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Today we all boarded the crowded Tube and headed to Hammersmith and the West London Free School.  The entire days sessions and presentation were scheduled to happen at the free school in collaboration with the BCSE.  Most of us didn't know what the term "Free School" meant here in the UK, but we quickly learned that it was the equivalent to a charter school (a publicly funded school which has some autonomy locally, and is not regulated by the local school districts).  We were told that the West London Free School was the first free school in England, which opening was the work of British journalist Toby Young, and opened its doors earlier in the fall.  The permanent home will open in two years.

We all gathered inside the cafeteria of the school and found our seats among the BCSE members.  In front was a podium with a screen behind.  And hanging above was the sign proclaiming that this was a free school, with the latin slogan Sapere Aude next to it.  After looking it up, I found to mean "dare to be wise", which I thought was very fitting of schools goal, and role in changing the way of the British school system.

The, now new, Chief Executive of the BCSE, Nusrat Faizullah, took the podium and welcomed everyone to the conference and explained quickly the schedule for the day.  And she concluded her short welcome with a quote from Winston Churchill.

Thomas Packard, Headmaster of West London Free School then took the stage and welcomed everyone to his school.  He was grateful to see school builders present at his school to discuss the importance of good schools and quality education.  He apologized that he couldn't stay the entire day at the conference, but was confident that the discussion were going to be meaningful and enlightening. 

Mr. Packards speech was quick and to the point.  He left the stage which allowed Graham Stuart, a member of parliament (MP), to take the podium.  Mr. Stuart is the Chair of the Education Select Committee.

Mr. Stuart discussed the importance of free schools, and that parents should not have to force their children into state schools.  He wanted to make sure that parents had a choice in selecting their school.

He then continued to discuss how too much money had been spent on the building of schools.  He stated "we can build equally functioning buildings at one-third the cost".  He said that just because a school looked good did not mean that it would perform, and that it was a mistake to spend money on the building of schools.  He said that "school transformation will never be done by the buildings itself... we can't continue to spend [for more schools]".  He went on: "we want the best teachers where they are most needed and required", as he clearly stated funds should be allocated to the best educators and not building design.  He even used a Churchill quote, the third or fourth one of the day so far, to get his message across: "However beautify the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results."

There was a slight stirring in the audience, and when there was a Q&A session, one of the BCSE members, a Scottish member of RIBA, challenged Mr. Stuarts "philistine view" on the built environment, and practically called him ignorant for not accepting the importance of good school design.  As this was stated, Mr. Stuart looked down at his papers and didn't seem to want to look eye-to-eye with this man.  As the BCSE member sat down, the audience applauded his statements against the MP.

The MP left the stage and four individuals took to the stage to present the work they were doing "within a new landscape".

Presentations were given by Zarlasht Halaimzai, Steve Bolingbroke, Peter Kessler, and Jo Shuter.  They each explained what they were doing in their respective school or organization and how they were making a difference to the education system.

The next panel was all about the West London Free School.  The panel included Marcel Hendricks (Education Director of Apollo Group), Thomas Packer (Headteacher of West London Free School), and Martin Lispon.  They discussed the importance of the free school system, and even spent a considerable time on discussing how the design of the current building and new building were thought of together to save cost.  They were able to pay for things to be done at the current school that will be able to be transported to the new school when built.  There were a few Churchill quotes scattered throughout the discussion.

After some light refreshments, we gathered back into the hall for several quick presentations from Michael Buchanan (Galliford Try), Janie Chesterton (Willmott Dixon Group), Professor Peter Barrett, Stephen Beechey (Wates), and Andrew Armes (PTEA Architects).

They each discussed issues relating to school and design standardization, kit-of-parts approach to design, and financial decision making.

Following the lunch break we all split and divided to engage in seven different seminars each relating to diverse themes.

My first choice was to attend a discussion on BREEAM (very similar to LEED by the USGBC in the states).  The presentation was by Andy Walker, Manager for Morgan Sindall.  He spent his time discussing one project that he worked on, Carnegie Primary School in South Fod West, Scotland. Articles: 1 2 3.

