Small-scale project - West Hill

Transforming an under-utilised hall space into a central hub for personalised learning

West Hill Primary is a small, multicultural, multiracial one-form entry school in central Wandsworth. Many of the pupils are from a disadvantaged background; their homes are within the most deprived 20% of the borough and 45% of the children have English as an additional language.

Personalised Learning at West Hill
West Hill aims to increase children's readiness to learn through developing their social and emotional well being and enabling them to realise their full potential.

In 2007 the 'Enquiry Based Creative Curriculum' was launched at West Hill. This involved a complete revision of the National Curriculum objectives, current planning and style of teaching.

The pupils were involved as co-constructors of the new curriculum in each year group pair and as a result the curriculum for these year groups became more engaging and relevant to the children. This is an on-going project, which is reviewed each year.

The Pilot project aims
To support the practical application of West Hill's Personalised Learning vision through development of a strategy and change management programme. This will be achieved through the school's 'Enquiry-based Creative Curriculum' and understanding the role space and design play in enabling this to happen more effectively.

Personalised Learning Factors
Through a variety of stakeholder activities, information was gathered regarding the meaning of Personalised Learning at the school. This information was distilled down into three factors:

- Outstanding teaching (and learning) at all levels
- Pupils having more ownership of their learning
- Good support for all pupils (through people, resources and spaces)

Following discussion with pupils, staff, governors and parents, discussion themes were prioritised and condensed into one focus theme:

'To develop outstanding teaching and learning through a shared responsibility for achievement.'

Two modes of learning were identified as best suited to supporting the focussed theme as given below. Group size and activities for both modes were explored providing the base information for development of the project brief and informing where to locate the project in the school.

Design principles
Using the two 'modes' of learning above, principles for the design of the space were then developed centred on the provision of a range of settings within a single large space to support the different activities and group sizes identified above. This resulted in a need to zone the possible project space as below:

Hands-on learning (messy and/or wet play) for groups of 4 - 6; resources & sink area located immediately adjacent and circular tables encourage collaboration and participation.
Role-play, other performance activities for large groups of up to 60 pupils (this area supports double-classes) Also peer mentoring and circle-time activities for groups of up to 30; brightly coloured bean-bags and floor cushions within the area, easily stowed away within adjacent feature wall
Active working area for paper- and laptop-based activities; banquette seating for groups of 4 - 6 with integral writing facilities on translucent acrylic panels within feature wall; movable soft seating stowed within the feature wall is easily moved into place to support expanding numbers of any of the groups.
Quiet conversation area for pairs and small groups of up to 6; movable screens and write-boards provide some boundary control between other groups and facilitate knowledge capture in this area
One-to-one ad-hoc workspace supported by whiteboard writing facility and magnetic surface just off the main circulation route; supports chance meetings and provides for serendipity.

Project Location and design concept
The existing hall space was identified as having the greatest potential to support the design principles and learning aspirations mentioned above.

The concept calls for the hall to support both noisy and busy activities in the active zone and calmer/concentrated activity in the quiet zone.

Group sizes can vary between large whole classes, through to small sizes for both zones, allowing a level of flexibility for the space to support collaborative and personal learning.

Coloured gels applied to the windows and banners hung from the ceiling help to zone the space and provide visual cues for its use; this use of colour also enhances the creation of the atmosphere specific to that zone.

Overall flexibility is achieved through the ability of some of the settings to be easily moved while others remain fixed to retain the framework within which the different zones are located. The use of fixed and movable elements provides the ability of achieving varying levels of boundary control.

Furniture layout