. Should money be invested in schools with full occupancy, even if they are older?

Inclusive Growth

Day one’s final session explored two new schools – Castlebrae Superlab and Wallyford Campus.The presentations touched upon partnerships, e.g., incorporating a public library, or community centre or NHS facilities into a school – increasingly common in new school campuses. Partnering with local colleges was a key theme of the discussion, with one school offering construction courses in conjunction with Edinburgh College. Because of Castlebrae’s proximity to the Edinburgh Bio Quarter, creating a Superlab in the school enabled it to be used by Bio Quarter organisations; this was highlighted as being an important part of brief development – reaching out to potential partners as it increases opportunities for additional budget. However, keeping pupils and teachers part of the brief development process is essential.

As these are new schools, there is still a lot to understand about how well they are integrating into the local community, but generally speaking, the students (the key end users) love the new schools.

Day Two

Chasing The Unicorn – Better, Faster, Cheaper Schools for Scotland

Speakers in this keynote session covered briefing, design, construction and operations in the school building programme, placing emphasis on how efficiencies, standardising processes, and standardising the kit of parts (even having some design commonality?) still need to allow a place-based and sustainable design approach to ensure schools deliver a great experience for their unique users.

One speaker commented that while engagement is important, it often involves people who don’t need to be part of the discussion at that stage. The main argument was that having a consistent approach will bring in cost and time efficiencies and help with operation of schools – borrowing some of the best bits from the DfE school replacement programme. Agreeing on metrics and carrying out post occupancy studies will also be essential for the success of future projects.

A comment from the audience was that architects and designers still need some leeway to make improvements and introduce new materials. This was a common discussion point when later on an architect stated that while following technical standards was important, not forgetting good architectural principles was equally important.

Inclusive Design and Place-Based Thinking – Lessons Learned From The Craighalbert Centre

This case study brought together the key players from Architecture & Design Scotland (A&DS), Education Scotland, Fraser Livingstone Architects and the Craighalbert Centre in Cumbernauld, a specialist educational setting for children from 0-19 with significant and very specialist needs arising from motor impairments.

A&DS were involved in initial research, observing how existing spaces work, interacting with users of these spaces and also carrying out research. Education Scotland have an interest because accessibility is a legislative requirement – it isn’t a social movement or to be treated as an add on. And designing for inclusivity reduces stigma and is important in mainstream education (where the majority of students with complex needs are taught). The importance of speaking to people with experience early on reinforced the work of A&DS.

At the start of the project, the scale of the issue across Scotland wasn’t well known, with the thinking being that c.230 children can’t access appropriate childcare. The design team had no space standards to work with for their design, starting from end user requirements, to create a space that connected classrooms with the outdoors, addressed the challenges of appropriate (and extensive) storage while refurbishing an existing building. Still in the concept stage, lessons learned from this project will be important across the wider education sector.

Digital: Doing the Basics Well as a Path to Transformation

This session continued the theme of “what works for children with Additional Support Needs (ASN) works for all children”. Digital tools are out there to help learners but often aren’t used to their full potential – the immersive reader in Microsoft programmes being an example. TA Scotland reported that using this function results in significant improvements for learners – adjusting font and spacing improves reading with10% faster reading and 50% fewer errors being standout data points. Promotion of the capabilities and exploration of the functionality of these tools needs to increase.

e-Sgoil discussed online learning as a tool for interrupted learners, the hope being that quiet spaces on the periphery of school estates could be set aside to help these learners integrate back in to schools, doing their online learning but in a school environment. Space Zero discussed space types to support and inspire learners, with a focus on less formal spaces. These break-out spaces for learning and teaching are liked by students and teachers but do come with their own issues, mainly design-related (acoustics, flexible FF&E), but there are also issues around technology (both in the hardware and software) and in the management of the spaces, including timetabling.

Sustainable Estate: Estate Rationalisation & Decarbonisation – Creating the Springboard for College Development

The first part of this session concentrated on the work by architecture firm NORR at two of their sites – the Royal Veterinary College, Hawkshead, and the 1950s Stephenson Building at Newcastle University. In Hawkshead, a new link building, working in tandem with existing buildings, addresses campus connectivity, responds to net zero targets and better zones different activities within the buildings. For the Stephenson Building, it was in effect gutted out with a new atrium linking the old and the new, increasing the amount of usable space by >50%, creating more collaboration spaces and becoming a shared university facility “housing Engineering and not remaining an Engineering building”. The University acknowledged that they have too big an estate and that different thinking will be required by all in order to respond to this challenge.

