The billions of pounds committed to rebuilding and renovating schools will be predominantly spent on school buildings, but school grounds can also benefit from this funding.
A brand new school built from scratch means that there may be no school community in place, although a headteacher or chair of governors may have been appointed. Consultation can still take place with appointed individuals, community groups and future pupils. It’s vital that the whole site be considered from an educational as well as a landscape point of view as this may affect the orientation and location of the buildings and spaces within the site. In this case, general design principles and considerations should be taken into account by designers. The space designed should be flexible, allowing for future development by the incoming school community.
Where two separate schools are being merged onto a single site, or two parts of a school onto a single site, there are existing school communities – but there may be historical issues to address. The new school grounds can be a way of keeping the best of each and helping to forge a new, strong, single identity.
Whichever situation, the new school will need to create its own unique identity and the grounds to provide a space in which to do this. Identifying and protecting a budget that the new headteacher can use to develop the grounds will help this. New pupils will also then be able to make their mark.
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