Victorian School Design | 5 Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD)
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Ecologically Sustainable Development 5. (ESD) 5.1 Dandenong 7–12 High School ‘As we work towards achieving the goals of • Air movement and ventilation – poor air ESD strategies that should be considered for the decade, schools will be important in movement and ventilation can result in incorporation into a school building design preparing and empowering students to increased student absenteeism and a include: assume responsibility for creating and reduction in student performance • Openable windows with good cross enjoying a sustainable future. Such a vision • Thermal comfort – considered to affect flow and/or high-level extraction, for school education is transformative. It is both teacher performance and student combined with ceiling sweep fans more than a curriculum issue and requires a achievement • Effective shading of windows whole-school approach and innovative • Classroom lighting – appropriate • Deep shading to the north will eliminate teaching and learning.’14 classroom lighting can improve test unwanted direct solar gain Ecologically sustainable school buildings scores and reduce off-task behaviour • High levels of insulation encourage the creation of teaching spaces • Natural daylight – has been linked to that help improve learning outcomes and • Large amounts of internal thermal mass faster progression in maths and provide opportunities for buildings to be and night purging reading. A study of over 2000 used as ‘textbooks’ in curriculum integration. • Air movement within classrooms should classrooms indicated that students with be enhanced with sweep fans There is a consistent body of evidence the most classroom daylight progressed linking particular factors to improved 20 per cent faster in one year on maths • Use of light shelves and borrowed light educational outcomes. These include: tests and 26 per cent faster on reading from adjacent spaces tests than those in classrooms with the • Rainwater harvesting and native least amount of natural daylight. planting • Acoustics – good acoustics are • Shade structures and trees should be considered fundamental to good provided wherever possible to protect academic performance, both in terms of students and buildings from high levels 14 Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage, Educating for a Sustainable Future, A National Environmental Education external noise and noise within the of UV in summer months Statement for Australia, 2005, p. 3, http://www.environment.gov.au/ education/publications/pubs/sustainable-future.pdf classroom. 61 Victorian School Design | 5 EcoloGically Sustainable Development (ESD) Schools should be ‘… beautifully designed, Dandenong High School will be a unique 5.1 Dandenong 7–12 colourful, inspirational, adaptable, facility located centrally in the Dandenong/ High School, sustainable, inclusive, fresh, safe, flexible, Doveton community. The facilities that are ICT enabled, multi-user, fun, delightful, designed for present and future needs will Dandenong, Victoria curved, growing, natural…we need to try out help deliver excellent learning programs. The new ideas, We need to look at ways of mix of buildings, sporting facilities and designing inspiring buildings that can adapt grounds will support the school’s curriculum to educational and technological change…In program and assist teachers to facilitate the the classroom of the future, the learning delivery of best pedagogical practice. environment will look and feel different’.15 Effective student management, staff and Secondary school students in the pupil welfare, and the health, safety and well- Dandenong and Doveton area will be a part being of the whole school community will of a unique opportunity to transform also be strong considerations in the facility teaching and learning arrangements across design. the secondary school sector. New facilities will be aligned with innovative curriculum and assist Dandenong High School to close the attainment gap that currently exists within the student population. Maximising the number of students completing secondary school education will also be a key focus through the inclusion of facilities that cater to current and future specialisms. 15 Classrooms of the Futures, Department for Education and Skills, United Kingdom, 2003, http://www.innovation-unit.co.uk/content/view/426/914/ 6 Victorian School Design | 5 EcoloGically Theme 1 Theme Theme Theme Sustainable Context of the Project Educational Philosophy Specific Proposed Pedagogical Outcomes Key Planning and Design Features Development (ESD) Dandenong High School is located in the south- The vision for the Dandenong Education Precinct is Curriculum Structure, Organisation and Delivery will The proposal is for a mix of facilities that will eastern suburbs, some 45 kilometres from central to provide opportunity and access to excellence. be based on the SWiS model, which will create a accommodate 7 houses or sub-schools, each one Melbourne. Students will be exposed to the broadest possible multiple number of sub-school environments. The covering Years 7–12 and allowing for the learning The proposal for the new Dandenong High School range of learning options and career pathways SWiS model enables teachers to have considerable needs of 250–300 students. In each house there was developed from work commenced in late 2004, within a culture of high expectations and the authority over the instructional program within their may be 10–12 main learning areas with associated which reviewed the access of students to pathways celebration of achievement. They will demonstrate particular house and it also enables them to facilitate smaller learning areas of varying sizes clustered in the Dandenong, Cleeland and Doveton secondary high-level ICT skills and an appreciation of and cross-disciplinary learning through interdisciplinary around a central resource area. Dandenong 7–12 High schools. participation in the full range of academic, cultural, lessons and projects. These houses will be fully detached. The modular and sporting activities offered by the school. The school that will result from the merging of the There will be a consistent approach across all flexible learning area design is essential to facilitate School three secondary schools and will be a single Year 7– Educational programs for students will work to houses in applying the VELS. The cross-disciplinary the changed pedagogical practice envisaged. In 12 school located on the existing Dandenong High cultivate respect, understanding and tolerance of teams will teach domains across all three strands addition to these houses there will be central and Cleeland Secondary College sites. The school others. A key goal of the school will be to equip through grouping domains into coherent and facilities containing assembly areas and general structure has been based on a Schools Within students for their lives beyond school in further thematic semester subjects. office/administration type spaces. Schools (SWiS) model (interdependent school study, training and employment. The school will All students will be supported by their teachers to Site arrangements will take into account security ‘houses’ or sub-school model). endeavour to inculcate a love for learning and develop individual learning plans. and ensure an overall feeling of a structurally curiosity for inquiry. The SWiS model combines all the advantages of Curriculum in the transition years, Year 7 – coherent and well-organised environment. The large schools with their capacity to provide for all the Students will be clustered into multi-age Year 7–12 establishing foundations and building relationships: design focuses on effective staff supervision of houses of about 250–300 students and will cater for students and will provide for possible additional curriculum program requirements of students and • a small number of teachers will be organised into student management, welfare and core curriculum buildings in the future as well as cater for aesthetic their need to access the broadest set of pathways cross-disciplinary professional learning teams into higher education, training and work. At the classes. Small teams of teachers will provide home considerations. • students will have access to at least one same time it provides appropriate and human-scale group/tutoring to small groups of students in each The internal features of the new design allow for significant teacher/mentor in their first year of settings for students to build effective relationships house. The establishment of a school culture with innovative approaches to learning and teaching. secondary school. with their teachers and their fellow students. high expectations of its students and a strong work They incorporate the use of ICT across the ethic will be enhanced by this model. This will be Curriculum in Years 8 and 9 – building breadth and The school will occupy a site containing a mixture of curriculum, flexible learning spaces and furniture, particularly important for the transition phase (Year depth: some existing buildings from the original Dandenong emphasising visual and audio resources. The new 7) and the middle years stage (Years 8 and 9). High School site and a series of new buildings. The • student programs at these levels will be based school buildings have accessible power and adjacent school site bisected by a suburban street With the later years (Years 10–12) it is envisaged that around a core plus elective model network cabling and appropriate heating, lighting will contain some new buildings