Community focus

• Further resources

School design that supports the community

Website

www.theoxfordacademy.co.uk/

Key challenges:

• What is the impact of defining learning zones as a way of teaching?
• Is building design a shared responsibility? If so, who is involved - teachers, governors, parents, support staff, children, the local community, local businesses?
• What sort of education do we want in the future?

Overview

The Oxford Academy aims to be a focal point for the community. Its goal is to be a truly extended school that supports the community and makes best use of the facilities available. In addition, it aims to structure the academy to support the desired teaching strategies for students and staff.

Students, staff, parents and the local community are all encouraged to be involved and, once completed, to come and take advantage of the new and improved sports and adult education facilities, as well as the new library and social spaces.

Approach

The academy was originally designed to be open to the whole community, supporting families and local residents throughout the week and weekends. The new academy design supports this and is divided into public and private areas. It offers master classes, advanced learning days and weeks in the arts, sciences and other disciplines.

To create this learning space, the academy and design team held sessions with staff, students, their families and the community. The design team worked with the various departments to identify their needs. Parent and community forums and workshops were based around sketches of the various school models to arrive at a preferred layout.

Some students and staff were given cameras and asked to take pictures of areas they liked and disliked, and to explain why. The academy Principal and four Vice-Principals, the Diocese of Oxford, landscape team and Oxfordshire County Council were also consulted.

Two schools in one

The academy is divided into public and private areas. The public areas include the library, the new adult education centre and the sports fields and changing areas. The private areas reserved for academy staff and students will include all the teaching areas. For children with special educational needs, there is an integrated specialist school to encourage integration of all students. Open plan staff spaces around the academy allow for passive supervision and provide a behavioural model for the students.

As well as supporting the wider community, the design takes account of the proposed pedagogy, e.g. teaching by year groups. Year 7 classrooms are put together near an ICT room and a courtyard, the idea being that this provides a transition area from primary to secondary school. Similarly the year 8 students are clustered into the same layout of seven classrooms with a social space. The higher years are grouped together and there is an element of zoning, for example, a science area with an art block above.

The design allows for flexibility. The ICT rooms can be decentralised in the future and classrooms could be joined as necessary using folding screens. The courtyards can be used as teaching space and where possible there are breakout spaces.

These exceptional facilities will ensure The Oxford Academy delivers an outstanding, vibrant and exciting educational environment for students and the wider community.

Key points and recommendations:

• Design team consistency.
• Ongoing dialogue with stakeholders prior to and throughout the design process. (The design was limited by the time available for planning. The design team were given the brief during the summer vacation, so there were limited opportunities to talk directly to key stakeholders.)
• The school redesign gallery may be useful in parallel with discussing pictures from the academy.

Oxford academy artist impression 1 Oxford academy artist impression 2