In the second part of the session, we heard about how the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) commissioned Atkins Realis to engage with colleges across Scotland to gather data at a college, campus, and building level. The shifting expectations of students and employers is impacting the sector, with the SFC looking to develop an infrastructure and investment strategy plan to respond to the evolving issues and needs. The colleges impressively responded within a 6-week period, which then allowed a baseline to be determined in the short term, with long term projections informing plans regarding 4 key areas – investment in new facilities, maintaining existing facilities, collaborating on the use of facilities or divesting of spaces that are no longer required. The power of Atkins Realis’ own tool (Navigator) was showcased with a dashboard to help visualise information.

Sustainable Estate: Unleashing the Potential – Innovative Strategies for Educational Spaces

This parallel “Sustainable Estate” session provided valuable insights into creating sustainable and future-ready educational spaces.

Edinburgh Council highlighted its efforts to improve buildings’ sustainability through informed compromises and retrofitting. The council is refining its approaches by learning from projects such as Currie Community High School, Sciennes Primary School extension, and Liberton Nursery.

Homes Miller, guided by “doing more with less,” emphasised efficiency and sustainability. They used retrofitting to preserve old buildings and justified new constructions only when necessary. A notable example was their decision to use a domestic air source heat pump for Sciennes Primary school expansion instead of a commercial one due to the building’s energy efficiency.

BDP stressed the importance of early-stage planning and collaboration to address sustainability. Their interactive climate and social spreadsheet helps clients and teams consider critical sustainability questions. They also highlighted that altering embodied carbon becomes harder as projects progress, underscoring the need for early action.

During discussions, balancing cost and sustainability emerged as a recurring challenge. Setting clear sustainability targets and focusing on long-term savings through sustainable construction were identified as essential strategies. Transparency through Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) is increasingly demanded by clients to evaluate materials’ sustainability impact.

This session emphasised the power of retrofitting, informed decision-making, and collaboration in shaping sustainable educational estates, reflecting the broader commitment to reducing carbon impact and creating resilient learning environments.

Creating Natural Learning Spaces for the Young Parisians

The final conference presentation was on a pilot programme to look at inner city courtyard playgrounds in primary and secondary schools. The design project was initially focused on creating climate resilient and inclusive spaces, but ultimately created spaces that the wider community could use (at certain times and while supervised by the school caretaker – a question from the audience homed in on potential issues with anti-social behaviour), and altered the way children interact, making it more integrated (“no longer boys playing football in the middle and girls around the periphery”).

A key benefit was that teachers were less involved in policing playgrounds and behaviours in classrooms improved following time spent in these new spaces. Questions from the audience regarding other studies were met with “it’s too early to say” or “we haven’t studied that” so there is more work to do, but early results (and the spaces themselves) look good.

Key takeaways from Learning Places Scotland Conference 2024

The right people at the right time

It should go without saying, but here’s a reminder anyways: Speaking to the right people at the right time is fundamental to any project. That’s people with the appropriate background and lived experience. (As is not involving people who don’t need to be involved at that stage.)

Designing for the range

Neurodiversity is becoming a more mainstream topic in the workplace sector. And in the education sector, there is an appreciation that mainstream education, to borrow a workplace phrase, needs to cater to the range and not just the average. This has implications for design, for spaces and for technology.

Doing more with less

Doing more with less tends to focus mostly on the less component. But with a more efficient, more streamlined process (while still allowing for the creativity of designers to play its part) there are opportunities to deliver more. Sustainability will continue to be a key driver – for new builds and retrofits – but enhancing the user experience needs to be a part of the design process.

The impact of technology

Technology and its impact were constants throughout the conference. And from a very early age students are encouraged to explore what new technologies are capable of. Using technology to reintegrate interrupted learners ties in with the whole concept of widening the mainstream to include everyone.

Embracing challenge & change

From a building perspective, there were lots of examples of design teams working well with clients and end users to create new spaces that are informed by changing pedagogies, changing aspirations and as is often the case, very challenging budgets.