The project was designed to be the most sustainable building in all of Britain.  They designed to building based on solar angles and wind direction.  They discussed transportation options for the materials and students, and greatly considered the ecological and wildlife of the space and building design.  The building included high performing glazing, high air permeability, and a multi-functioning pergola.

The second session I chose was based on working with new school models.  There were three presentations by Nigel Blackman (Lacey Hickie Caley), David Clarson, and Marcel Hendricks (Apollo Group).  Unfortunately these presentation were hard to understand as the computer wouldn't log anyone in, so we couldn't access the files, and all three presentation were graphically based.

Nigel Blackman discussed the unique model of the JCB Academy, where they worked their students as if they were at a job.  Each student was there from 9AM to 5PM.  They worked in an office setting, and did not have any homework... as they did all their work in class.

David Claros discussed the Kent Studio School as part of the new Studio School model.

And Marcel Hendricks discussed the Ark Conway Primary School.

Back in the main hall we were ready for the nights keynote presentation by Peter Jamieson of the University of Melbourne.  His presentation was to be about refreshing, refurbishing, and re-using learning environments.

Though not an architect, Jamieson was trained as an educator, he truly thinks and acts like a true designer.  He discussed the importance of collaborative spaces where students could freely discuss with one another in an environment to talk and share.  He showed a number of projects that he helped design alongside the architect for a number of spaces at the University of Melbourne.  He showed the importance of designing for visual connection between the students and their professors, as well as how important furniture design and selection played a huge role in how a space was used as well as cared for.  He stressed how tables at 920mm in height could truly add to a students ability to learn and engage with their peers.

One thing he mentioned, which caused some discussion in the audience, was that having fixed furniture was best for a space, and not flexible.  Jamieson said that designing a space and its furniture for one purpose was the best way to use that said space.  He continued to say that rearranging furniture is not only timely but is a hassle, and usually never is put back to its most utilized position.

Jamieson's presentation was definitively the highlight of the evening and most greatly enjoyed the words and advice that he shared.

Though we all knew his presentation could be topped off, there were still one more panel discussion left for the night.  This one was about the United States and the practices in school design taking place there.  The panel members were Alan Dunlop, Steven Bingler, and Timothy Default.  And the discussion was moderated by Ron Bogle of the AAF.

Alan Dunlop talked about how LEED and BREEAM were worthless design scoring systems... he said that all one had to do was to get rid of dark, long, meaningless hallways and that would make it worlds different.  He also said how design couldn't be build with a kit of parts... no good design ever came from that.  Though he did say that a brick was a part of a kit of parts.

Steve Bingler said that unlike New Orleans, we shouldn't wait for a disaster to see what the city needs to survive properly.  We need to add the critical and important pieces of our city now.  He said that it shouldn't take disasters to correct the places we live, learn, and work.

Tim Default talked about the importance of funding to schools.  He hinted, without saying, that the US was spending too much money on defense and not enough on education.

Following the panel, the BCSE conference chair, took the stage to conclude the conference.  She thanked all the BCSE members for attending, the speakers and presenters, and the Americans for coming and making the conference both meaningful and worthy of their time.  She concluded the conference, not with a Churchill quote, but one from a teddy bear maker: "Nothing but the best is good enough for kids".

Though the BCSE conference was over, there was still a last thing for the Americans.  We all gathered around to hear an update from Ron Bogle and Steve Crane about things to come for the both the CAE and AIA in general, and an update from the UIA conference in Tokyo.

The day was then over.  The conference collaboration with the BCSE was also over.  Us yanks headed back to the tube station.  We were all in deep discussion about the things we learned and heard during the days sessions and panel discussions.  We truly felt the conference had so far been a success with the amount of interesting remarks and perspectives that we heard in the hall of the West London Free School that day.

Click here to read Day 3

**All photos are property of David Leitman, and may not be duplicated without permission.**