Schools Renaissance

The Building Schools for the Future programme promises to rebuild every secondary school over the next 10 to 15 years. The Design Council’s Schools Renaissance programme aims to ensure that design - and the role of schools themselves - are part of that agenda.

Increasing community links, improving concentration in class, raising attainment and enabling more personalised learning are all issues high on the agenda for government. Through working with schools using design-led methods, Schools Renaissance aimed to enable those involved to develop their own strategies for improving on these issues - and through doing so the programme aimed to influence national policy through evidence.

Engine has been involved with Schools Renaissance since 2003 and has worked with six schools across the UK. As the campaign has developed, making design more accessible for the participants and inspiring them to the benefits of design thinking in their everyday decision-making has been key. We have specifically focused on the re-design of existing systems and services within the school day, for example, Archbishop Blanch School in Liverpool have redesigned their lunchtime through re-evaluating their queuing and signage systems. The appointment of a Design Champion at the school has also ensured the ongoing use of the Schools Renaissance approach. The school is already seeing the benefits of this participatory design methodology changing the everyday experience of being at school.

Working with students at Saint Gregory’s school.

Throughout the project, our working sessions with the schools relied heavily upon our multidisciplinary team approach where participants included children, teachers, parents, governors and external expertise including procurement experts and educationalists. Throughout the design projects, some of which lasted for up to a year, we enjoyed an energetic working relationships with the partner schools. This, most importantly, involved the handing over of skills and tools enabling them to design their own school experience.

Such a multidisciplinary and participatory approach has proved to be a very effective methodology throughout Schools Renaissance. We believe that schools function best when users are at the heart of the decision-making process - something to be considered when building schools for the future.