The future outlook of our schools

Jim Costello from Hulley and Kirkwood discusses 21st century schools.

The design of school buildings with respect to internal environment, has been proven to have an affect on education productivity by up to 20%, yet so little knowledge exists within the industry?.

Jim Costello discusses 21st century schools.

"Education has a vital role to play in today's society and schools have the power to bring about a change in social behavior critical to a child's own personal fulfillment and ultimately to the economic health and social cohesion of our country.

Government expenditure on education is set to increase over the next few years giving Local Education Authorities and schools the funds to make improvements to school buildings, new builds, refurbishment and remodel, a figure exceeding GBP3.5 billion.

Isolated examples of good practice currently exist so how can the quality of our children's learning environment be enhanced?".

Lighting Quality.

Good lighting can significantly enhance the feeling of space with daylight being the principle means of illumination.

Space can be considered well-lit if it has an average daylight factor of 4-5%.

Artificial lighting can provide a uniformity ratio exceeding 0.8 compared to natural light (0.4) and is becoming a popular choice.

Key factors to achieving successful light penetration is dependent on the position of glazing, ceiling heights, and depth of space.

The usage of daylight must be considered at initial planning phase".

Acoustics.

Good acoustics are essential for learning and concentration.

Key parameters that affect acoustic quality include background noise, reverberation time (RT), Speech Transmission Index (STI), and acoustic isolation between rooms.

Consideration should include; acoustic zoning for the separation of 'quiet' and 'noisy' areas, utilising sound insulation properties such as walls, floors and partitions, maximising volume, shape and surface properties of the room.

Overall, a structured approach must occur at each stage of the planning process".

Ventilation/Carbon Dioxide.

Modern day schools are being provided with natural ventilation where possible, however new guidelines after research have recently been passed by DfES which tend to suggest that the amount of fresh air, acknowledged as being required to enhance improvement in performance suggests that mechanical supply air may be required in future schemes!.

Good indoor air quality is a key design issue with targets in the region of 1,000 parts per million of carbon dioxide/8 litres per person per second of fresh air.

The health hazard region starts at around 2,500 CO2 ppm/ 4.5 litres of fresh air.

Ventilation/Thermal Comfort.

Productivity drops by approximately 10% for every 1C above 27C.

A major problem found has been fixed high-level lighting resulting in hot air being trapped at ceiling height with no vents for cooling".

Good classroom designs have high and low ventilation systems and an interior operational temperature at 0.5 degrees C below outside air temperature".

Large single glazed areas can radiate 'cold' when outside temperatures are below 11 degrees C.

Recommendations include under-floor heating systems, earth tubes, and bio-mass heating".

There is a myriad of information available for contractors on how to comply with the new legislation and Building Regulations.

Unfortunately most of it is conflicting!".

Hulley and Kirkwood have completed a number of modern day schools under PPP including Falkirk, London Tower Hamlets, Fife, East Lothian.

Hulley and Kirkwood have also completed over 20 other PPP/PFI education projects and have acted as Council advisers and funding advisers on many others.

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